Malawi households face unequal, clustered water-energy-food deprivation

Malawian households face sharply unequal access to drinking water, modern cooking energy and adequate food, with overlapping deprivation concentrated among poorer families and geographically clustered across the country. An analysis of nationally representative data from 11,434 households in the 2019–2020 Malawi Integrated Household Survey found that only 1.1% of households had simultaneous access to all three resources. In addition, 54.0% experienced deprivation in at least two dimensions, while 7.0% were deprived in all three.

The researchers constructed a Household WEF Access Index from three indicators: access to improved drinking water, use of modern cooking energy and adequate food consumption. The results showed a pronounced imbalance among the dimensions. Overall, 88.7% of households had access to improved drinking water, compared with only 1.2% using modern cooking energy. Energy deprivation was therefore the dominant constraint within the household water–energy–food nexus, despite the relatively high level of improved drinking-water access.

Socioeconomic inequality was assessed with the Erreygers Concentration Index. The resulting value of −0.548 indicated that multidimensional WEF deprivation was concentrated among poorer households. The observed gradient was steep: deprivation affected 86.9% of households in the poorest group, compared with 20.2% in the richest group. This association does not by itself establish that poverty caused the unequal access pattern, but it identifies household economic position as a strong marker of vulnerability across interconnected basic services.

The study also examined whether deprivation in one area was related to deprivation in neighboring areas by using Enumeration Area-level spatial econometric models. Deprivation showed significant positive spatial clustering, with a Moran’s I of 0.445 and p < 0.001. Hotspots were concentrated across much of Malawi’s Central Region and parts of the Southern Region, indicating that limited access to water, energy and food was not distributed randomly across the country.

A spatial lag model provided the best fit among the models examined. In this specification, local concentrations of poverty remained the strongest predictor of area-level WEF deprivation after accounting for spatial spillovers. The result supports treating neighboring conditions and localized poverty as relevant features of the deprivation landscape rather than assuming that each household’s circumstances are independent of its surroundings. Taken together, the findings portray household WEF deprivation in Malawi as a multidimensional, socially unequal and geographically patterned condition, with modern cooking energy particularly scarce and hotspots identified in parts of the Central and Southern regions.

Subject of Research: Socioeconomic inequality and spatial clustering in household water, energy and food deprivation in Malawi

Article Title: Socioeconomic inequalities and spatial dependence in multidimensional household water–energy–food nexus deprivation in Malawi

Article References: Mkwandah, C., Banda, F. M., Msukuma, M., Kathewera, M., Chamdimba, H., & Chivunga, J. N. (2026). Socioeconomic inequalities and spatial dependence in multidimensional household water–energy–food nexus deprivation in Malawi. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04729-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04729-x

Keywords: Malawi, household deprivation, water access, modern cooking energy, food consumption, socioeconomic inequality, spatial dependence, household survey, spatial econometrics, Socioeconomic, inequalities, spatial