Malawi to hold first annual development conference: ‘Beyond political freedom to inclusive wealth creation’
The National Planning Commission (NPC) and its partners will from Thursday, August 27 to Friday August 28, 2020 host Malawi’s first annual National Development Conference which will be officially opened by the President Lazarus Chakwera to get a wider array of Malawians and stakeholders to deliberate on the development future of the country.
The conference will be held at a time NPC, with the aid of other stakeholders, is crafting a successor document to Malawi’s first long-tern national development plan, Vision 2020, which expires this year.
NPC director general Thomas Chataghalala Munthali said the commission’s ultimate goal is to have “a developed Malawi that meets the socio-economic basic needs of every Malawian.”
The conference will be an annual event where experts will come together to take stock and discuss how to accelerate our agreed national development priorities with the participation, feedback and contributions from different stakeholders, including the general public.
This year’s inaugural conference will be held under the theme: ‘Beyond Political Freedom to Inclusive Wealth Creation and Self-reliance’ and will provide a platform where citizens, state and non-state actors as well as development partners will discuss emerging issues from the consultations for the development of the National Transformation 2063, the envisioned successor to Vision 2020.
The conference will be a hybrid of virtual and limited physical participation to be coordinated from the Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe in full compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures as prescribed by the Ministry of Health.
The official opening ceremony of the conference will take place on 27th August and will be followed by a more technical approach where stakeholders will brainstorm on the quick wins and transformative strategies for operationalizing the new vision, its pillars and enablers.
The conference has been jointly organised by the National Planning Commission, the Malawi Government, the Council for Non-Governmental Organisations (CONGOMA), the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI), the Public Private Partnerships Commission (PPPC), and Michigan State University with a number of development partners playing a key supportive role.
NPC, mandated to developing long and medium-term national development plans for Malawi as well as overseeing implementation of those plans, hopes that the conference will help identify the positive initiatives that can transform Malawi and move the country out of poverty trap. NPC was established through an Act of Parliament in 2017.
Vision 2020 championed by Dr. Maxwell Mkwezalamba was a total fiasco and then came MGDS II and III were useless as well. These lazy civil servants are good at writing and when it comes to implementation it is just stealing and stealing. Malawi has been destroyed. We had green forests in Chikangawa, Dedza Mountain and Zomba Mountain. All that is gone. There is no gandankhuku from Zomba Mountain. Bakili destroyed everything. There are no roads in the townships. There are no street lights even on the road from Kamuzu International Airport. We are just like Somalia or Mali these days.… Read more »
Excellent idea!
The best way to tackle poverty and unemployment is through conferences.
I hope there is a good lunch and refreshments provided.
I think if we held such a conference every month instead of every year, we could tackle poverty even faster!
Better yet, have a conference every week. Surely the best way to create economic growth and development.