Africa-Press – Malawi. Malawi still remains one of the poorest countries in the world with or without the adverse unforeseeable events such as COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and recently Russia-Ukraine war.
Truth be told, Malawi has the potential to be one of the fast growing countries in all aspects in the world. I have analysed Malawi vital stats from most important perspectives including socio-economic, political, legal and leadership perspective.
My conclusion is that Malawi economic policies do not align with resilient economic growth such that if we do not do something now, Malawi risks to slide into the doldrums of economic abyss. We need to act now lest we are locked in an economic crevasse.
Much has been talked about political and legal frameworks in Malawi. Suffice to say overwhelming feedback has been registered from the readership as well. Quite interesting.
The gist of this write up is to provide an economic recovery framework that will assist the Malawi government to massively mobilise resources and efforts with a view of putting our economy in a
sustainable recovery trajectory. Furthermore, the economic framework also aims at not merely to return our economy to where it was before the COVID 19 pandemic, natural disasters and other unforeseen adverse events, but also to forge a new economy in a new global reality.
Problem statement
Malawi is economically facing the following problems: poverty, inequality, unemployment, high imports but low exports and low investment rates among others.
The Malawi Economic Recovery Framework (MERF)
The Malawi Economic Recovery Framework is a blueprint that comprises three phases: engagement, transformation and retransformation. These phases will be succinctly elucidated in the next sections.
The enablers for the successful implementation of this framework are political will, resource mobilisation, regulatory, legal, and legislative supportive framework, conducive business and investor’s transformative environment, participatory citizen-centric approach, skills development, government-government and public-private partnerships among others.
Engagement phase
The government does not operate in a vacuum. It is therefore imperative that the government engages with all stakeholders and the citizens to appreciate the economic hardships prevailing in the country. Participatory citizen-centric approach is the core component of MERF.
Both macro-economic and micro-economic interventions must be blended together to steer the country’s economic growth while not disadvantaging the already disadvantaged.
This engagement process also aims at cushioning the local citizens from adverse effects of global economic recess by implementing deliberate programmes such as supporting distressed households and jobless people.
Having established the aims of MERF, more information tool gathering and analysis techniques such as PESTLE ( Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors) may be employed. Information gathered at this stage will form an input in the next phase.
Transformation phase
Input from the previous phase will inform the implementation of economic recovery programs in the areas of job creation, food security, energy generation, tourism transformation, transformative and strategic partnerships, micro and macro- economic interventions, industrialisation, commercialisation and mechanisation of agriculture, green belt initiative, skills development just to mention a few.
Retransformation phase
The transformations in this phase are within the same areas as in previous phase. However, at this stage, all interventions are evaluated, some are merged , others dropped, some are re-engineered and new ones may emerge.
A better Malawi is possible. Malawi will only prosper with solutions designed by our local Malawians. Even International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not provide governance solutions to Malawi.
Leadership is about allocating limited resources to the unlimited wants and needs of the citizenry. No blame games will resolve the problems Malawi is facing. The time to act has come.
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