Lilongwe, Malawi, Friday, April 8, 2022 – Representatives of the National Planning Entities (NPEs) Platform from the SADC region supported by Malawi Ministry of Finance, the Southern African Development Community Secretariat (SADC) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA) held a two-day meeting in Lilongwe to revive and boost the activities of the NPE platform.
The objective of the meeting was to strengthen capacities of the NPEs; work on regional alignment and domestication of national development plans; support industrialization agenda; track progress; and promote effective implementation of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISD).
The meeting was officially opened by the Minister of Finance, Honourable Sosten Gwengwe MP, who reminded the meeting that the recent SADC summits have taken stock of the industrialization and economic development agendas. He pointed out that the Malawi Vision 2063, and the accompanying 10-year implementation plans, are closely aligned with the SADC Vision, its Industrialization Strategy and RISDP. He noted that, “this platform’s success will rely on cooperation with long term international partners such as UNECA, as well as enthusiastic participants and champions to carry on with the work”.
The SADC Secretariat was represented by Dr. Thembinkosi Mhlongo, Deputy Executive Secretary(DES) - Regional Integration, who indicated that domestication of regional plans is very important for the implementation of the agreed regional priorities need stronger monitoring and evaluation of the plans. He recognized that the plans should be informed by indicators, which need to be further developed. The DES invited the NPEs to focus on the indicators, monitoring and evaluation, where a meaningful impact can be accomplished by the Platform.
Dr. Thomas Munthali, Director General Malawi National Planning Commission (NPC) welcomed the participants in his capacity as the Chair of the NPE Platform. He recalled the history of the SADC NPE Platform and indicated that the SADC NPE Platform was initially recognized as an official SADC initiative in 2015 and became dormant until substantial efforts by the co-Chairs of the informal ‘Community of Practice’, Malawi’s National Planning Commission and Zambia’s Ministry of National Development Planning, with support from ECA-SRO-SA, resulted in the current effort to reactivate the Platform.
Ms. Eunice Kamwendo, Director of the Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa recognized the Platform as a space that will allow for the exchange of best practices, quoting success stories of development such as Rwanda, Morocco, Ethiopia and South Africa. She emphasized that the national planning entities are the ones who drive growth of the national economies and reiterated ECA commitment to support the efforts within ECA mandate of supporting the region move towards sustainable industrialization and trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The Malawi UN Family was represented by Ms. Young Hong, UNFPA who recognised the Platform key for ensuring that Agenda 2030 and Agenda 2063 are effectively mainstreamed in national development plans and effectively implemented. She pointed out that, “regional integration priorities are key for national players”.
The afternoon was dedicated to presentations on draft framework and roadmap of the SADC National Planning Entities Platform delivered respectively by Ms. Mwila. M. Daka from the Zambia Ministry of Finance and Dr Grace Kumchulesi, National Planning Commission, Malawi. The NPE delegates then discussed its proposed framework and roadmap of activities. The delegates called upon SADC to embed the Platform within the SADC structure and endorsed ECA as a key technical partner of the initiative. They also indicated that, going forward, the Platform shall organize further thematic meetings, exchange best practices, and help NPEs build necessary capacities. It was also proposed that, the Platform work on mobilizing the necessary resources to ensure the sustainability of the structure.
The day closed with two presentations from the Strengthening the National Regional Linkages project driven by SADC and German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), covering the interplay between SADC National Committees and the NPEs, as well as guidelines on alignment of national development plans with the RISDP. The discussion which followed acknowledged the input delivered by the experts and emphasized the importance of domestication and adjustment of the guidelines to local characteristics.
The second day of the meeting opened with a presentation by Dr Daniel Rweyemamu from the SADC Secretariat on SADC Vision 2050 and RISDP 2020-2030, followed by a lively discussion, focusing on the need for strengthening of regional trade and value chains as well as continued buy-in and proactiveness of member states. The meeting then received a presentation on challenges and opportunities of development planning as gathered by the ECA. In the ensuing discussion, the delegates recognized the need for factoring in the National Development Plans the resilience towards shocks and welcomed the support opportunities offered by ECA to reinforce capacities of the planners. The meeting concluded with a record, summarizing the proceedings and decisions taken during the meeting, to be reported by delegates to their respective governments.
ISSUED BY:
The Southern African Development Community (SADC)| Private Bag 0095 Gaborone, Botswana Media Contact: Barbara Lopi | Senior Officer - Communication and Public Relations E-mail: blopi@sadc.int Tel: +267 364 1790 | +267 395 1863 (Ext 1790) Website: www.sadc.int
The National Planning Commission, Private Bag B316, Lilongwe 3, Malawi
Media Contact: Thom Khanje| Communications Manager| National Planning Commission -Malawi
Email: tkhanje@npc.mw| Mobile: +265888879329| Web: www.npc.mw
UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), The Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa
P.O. Box 30647, Lusaka, Zambia. Media Contact: Lavender Degre | Communications Officer | UNECA SRO-SA | Email: lavender.degre@un.org | Mobile +265995753144 | Web: https://www.uneca.org