The National Planning Commission (NPC) is leading efforts in coordinating development stakeholders in impact assessments and responses to the Covid-19 crisis by tracking and sharing the key research lessons and measures with authorities for decision making.
The coordination role is part of NPC’s mandate and responds to the need for a well managed effort to avoid duplication of effort.
These efforts, while good, are not being coordinated and are likely going to duplicate efforts which could have been avoided.
Response to Covid-19 requires to ensure that the measures are based on well-researched evidence that takes into account the country’s own health and socio-economic peculiarities. Suffice to mention that a number of stakeholders are currently working on research within their programmatic spheres to inform their interventions.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our time. A number of countries are racing to slow the spread of the disease by testing and treating patients, carrying out contact tracing, limiting travel, quarantining citizens, and cancelling large gatherings.
However, COVID-19 is much more than a health crisis because it has the potential to create devastating social, economic and political crises that will leave deep scars in generations to come.
Just like other countries, Malawi is responding to COVID-19 by prescribing various health and economic related measures to contain the pandemic and support vulnerable businesses (both small and large scale) as well populations requiring social protection.
It is however important to ensure that the measures are based on well-researched evidence that takes into account the country’s own health and socio-economic peculiarities.
These efforts, while good, are not being coordinated and are likely going to duplicate efforts which could have been avoided.
Picking up on its mandate of coordinating efforts around the country’s development plans, NPC is planning to work with development stakeholders in coordinating the impact assessments by tracking and sharing the key research lessons and measures with authorities for decision making. The Commission hence requests partners to provide information relating to the research/studies they will have done (or planning) by filling-in the form here.
