Engineering Malawi 2063
The Malawi Vision 2063 agenda launched in 2021 by the National Planning Commission aims at guiding national policies and programmes towards transforming Malawi into a wealthy, self-reliant, industrialised upper-middle-income economy.
Its three pillars are agricultural commercialisation, industrialisation and urbanisation.
The blueprint outlines several enablers such as mindset change, effective governance systems, enhanced public sector performance, private sector dynamism, human capital development and environmental sustainability.
Engineering plays a pivotal role in achieving this vision, including infrastructure development such as designs and construction of roads, bridges and buildings for economic growth.
Secondly, engineers are also pivotal in generating power sources to meet the country’s energy needs.
Thirdly, industrialisation requires optimised industrial processes to maximise economic gains.
Technological innovation is also crucial to modernise vital sectors, including water supply, agriculture, education and healthcare.
Lastly, the role of engineering in environmental sustainability cannot be over-emphasised in promoting sustainable development practices and minimising environmental impact such as deforestation and carbon emissions that cause climate change.
It is against this background that the Malawi Engineering Institution (MEI), which regulates the engineering profession in the country, selects themes of its annual engineering conferences around the national vision.
Fellow engineers have been doing the same to steer Malawi in the desired direction.
But we should not forget where we are coming from.
Previously, we had the impressive Vision 2020 launched in grand style in 1998. The initial national vision flopped spectacularly even though other African countries came to borrow a leaf from us.
By 2020, countries that implemented the vision had prospered while we graduated into one of the 10 poorest countries.
Therefore, it is imperative to regularly take a public audit of MW2063 to stay on course.
In July this year, NPC reported a 43 percent progress in the rollout of the first 10-year Implementation Plan (MIP-1) to turn Malawi into a lower middle-income economy by 2030.
However, the economy is sailing in tumultuous waters due to cyclones, forex scarcity, debt stress, misalignment of national budgets to the national vision, slow public sector and disruptions in the global supply chains of vital commodities.
It is now estimated that MIP-1 will lag by 15 years unless the economy grows by at least 10.6 percent annually for the next five years.
This is a no mean feat as the economy grew by just 0.9 percent in 2022 and 1.5 percent last year.
So, where do engineers come in to contribute accelerate progress?
This is an ethical question.
Government collects inadequate tax to finance our infinite needs. As such, the meagre resources have to be directed where they can make the maximum economic impact and savings to create fiscal space.
There has to be a way to extend the MEI Act and laws guiding other professional bodies to hold their members to account on how they arrive at decisions that affect the ailing economy.
These reports should be public records duly signed and any false information should attract a penalty.
Malawians should be able to access the records from MEI and other professional bodies upon request for economic justification to understand, for example, why any particular engineer chose a given source of water for a dry town instead of other alternatives in the vicinity.
Likewise, economists should be held accountable to justify the cost of government debt when there are several alternatives where government can borrow.
If a professional knowingly misleads his principal, there has to be repercussions from a professional body.
Everyone must account to someone.
Every professional needs to be accountable to make the Malawi 2063 vision work.
Without checks and balances, the new vision will veer off track. It will be another Vision 2020 going down the drain.
