Rural people not aware of MW2063—NPC

National Planning Commission (NPC) director general Thomas Munthali says most rural-based people are not familiar with the aspirations of Malawi 2063 (MW2063), the country’s long-term development plan.

He said this last week in Lilongwe after opening a training for National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust civic educators who will be involved in popularising the plan.

Said Munthali: “A lot more people that know about the MW2063 are those in town, yet Nice Trust has structures across the country.

“It is, therefore, critical that we engage Malawians at all levels about the MW2063 through Nice Trust, which has 35 district coordinators,135 area coordinators with libraries and 9 000 volunteers at village level.”

He also pledged technical support to the Nice Trust civic educators, but challenged them to understand the MW2063 document to effectively articulate its contents in their civic education campaigns.

“For Nice civic educators to spread the message effectively, they will need to know everything contained in the MW2063 document,” said Munthali.

Nice Trust executive director Ollen Mwalubunju said they are ready to popularise the long-term development plan for the citizens to understand it.

“The document requires ownership and for that to happen, there is need for civic education,” he said.

Ministry of Information and Digitisation director of information Chikumbutso Mtumodzi said they are ready to support Nice Trust in popularising MW2063.

He said there is need for Malawians to understand that the MW2063 is not for the government, but for citizens.

Last year, NPC and Nice Trust signed a memorandum of understanding to work together in raising awareness of the plan.