The National Planning Commission (NPC) has handed over chairmanship of Sadc National Planning Entities Platform to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The handover ceremony took place on Thursday during a hybrid meeting held in Lilongwe.

Munthali: We revived
the platform

According to the outgoing chair, who is also NPC director general, Thomas Chataghalala Munthali, Malawi revived the platform from its idle state since its formation in 2015 and that the platform registered some milestones.

Said Munthali: “We have created an online learning platform where members will be sharing experiences. The best part though is the actual revival of this platform.”

He said they ensured that members interact regularly either physically or virtually.

According to Munthali, the platform is instrumental when it comes to alignment where, “when leaders talk, we should try to translate that into the national plans and we should also be able to followup if those plans are being implemented”.

To revive the platform, NPC needed funds and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has been instrumental in that regard.

Munthali also said the commission has since agreed to be the platform’s technical partner.

ECA director for southern Africa office, Eunice Kamwendo, said her organisation is happy to have been a part of efforts to revive the platform.

According to Kamwendo, the Sadc Planning Entities Platform has a lot of potential in helping to develop the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Region.

She said she was pleased to have witnessed a revived, re-energised and re-launched platform under Sadc secretariat leadership and the outgoing co-chairs (Malawi and Zambia) that steered the ship to what it is today.

Kamwendo said the platform presents an opportunity to enhance alignment and implementation of the Sadc Regional Indicative Strategic Plan (Risdp) 2020-2030, as well as Agenda 2063 and 2030 for sustainable development.

She said: “This presents an opportunity to advance the Sadc’s industrialisation agenda which is becoming urgent by the day.

“I am excited at a lot of the good works and focus in some of our countries that are focusing on value addition and the building of value chains; requisite infrastructure and investments in new technologies for accelerated development,” said Kamwendo.

According to her, this is a platform that can quickly look for and seize opportunities in the face of shocks that will push the Sadc region forward as has been seen through a few of the High policy Dialogues that the platform has held such as the Virtual

In an interview after accepting the platform chairmanship, Katawandya Alvago, councillor in charge of Sadc in the Office of the DRC’s Ministry of Regional Integration, indicated that DRC is going to take over from where Malawi and Zambia have left and propel the platform forward.

DRC, which is also Sadc chair, says it will take advantage of its position to advance issues of planning for the region, saying: “We shall ensure good planification [the management of resources according to a plan of economic or political development] in the region through the platform.”

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