People

Dr. Evance Evan Mwathunga

All People

  • Role in Center:

    Network Partner and Fellow

  • Discipline:

    Human Geography and Urban Planning

  • University:

    University of Malawi

  • Country:

    Malawi

Background: Evance Evan Mwathunga is an Associate Professor of Human Geography and Urban Studies in the Department of Geography, Earth Sciences, and Environment at the University of Malawi (Malawi). He holds a PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies from Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from Heriot-Watt University (UK). He has diverse research interests spanning from urban studies, geographies of development and environmental governance. He is chiefly interested in and researches on the ‘production and contestations of urban spaces’ in the cities of the global South including the production of informal spaces, peripheral urbanism and ideas around planetary and extended urbanization, and the transcalar politics of large-scale infrastructure projects in urban Lilongwe. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Witwatersrand University (South Africa) in the School of Architecture and Planning; a member of the Steering Committee of the International Geographical Union (IGU). He is the Postgraduate Coordinator for the PhD in Geography and Earth Sciences in the Department of Geography, Earth Sciences and Environment at the University of Malawi. Evance Mwathunga also served as founding commissioner of the Board of the Malawi National Planning Commission where he also served as Chairperson of the Policy and Programmes Subcommittee of the Commission – where he played a pivotal and strategic role in the development of the country’s long-term development vision (Malawi 2063), the First 10-year Malawi Implementation Plan (MIPP1) and the 2022 Malawi Secondary Cities Plan (MSCP). He also served as Board Director and Chair of the Technical Sub-Committee of the Malawi Housing Corporation.

He is currently collaborating as a co-principal investigator on numerous international research projects including the Making Africa Urban (ERC funded Horizon H2020 led by UCL, UK); and Future Resilience of Home-Grown School Feeding Ecosystem in Urban Zambia and Malawi. Evance has also researched on housing development in Lilongwe City through the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC); Food Loss and Waste in African City Region (IDRC) and home making in post-disaster recovery in Malawi (funded by Research England). He is currently involved in the development of the World Bank-funded National WASH Investment Plan for Malawi.

Policy Brief – Working title: Housing production in urban Lilongwe: investigating place-making processes and practices in peri-urban spaces of Lilongwe.

Selected Publications:

  • Lane, M., Mwathunga, E., & Robinson, J. (Forthcoming 2025). African Experiments in Infrastructure Financialisation: An Urbanisation of Debt in Malawi. Finance and Space.

    Robinson, J., Harrison, P., Croese, S., Sheburah Essien, R., Kombe, W., Lane, M., Mwathunga, E., Owusu, G. and Yang, Y., 2025. Reframing urban development politics: Transcalarity in sovereign, developmental and private circuits. Urban Studies, 62(1), pp.3-30.

    Sylvia Croese, Jennifer Robinson, Kofi Kekeli Amedzro, Philip Harrison, Wilbard Kombe, Evance Mwathunga, George Owusu (2023), Persistent, pragmatic and prolific: Urban master planning in Accra, Dar es Salaam and Lilongwe, Land Use Policy, Volume 133: 106832. https://doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2022.2053880  

    Ansell, N., Mwathunga, E., Hajdu, F., Robson, E., Hlabana, T., van Blerk, L., & Hemsteede, R. (2022). Ethical principles, social harm and the economic relations of research: negotiating ethics committee requirements and community expectations in ethnographic research in rural Malawi. Qualitative Inquiry, https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221124631

    McCauley, D., Grant, R. & Mwathunga, E. (2022), Achieving energy justice in Malawi: from key challenges to policy recommendations. Climatic Change 170, 28:1-22, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03314-1

    Mwathunga, E. & Donaldson, R. (2021) Urban planning history of Malawi:  case study  of  the  capital  Lilongwe, Planning Perspectives, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2021.1988867

    Luke Whaley, Frances Cleaver, Evance Mwathunga (2021). Flesh and bones: Working with the grain to improve community management of water. World Development, Volume   138, Pages       105286 doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105286

    Emmanuel   M.   Akpabio, Evance   Mwathunga   &   John   S. Rowan (2021) Understanding the challenges governing Malawi’s water, sanitation and hygiene sector, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 1897947, DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2021.1897947

    Luke Whaley; MacAllister, DJ; Bonsor, H; Mwathunga, E; Banda, S; Katusiime, F; Tadesse, Y; Cleaver, F; & MacDonald, A. (2019 ) Evidence, ideology, and the policy of community management in Africa. Environmental Research Letters, 14. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab35be

    Mwathunga, E. & Donaldson, R. (2018). Urban land contestations, challenges and planning strategies in Malawi’s main urban centres. Land Use Policy 77:1-8. doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.05.025

     

    Book Chapters

    Joshua, M. K., Chirwa, R. K., Ngongondo, C., Monjerezi, M., Mwathunga, E., & Kasei, R. (2021). Impact of Floods on Access to Drinking Water: A Focus on 2019 Floods in Magalasi Village in Chikwawa District, Malawi. In The Increasing Risk of Floods and Tornadoes in Southern Africa pp. 191-201). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-74192-1_11.

    Joshua, M. D. K., Stathers, T., Chirwa, R. K., Ngongondo, C., Lamboll, R., Monjerezi, M., Mwathunga, E., Kasei, R., Chipungu, F., & Liwenga, E. T. (2021). A Comparative Study of the Impacts of Flooding on Food Security of Urban and Rural Households in Blantyre City and Chikwawa, Malawi. In Cyclones in Southern Africa (pp. 35-58).Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-74303-1_3.

Areas of Expertise:

Urban and Regional Planning

Urban Infrastructure (Politics and Financing)

Human Geography

Environmental Governance (water and energy governance)

Urbanisation, Informality and Production of Urban Space in the Global South

Current Position(s):

Associate Professor of Human Geography

Postgraduate Coordinator – Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Malawi

Steering Committee Member – International Geographical Union Commission on Global Understanding

Visiting Scholar – School of Architecture and Planning, Witwatersrand University, South Africa

Urban and Rural Community Development Consultant – Malawi National Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Investment Plan

Co-Principal Investigator – Making Africa Urban Research Project (ERC Horizon2020)

Past Position(s)

Commissioner, Malawi National Planning Commission (2018 – 2023)

Chairperson, Policy and Programmes Sub-Committee, Malawi National Planning Commission (2018 – 2023)

Director & Chairperson of the Technical Sub-Committee of the Board of the Malawi Housing Corporation (2017 – 2019)

Director, Board of the Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE), Malawi

Prizes & Awards:

Research Grant, Future Resilience of Home Grown School Feeding System in Urban Zambia and Malawi (FRESHGROWS) – IDRC Canada

Research Grant, ERC H2020 Project – Making Africa Urban: transcalar politics of large scale urban developments in Africa

Research Grant, Pathways to sustainability in post-industrial cities of the global South – Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

Research Grant (ESRC/DFID), Social cash transfers, generational relations and youth poverty trajectories in rural Lesotho and Malawi (2015-2019)

Memberships & Networks:

  • Corporate Member, Malawi Institute of Physical Planners

  • IGU Commission on Global Understanding

  • Member of the Development Studies Association (DSA) since 2019

  • Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN)

  • UpGro