Germany pulls out of Malawi donor partnership: Gets ‘observer’ status in CABS
The Germany government has said it has decided to change its membership within the “Common Approach to Budget Support-Group” (CABS) to an observer status as it will no longer provide budget support for Malawi in the subsequent national budgets.
CABS is a mechanism developed by a group of donors to provide general budgetary support to Malawi which has members; African Development Bank, Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID), the European Union (EU), Norway and the World Bank with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ireland and Germany which has now taken the status of ‘observers’
German ambassador Peter Woeste said in a statement made available to Nyasa Times that the decision has been taken on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the general budget support as an effective instrument of Germany’s bilateral development cooperation with Malawi.
“This decision has been taken on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the general budget support as an effective instrument of Germany’s bilateral development cooperation with Malawi,” stressed German Ambassador Peter Woeste in a statement.
“The volume of aid provided by Germany to Malawi is independent of our membership status. Germany is committed to continue supporting the people of Malawi on their path to sustainable development, it is just that we are exploring alternative ways how best to achieve this goal,” he said.
He underlined that it was important to the people of Germany that every cent of their hard earned tax payers money reached those who are really in need and brought relevant improvements to their livelihoods.
“We need to be fair and frank to our partners. Our status in the CABS-Group should reflect our position towards the usefulness of general budget support as a development instrument in the Malawi circumstances,” the German ambassador said.
He said Germany continued to believe that a forum as the CABS-Group was important to ensure a high-level political dialogue between the Malawian government and its development partners.
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