Africa-Press – Malawi. President Lazarus Chakwera’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) has drawn mixed reactions from analysts and opposition Democratic Progress Party (DPP).
Deputy American ambassador to Malawi Amy Diaz has described it as a good statement that offers hope. Diaz said America supports the reforms as stated by the President.
“The reforms he plans to implement on Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (Ifmis) are a good step towards public finance management and as US we support that. These are good reforms that we hope will be implemented quickly, since this is one of requirements for IMF’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF).
“He has also laid out good plans on food security and agricultural commercialization through mega farms, good plans if they are implemented quickly,” said Diaz.
Maziko MatembaHealth and Rights Programme (HREP) Executive Director Maziko Matemba said plans to have the new cancer centre opened in April 2024 are good and hoped that this is implemented.
However, Matemba said the Sona has missed some important issues such as commitment to increase the domestic resource on health budget as per the 2019 African Union renewal commitments and health financing reform agenda.
“The Sona is silent on this issue and this is sad. We hope the Minister of Finance will consider this as he will be presenting his budget plan.
“The 900 health posts construction is also silent in the Sona and issues of climate change and pandemic impacts resource allocation commitments made at the recent Sadc emergency summit on cholera prevention are also missing,” Matemba said.
Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) chairperson Gift Trapence said the statement touched on critical issues especially on access to maize to address hunger that has affected many Malawians.
However, HRDC feels the cash transfer and the Affordable Input Programme (AIP) need to be sanitized, saying selection of beneficiaries in the two programmes is questionable.
“AIP has always faced challenges in late distribution of farm inputs and abuse. Government needs to resolve the many challenges that AIP has faced and also think of how Malawi will graduate from AIP. After so many years of implementing such programs we needed to be doing much better.
“Malawians want radical shift from rhetoric to action. They want to see the President taking radical actions in addressing economic and food insecurity challenges that this country is going through. Malawians’ aspirations are on development on the ground that has been retarded for quite long,” Trapence said.
A good governance expert working with Transparency Initiative, Nicholas Mwisama, said the Sona inspires hope but corruption levels are haunting. “Malawians can only get excited with caution. Look, we are talking about a country whose corruption levels are getting worse by each passing day, a country whose governance systems and institutions are weakened at will.
“Thus, it requires radical reforms where among other key elements, institutions must be run by the right people, people who are selfless and love this country,” he said.
DPP has described the Sona as just a repetition of the previous statements that has failed to offer solutions to the challenges Malawians are facing. The party’s appointed Leader of Opposition Mary Navicha said the Sona was empty and full of the same previous lies.
“Malawians are facing challenges and they want solutions. He has failed to provide solutions and he hasn’t given any hope. So in summary the DPP is saying the Sona was empty and full of the same lies we have heard before,” Navicha said. Political party leaders in Parliament are expected to respond to the Sona next week.
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