Lilongwe CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025

The Lilongwe City Profiling Report 2025 provides a comprehensive analysis of the capital city of Malawi, detailing its urban geography, governance, socio-economic status, and service delivery. The report highlights a city facing significant challenges including high poverty levels, limited infrastructure, and a governance structure where the local council has minimal de facto control over essential services like health and education, which remain managed by the central government.

• Lilongwe is characterized by extreme poverty and low human development compared to other SADC cities. It is the poorest of the ten cities in the GGA sample according to the International Wealth Index (IWI) with a score of 28.7, and it has the lowest sub-national Human Development Index (SHDI) score of 0.52.
• There is a significant gap between the legal (de jure) responsibilities of the Lilongwe City Council and its actual (de facto) operations. While legally responsible for water, education, and healthcare, these are actually managed by the central government, parastatals, and non-state actors.
• Water and sanitation services are managed by the state-owned Lilongwe Water Board (LWB). While water access improved to 92% in 2025, the utility is a middle- to low-performing entity with non-revenue water at 42% in 2020/21. Sanitation is poor, with only 15% of households connected to a sewered system, contributing to severe cholera outbreaks.
• Solid waste management is severely under-resourced, with the Lilongwe City Council (LCC) collecting less than one-third of the estimated 500 metric tons of waste generated daily. Approximately 70% of waste remains unmanaged and is disposed of in undesignated places.
• Energy access is limited, with an estimated 55% of residential properties having access to electricity (52% grid and 3% solar) in 2025. Charcoal remains the dominant cooking fuel for 74.1% of households, driving illegal production and deforestation in the Dzalanyama Forest reserve.
• Lilongwe has the lowest GDP per capita among the ten SADC cities sampled, at 1,100 USD. The city's economy is dominated by the tertiary sector (78%), while primary activity remains high at 13% due to agriculture.
• The city's digital infrastructure is poorly developed, ranking 138 out of 194 cities globally in the 2024 Local Online Service Index (LOSI) with a score of 0.18. Only 15% of the population had internet access in 2020, and only 6% have access to a computer.
• The Lilongwe City Council's financial capacity is very low, with the lowest expenditure per capita in the GGA sample. A disproportionate 51% of its 2024 budgeted expenditure is allocated to governance and administration, leaving minimal funds for roads, health, and education.

APA

Morrison, S., & Tshuma, O. (2025). Lilongwe CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025. Good Governance Africa. https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Lilongwe-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf

Chicago

Morrison, Stuart, and Owami Tshuma. Lilongwe CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025. Good Governance Africa, 2025. https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Lilongwe-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Morrison |first1=Stuart |last2=Tshuma |first2=Owami |title=Lilongwe CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025 |publisher=Good Governance Africa |date=2025 |url=https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Lilongwe-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{morrison2025lilongwe, author = {Morrison, Stuart and Tshuma, Owami}, title = {{Lilongwe CITY PROFILING REPORT 2025}}, institution = {Good Governance Africa}, year = {2025}, url = {https://digitalmallblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net/wp-content/2026/02/Lilongwe-African-Cities-Report-2025.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }