During a meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) National Planning Entities (NPEs) Platform that took place in Gaborone, Botswana on 6th and 7th July 2023, Malawi has been appointed champion of the Platform. This is in recognition of the efforts by Malawi, led by the National Planning Commission, in revamping the Platform. The Platform had stayed inactive from 2015 when it was endorsed by the council of Ministers until Malawi, with support of Zambia and the Economic Commission for Africa’s sub-regional office for Southern Africa (ECA-SRO), revamped it in 2021 leading to Malawi’s chairmanship.
The NPE’s Platform is a collection of national planning commissions and planning ministries in SADC. This group is important in ensuring that priorities agreed by the SADC leadership which form part of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) are domesticated and tracked for progress at the country level including building the member states capacity in that regard. In addition, the Network is also expected to be a springboard of ideas to inform development planning, programmes and activities related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 in Southern Africa. It also provides a structured, interactive and inclusive platform for networking, knowledge and learning as well as sharing of best practices among professionals in planning entities in the region.
As champion, Malawi along with Zambia and ECA-SRO will amongst other roles, support efforts towards the sustainability of the commission through resource mobilization as well as rallying support of the SADC’s political leadership and partners to the key role that planners play in domesticating agreed regional development priorities at the national level.
The meeting was attended by planning entities from all the fourteen SADC members states.
Reacting to the appointment, the director general of the National Planning Commission, Dr Thomas Munthali who led the Malawi delegation, said ‘this is an important recognition by platform members of Malawi’s commitment to being a key regional player beyond looking at its own national development priorities. Malawi believes that individual SADC countries will benefit more if there is a healthy regional economy.’
As champion, Malawi will support the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Platform’s current chairperson and the subsequent chair, Angola, in ensuring that the Platform remains active and effective.
