UNDP urges policy consistency
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident coordinator Mia Seppo has urged Malawi to practice consistency in policy implementation to fast-track the move from the low human development category.
Speaking at the launch of the 2016 UNDP Human Development Report, which has ranked Malawi on position 170 out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI), Seppo said although the index is a better measure of trends over time than yearly improvements, Malawi is moving out of the low human development category at a rather slow pace.
Despite the improvement from an HDI value of 0.325 in 1990 to 0.476 in 2015, Malawi’s HDI is below the average of 0.497 for countries in the low human development group and below the average of 0.523 for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the value falls to 0.328 when adjusted for inequality.
In the report, Malawi has, however, made strides in improving other areas of human development, including life expectancy at birth which has risen by 20 years since 1990 to 63 years in 2015 and expected years of schooling which has improved by 5.4 years to 10.8 years in 2015.
But Seppo said there is no single bullet point that would make Malawi move from the low category other than consistency in policies implemented, prudent use of resources and protecting social expenditures, among other things, will improve the country’s welfare.
She said: “Malawi is a resource constrained country. So, it is really important to make sure the money is spent correctly. There is need to tackle corruption because Malawi cannot afford to lose those resources that could be invested in improving the lives of Malawians lost in corruption”.
Seppo called for the need to attend to population dynamics and devise measures of managing the pressure on the environment which is unsustainable as the country has few resources to respond to the needs of rapid population.
On his part, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe said rural areas have been left behind in terms of development compared to the cities and called for collective action between government and the people to foster human development.
He said government exists to complement people’s efforts; hence, every individual should ensure they are not left behind in development.
Said Gondwe: “This time we are not the worst. This teaches us that we can achieve more once we decide that we can develop and when each one of us decides that we can do it, then we should do”
