ABSTRACT
The British government has generally regarded budgetary aid as an undesirable form of assistance to independent countries. And although it has been a major feature in Britain’s aid programme to Malawi, it has now been completely phased out. This chapter sets out to answer two main questions. First, what did budgetary aid contribute to Malawi’s development? Secondly, was the policy of eliminating budgetary aid appropriate to Malawi’s case? It begins, however, with a brief factual description of Britain’s post-independence provision of budgetary aid to Malawi and its quantitative importance in the Malawi government’s expenditure.
