World Bank sees hope on MGDS III
New World Bank Malawi country manager Greg Toulmin has said the Brettonwood institution is banking hopes on the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) III for the country to break away from the cycle of crises.
The country manager said this will allow longer-term planning and implementation of key priorities.
In a written response to a questionnaire on Monday, Toulmin said MGDS III would allow the country to sustain the better economic news and provide a real opportunity to change the narrative.
He said: “The World Bank starts from the perspective that any country’s development priorities have to be chosen and owned by the people of that country, if those priorities are to be addressed successfully. Our experience of over 70 years, and around the world, shows that externally-imposed approaches never provide durable solutions.
“So, my first step has to be to learn about Malawi’s current challenges and the priorities the country has for tackling them. As noted above, MGDS III is valuable in this context. Based on that understanding, and my own experience from other countries and context, I can then mobilise colleagues across the World Bank who can offer
advice and potential solutions that we hope Malawi will find helpful and appropriate.”
While hailing the country’s progress on the economic front, Toulmin hopes MGDS III will play a vital role on government, its development partners, the private sector, and civil society, on the way forward.
“This is an environment in which it is difficult to plan far ahead, and therefore, difficult to make the longer-term decisions that are crucial for sustained development,” he said.
To this end, Toulmin said a sustained growth recovery will, therefore, require structural reforms towards diversification and agricultural resilience, while strengthening flexible safety nets to cope with such shocks saying “two areas which face particular challenges, and where I hope we will have something to say, are agriculture and energy”.
MGDS III was formulated to meet the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) which expired in 2015 and also replaces the MGDS II which expired last year.
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe is on record as having said MGDS III is ready and waiting final approval from the President and Cabinet before it can be adopted, saying the delay has not created vacuum as other development plans are still available to guide development projects.
An economics lecturer from Chancellor College, Winford Masanjala, is on record as having said that lack of coherence between political party manifestos and national development strategies is one of the factors affecting implementation of medium-term development strategies such as the MGDS.
