Government says knowledge gap led to MDGs failure
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has said limited knowledge and inadequate alignment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to local development plans stifled progress towards achieving the United Nations goals that sought to halve world poverty by 2015.
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kondwani Nankhumwa said this in Lilongwe on Monday during the National Orientation Workshop on the Role of Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in promoting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He said the lessons learnt from the implementation of the MDGs show that there was limited knowledge on the same to local authorities translating into inadequate alignment of the MDGs to the local development plans.
Said the minister: “In essence, we left out majority of Malawians in the implementation of the MDGs. Thus, I believe this workshop has therefore been convened at the appropriate time when government is finalising the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III, which will necessitate the review of the Local Development Plans with an ultimate objective of aligning the plans to consolidate priorities of the rural and urban councils to both MGDS III and SDGs.”
UN resident coordinator Mia Seppo emphasised that for the SDGs to be “truly” transformative and relevant to the people, local communities themselves need to take active role in the implementation of the goals.
