Economist Winford Masanjala has underscored the need for the country to critically look into the implementation of development plans from investments in order to achieve the aspirations set up in the national development plans.

In his keynote address delivered at the Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) annual conference on Thursday, Masanjala observed that Malawi has done little on implementation of development plans , highlighting that things must be done differently if the country is to achieve the aspiration of the current Malawi 2063.

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In his presentation titled ‘Building Policy Implementation Gaps: Lessons from the Past Failures, Success Stories and Best Practices’ in which he reflected on implementation of Malawi’s development policies since 1962, he observed that Malawi needs to enhance its system of monitoring performance of national plans through periodic reviews.

The presentation aimed at reflecting on implementation of Malawi’s development policies since 1962 in order to draw lessons from past failures, success stories and best practices to inform the implementation of the current national development plan, Malawi 2063.

Said Masanjala: “Due to exogenous shocks, most plans are not fully implemented. As such, there is need to incorporate and plan for periodical shocks into the country’s developmental plans.

“On the ot h e r h a n d , macro – f i s cal imbalances undermine implementation of development plans in the process, inconsistencies with requirements for short-term fiscal stability make the country resort to seek assistance from Bretton Woods Institutions whose prescribed policies may not be aligned to national policies and plans.”

He further observed that implementation of development plans require institutional permanence, saying the country must decide on where the planning functions of government, which has been moving back-and-forth from Office and President and Cabinet, Ministry of Finance and now the National Planning Commission should be.

He said to achieve the aspiration of national development policies, the country also needs to enhance the human element in the implementation of national programmes by ensuring that national strategies endure political environment and end corruption by addressing ransacking behaviour at all levels,

Since 1962 Malawi has developed a number of development plans whose objectives, among others, centered on ending poverty, increasing exports and achieving economic growth.

On her part, Ecama president Lauryn Nyasulu also observed that the country is not short of well-crafted policies, “but the challenge is implementation”.

She noted that this has slowed down achievement of development goals as poverty has remained unchanged with population that lives below the poverty line remaining high.

Said Nyasulu: “Whi le developmental goals are aimed at improving human wellbeing, statistics clearly show that this is not the case for Malawi. These statistics underscore the urgency of taking a different approach in the implementation of the Malawi 2063 to ensure we unlock the country’s development.” Malawi through the Malawi 2063, a long-term development framework for the country, aims to build an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper middle-income country by 2063.

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