* There is need for proper coordination and collaborative efforts with various stakeholders
* Such as the development partners and the private sector among others to ensure we achieve by 2030
* Much as we are talking of the pandemics, sometimes it is also an issue of human factors
* Sometimes we are not moving as fast as a country—SPC Coleen Zamba
By Leonard Masauli, MANA
Despite the CoVID-19 pandemic, Cyclone Freddy and cholera outbreak that challenged the progress towards phase one of the implementation of the MW2063 national vision, the country is not moving fast enough to achieve the developmental agenda.
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This was observed on Monday in Lilongwe by Secretary to the President & Cabinet, Colleen Zamba during coordination group discussions to check progress on the Malawi Implementation Plan 1 (MIP-1, which takes 10 years (up to 2030) to be achieved.
Zamba attributed the slow progress to achieving 100% implementation by 2030 to the three mentioned challenges, saying: “There is need for proper coordination and collaborative efforts with various stakeholders, such as the development partners and the private sector among others to ensure we achieve by 2030.
“Much as we are talking of the pandemics, sometimes it is also an issue of human factors. Sometimes we are not moving as fast as a country.
“There are also strides we have achieved in terms of infrastructures but you find that certain works have not taken place, such as inspection, no electricity connection for two years and some money staying idle and projects stalling.”
She thus asked Malawians to take full ownership and responsibility of such projects to ensure there is meaningful progress as the country moves towards 2030.
Commenting on the discussions, Commissioner for National Planning Commission (NPC), Mercy Masoo said the country is moving at a slow pace, adding that there is need to change the mindset and move with speed and fast track implementation to catch up with time.
In June, during an interface with the media to update on progress to MW2063 MIP-1, NPC Director General, Thomas Munthali said among the challenges they were facing in the include “sheer negligence” by some Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) “arising from lack of strong accountability mechanisms and low levels of adherence to regulations governing public servants”.
And when asked if the MDAs are being taken to task, Munthali said NPC are planners and neither are they implementers but only provide implementation oversight.
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Thus he said NPC values the importance of journalists in the popularization, mobilization of support and participation as well as the actual realisation of the MW2063 and its implementation plans in order to hold accountable those responsible for implementation.
“We cannot talk about mindset change among Malawians, asking them to embrace the spirit of positivity and patriotism, without talking about the great influence that journalists have in affecting the attitudes and minds of their audience.
“The act of deliberately embarking on positive reporting should be a choice that each one of you should make in executing your work as one way of inculcating the spirit of hope, optimism and self-belief (Ndizotheka) among Malawians. Of course, pointing out any genuine binding constraints/challenges that are sitting on the path worthy prioritizing (and avoid politicization) of issues.”
During the workshop itself, the journalists were taken through the Malawi it wants to be by 2063, that include:
* An inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialized upper middle-income country;
* A vibrant knowledge-based economy with a strong and competitive manufacturing industry that is driven by a productive and commercially vibrant agriculture and mining sector;
* World-class urban centers and tourism hubs across the country with requisite socio-economic amenities for a high-quality life;
* A united, peaceful, patriotic and proud people that believe in their own abilities and are active participants in building their nation;
* Effective governance systems and institutions with strict adherence to the rule of law;
* A high-performing and professional public service;
* A dynamic and vibrant private sector;
* Globally competitive economic infrastructure;
* A globally competitive and highly motivated human resource; and
* An environmentally sustainable economy.
These are being done through three pillars of Agriculture Productivity & Commercialization; Industrialization and Urbanization — whose seven enablers are Mindset Change; Effective Governance Systems and Institutions; Enhanced Public Sector Performance; Private Sector Dynamism; Human Capital Development; Economic Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability.
The MIP-1 has priority strategies and interventions by pillars and enablers, whose quick wins include interventions that are already in the pipeline or on-going for scaling-up; that have ready finance commitment and have political will.
It also has game-changer interventions with significantly impacts and have to be done if Malawi is to graduate into middle-income country by 2030; Flagship projects and programs that will lay foundations of development and that the MIP-1 also defines indicative cost and financing options for every intervention (K12 Trillion as of 2021 estimates.
NPC has also developed a Dashboard that allows stakeholders to track progress of the MIP-1 and make informed decisions, which is a dynamic data driven window for tracking and reporting the implementation progress of MIP-1 and SDGs.
It is also a planning reference for all implementing stakeholders because it contains all MIP-1 prioritised interventions and their respective implementation status.
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The MIP-1 first annual progress (2022) is at 79% of the outlined interventions planned for the period 2021 and 2022 and out of the 79% commenced, only 20% were on track.
In the MIP-1 progress by pillar and enablers, NPC said the environmental sustainability reported the most progress with 27% of interventions on track while industrialisation, urbanisation, private sector dynamism, mindset change are lagging behind — yet these are key to inclusive wealth creation and self-reliance.
On progress towards graduating to middle income country faces challenges in that economic growth, even before Cyclone Freddy, remained low at less than 3.5 % in the past 3 years and that the third year running below the MIP-1 required average of 6%.
The growth is lower than the global and sub-Saharan Africa and NPC maintains that this calls for fast reorienting budgeting to ensure it is inline with MIP-1 — whose intervention were modelled as the best option to graduate the economic to middle income economy by 2030.
On the trends of budgetary allocation shares to pillars and enablers, NPC reported that it has remained the same allocation trend over the years with industrialisation, urbanisation, agriculture and environment — which are key to wealth creation — have remained with low share.
The budgets are also not reflecting the democratic developmental state philosophy of resuscitating the defunct Malawi Development Corporation (MDC); making Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) to be fully commercialized and be jointly managed with the private sector — and that Malawi should have its own mining company in strong alliance with the private sector.
The presenters stressed that to achieve the MIP-1 milestones, the national budget needs to ensure resources are financing identified MIP-1 priorities, saying “Government is the biggest economic agent in the economy” and that it “sets the tone and shows the way”.
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One key reasons for low performance of the Vision 2020, which has been succeeded by MW2063, was that the national budgets were not financing the vision.
Thus Munthali appealing to the media to carry their job of checks and balances in order to hold accountable the implementers of MW2063 without fear of favour — while asking from the media their “candid feedback on the work of the Commission, especially in this implementation phase, and what areas there may be for improvement in so far as our collaboration with the media is concerned”.
“As NPC, we continue to emphasize the importance of positive reporting of our country, Malawi, in line with the Mindset Change Enabler of the MW2063,” he continued. “This is in recognition that although it may seem that some things are not progressing as well as we would love, there are still wins that are being made along the way and these should be highlighted and celebrated.”
The wins that the Director General said he celebrates for include roads, rail, 2% growth amidst shocks, investor conferences, Ndizotheka individuals and firms, Parliament holding MDAs accountable, media putting pressure on duty bearers to deliver – saying their is “no luxury of time”.
“Let us create wealth. Currently, we are simply beggars and borrowers – both of which are not sustainable and so demeaning. Mphawi alibe mawu – can’t even employ own teachers and nurses until the IMF says yes!
“So, take note of the priority interventions for creating wealth and promoting self-reliance well modelled in MIP-1 and shared as annual commitments during the National Development Conferences, aimed at accelerating the vision implementation – focused and impactful interventions that will make us as a nation avoid spreading the resources thinly.”
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He also implored on the journalists “to pick out the commitments that have been made publicly but which most Malawians may not have access to”, saying “by continually informing the public of the obligations made and commitments made by respective implementing agencies, it will empower the common Malawian to know where to direct the necessary questions for purposes of accountability.
During the workshop, the media was appraised that the challenges being faced include in the implementation of MIP-1 include;
* Persistent exogenous shocks (tropical cyclones, CoVID-19, cholera etc) amidst less resilient infrastructure and non-adherence to environmental laws; coupled with no buffer resources to face the shocks head-on;
* Unsustainable debt (K7.9 trillion equivalent to over 65% of GDP);
* Implementation capacity deficiencies both at key central government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and decentralised levels; * The sheer negligence on the part of the MDAs as implementers; and
* Corrosive impacts of corruption that fends off investments into Malawi and diminishes government’s revenues for socio-economic growth.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
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