UN stakes K66bn on President Chakwera

Malawi Government has secured a whooping K66 billion (approximately $77.6 million) from the United Nations (UN) for Covid-19 economic recovery.

The world’s largest humanitarian organisation, the UN has given Malawi the money for the implementation of Malawi’s Covid-19 Socio-Economic Recovery Plan in response to President Lazarus Chakwera’s recovery plan which he launched last December.

UN resident coordinator Maria Do Valle Ribeiro unveiled the package of cash injections in Lilongwe Thursday during the Joint Strategy Meeting, a bi-annual summit between government and UN agencies.

Ribeiro said: “In 2022, the UN in Malawi is contributing $ 77.6 million towards the operationalization of the National Covid-19 Socio- Economic Recovery Plan.”

According to the UN, the funds will support interventions that seek to build resilience and sustainability in five priority areas: health, education, social protection, labour market and building an enabling macroeconomic policy environment.

The UN financing represents around 11 percent of the K581.8 billion needed to implement the Covid-19 Socio-Economic Recovery Plan that could revive the country’s economy over the 2021-2023 periods. Government’s financial contribution to the plan’s implementation has not been fully disclosed.

The announcement—coming four days before Capital Hill’s make-or-break talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new Extended Credit Facility (ECF)—should raise hope that donors might just believe Malawi has a bankable plan for saving its economy and protecting its citizens from global economic shocks and the pandemic.

The IMF is on record as saying Malawi cannot effectively implement its turnaround plans without significant donor support, which may rely on an active ECF.

In its December 2021 Country Report for Malawi, the IMF said the ECF is the only viable path for Lilongwe to get donor financing for investments in physical and human capital pivotal to vision goals.

“Given the protracted balance of payments problem, Malawi is facing challenges in implementing economic programmes envisaged in Malawi Vision 2063 without support from the IMF and the international community at large,” says the fund, referring to its catalytic role in Western capitals’ aid taps.

Ribeiro said the UN is committed to align its future strategies with those of Malawi’s development blueprint—the Malawi 2063 (MW2063) Agenda that seeks to transform the country into a wealthy and self-reliant industrialised upper-middle-income economy in the next 40 years.

She said the UN Country Team in Malawi is launching the process of developing the 2024 to 2028 Cooperation Framework—a strategic tool between the government and the UN to plan and implement the UN development activities at the country level.

“The development of a new Cooperation Framework comes at the right time to ensure proper alignment with the national priorities outlined in Malawi 2063.”

But the UN resident coordinator warned that foreign assistance is shrinking; hence, the need to use the resources efficiently.

The Joint Strategy Meeting offers Malawi a chance to appreciate planned UN interventions in a range of sectors, including health, education and agriculture.

Addressing the Joint Strategy Meeting, Secretary to Treasury McDonald Mafuta-Mwale said to achieve economic recovery, there was need for a new approach in programme implementation.

“It is our hope that going forward, we will be more focused in our approach. Let us avoid spreading resources thinly across fragmented interventions,” he said.

The recovery plan has allocated K397.8 billion to healthcare; especially infrastructure and drugs; K56.6 billion to education; K9.5 billion to social protection; K101 billion to economy and labour markets and K15.5 billion for improving the macroeconomic environment.

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