Prof Moshi says ‘evidence based policy formulation key to development’
Professor Humphrey Moshi, an Economic and research expert has advised public and private institutions in the country to use research based policies in order to meet the needs of Malawians in different development programs.
“It’s important policies should not be made by opinion, but have to be informed by research and only then can we have practical policies,” Moshi said.
Professor Moshi made these remarks on Friday after a three day facilitation at a seminar which took place at Hillside Executive Lodge at Mponela in Dowa that ran from 28 to 30 June, 2017.
Moshi is a renowned research expert with 39 years of experience in Economics and also a specialist in evidence based –Policy formulation and Evaluation, at the University of Daar-es-salaam in Tanzania.
“I urge government and policy formulators and translators to use research in answering the needs of people if we are to be successful in all our development programs. Research driven decisions realize good results,” said Moshi.
He asked the participants to put to use the eight points research steps and skills attained in transforming the daily business executions in offices.
‘‘Decision makers must use skilful communication, implementation and monitoring and evaluation among other major steps of developing programs. Evidence gathered during research is fundamental towards meaningful policy formulation,” he added.
The training which drew participants from different government ministries, major corporations, NGOs, private companies and other development partners was conducted under government efforts through the Malawi Public Policy Research Project (MPPRAP).
MPPRA, targets economists from Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Development, other ministries and government agencies aimed at addressing major issues in the realm of policy formulation.
Deputy Director Responsible for Planning in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Humphrey Mdyetseni hailed government for training high ranked officials, which he said would help in enhancing supervisory skills.
“This training is timely and comes at a time when we are just finalizing MGDS 3, so we will apply the knowledge learnt to translate into successful monitoring and evaluation,” said Mdyetseni.
Africa Institute for Capacity Development (AICD) an international organization based in Kempton, Gauteng in South Africa, which offers on-job trainings and seminars at reasonable fee organized the event.
Admission Consultant, Abel Mkandawire told Mana that the evidence based policy formulation and analysis would improve the performance of directors and managers.
“We urge other institutions to emulate the example from MPPRAP to stimulate service delivery. Refresher courses, trainings and seminars are very necessary for both junior and senior employees,” Mkandawire said.
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