Malawi looks at ways to speed up NEPAD priority programmes

A two-day NEPAD national stakeholder workshop in Blantyre, Malawi on 16-17 July broughttogether heads and senior level officials in government departments, universities, civil society organisations, private sector and partner organisations as part of a NEPAD initiative that is being implemented in seven SADC countries.

The process, supported by the Southern Africa Trust, is aimed at engaging and creating deepened awareness on NEPAD, exploring modalities for integrating NEPAD principles into national development plans including the SADC regional development plan, as well as introducing the NEPAD capacity development strategic framework at national level.

The national workshop, which included an on-the-job training session for journalists supported by the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ), with participation from Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mauritius, Zambia and Malawi, was officially opened by Malawi's Minister of Economic Planning and Development, Dr. Ken Lipenga.

The workshop came shortly after Malawi's selection as one of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee member countries, after the recent change in membership of this African Union body.

The workshop discussed issues of topical interest to the African development agenda, including the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), fisheries, education, science and technology and infrastructure, which included information and communication technology, energy and transport. In terms of outcomes the workshop explored mechanisms for increasing the pace of implementation of NEPAD priority programmes and projects in Malawi. All sectors proposed institutional structures linked to the NEPAD National Focal Point to facilitate the implementation of NEPAD: specifically, a national NEPAD steering committee chaired by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development as the Malawi National Focal Point for NEPAD.

The steering committee will have broad and inclusive participation from Government, CSO’s and private sector, supported by sectoral sub-committees organised along NEPAD priority sectors.

The workshop tasked the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development to take the lead in finalising the proposed structure with all stakeholders. There was consensus on the need to step up the role of civil society in engaging with NEPAD processes and programmes at country level, so that CSO’s can better serve the government as a partner in the development of the country.

It was also decided that interface with the NEPAD capacity development strategic framework was necessary to address capacity constraints. The strategic framework offers a common structure to guide capacity development interventions on the continent. These outcomes and agreements will be forwarded to the next Heads of State and Government meeting via the NEPAD processes.