Germany has had a mission in Malawi since 1964 (an Embassy since 1965). Development cooperation is an important pillar of bilateral relations alongside political dialogue. Germany is one of the most important partners of Malawi, which ranks 169 of 191 states on the United Nations Development index.

The Malawian Foreign Minister, Nancy Tembo, visited Germany in April 2023. This was the first high-level bilateral visit since Gerd Müller, then Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, visited Malawi in 2019.

German bilateral development with Malawi focuses on basic education, healthcare including family planning, HIV/AIDS and social security, as well as education and the development of the private sector in rural areas. Important cross-cutting issues include public finance management and gender equality.

The most recent intergovernmental consultations took place in July 2021. For 2021 and 2022, Malawi received pledges of around 100 million euro in bilateral funds, including funding to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, a pledge of five million euro was made to improve the food situation. The next intergovernmental consultations are scheduled to take place at the end of 2023.

In the sphere of education, Germany provides support to Malawi for training teaching staff, building schools and providing school meals to improve pupils’ successful attendance of lessons at primary schools. German is taught as a foreign language at a school in Malawi.

A team of paleoanthropologists under Germany’s leadership is conducting hominid research in Malawi and played a major role in the establishment of the Cultural and Museum Centre Karonga.

There is little in the way of German direct investment in Malawi. German trade with Malawi is poorly developed and largely dependent on crop yields and price developments for raw tobacco and sugar. Malawi’s prime imports from Germany include electrical appliances, vehicles and machines.

A city twinning partnership has been in place between Hanover and Blantyre for over 50 years.