Malawi and other least developed countries fail to meet MDGs—Report

Most of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have failed to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), says a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report.

The LDCs are a group of 48 nations, most in Sub-Saharan Africa, which have been recognized by the UN as requiring transformative economic change to lift their peoples from poverty.

Thirty-four of the LDCs are in Africa. Malawi is one of them.

Gebrehiwot Kebedew, Senior Economic Adviser (Malawi) said economic growth had not been accompanied by structural transformation of the economy and that the failure by the international community to implement the global partnership for development foreseen in MDG 8 were the paradox for LDCs.

“LDCs have failed to meet most of the MDG targets despite recording economic growth since 2000,” Dr. Kebedew told a news conference in Lilongwe on Thursday when he presented the 2014 LCD Report.

He said LDCs needed to go beyond economic growth to complete a virtuous circle of sustainable economic and human development which required structural transformation, combining increases in labour productivity within sectors and a shift of labour from low and high productivity sector.

Dr. Kebedew said that domestically, LDCs should focus on three areas–resource mobilization, industrial policy, and macroeconomic policies.

He said resource mobilization required a strategic and selective approach to domestic investment and foreign direct investment (FDI).

“Domestic investment has the advantages of having a stronger backward and forward linkages, generating more jobs per investment expenditure and having greater reinvested profits,’’ he said.

Dr. Kebedew said industrial policy should follow a dual track, developing sectors of current comparative advantage, while at the same time anticipating and promoting changes in comparative advantage.

“Macroeconomic policies should support resource mobilization and industrial policies by ensuring credit for productive investment and strong and steady demand growth,” he said.

According to the 2014 LDC report, rural development is fundamental both to structural transformation in LDCs and to poverty eradication.

The report says there are strong complementarities between agricultural upgrading and rural economic diversification.

It adds that realizing the productive potential of women more effectively could make a major contribution to rural development.

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