The Learning Crisis in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe

Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have both common challenges and unique aspects to their political and socioeconomic contexts. This section provides a high-level overview of these factors as public sector service delivery systems operate within a larger environment with political, social and economic forces that shape beliefs and engagements of system actors and their dynamics with one another. Politically all four countries have five-year electoral cycles with bi-party political dynamics on the surface of what are at heart single party states. Malawi is an exception as the previous election in 2019 saw the long-standing incumbent initially being re-elected but later that result was successfully challenged by the opposition’s candidate. The role of the youth population was key in the civil actions that took place in protest of the initial election result.