The National Planning Commission (NPC) alongside Mettalytics, a Sydney, Australia-based international economic evaluation consultancy firm, on Thursday hosted officials from various state and non-state organisations to a one-day validation meeting on a study report that was commissioned to establish the extent to which Malawi and Ghana uses evidence in development planning and implementation.
The study in Malawi sampled three key sectors, namely agriculture, industry and education.
The report, titled ‘Evidence Use in Development Planning: Comparative Case from Studies in Ghana and Malawi’, has since established that while Malawi has institutionally anchored evidence gathering and planning system, usage of the information is priorisation for budgetting, implementation and review was minimal.
Fiscal ceilings and competing commitments were some of the key reasons cited for non-usage of evidence-based plans in national prioritization and budgeting.
“Malawi’s formal planning arrangements gave evidence recognized channels, but policy development did not consistently follow the expected sequence,” reads the report, in part, adding: “Some accounts described analysis changing an emerging priority, others described evidence generated after a commitment had been made.”
Cyandra Carvalho, the study’s lead at Mettalytics, said insights from the study will help identify practical conditions that strengthens evidence use in national development planning and implementation.
“It will inform future planning and implementation cycles,” she said.
NPC Director of Development Planning Dr. Grace Kumchulesi said Malawi can only achieve transformation if all development planning and implementation was anchored on evidence.
“Evidence based development planning is at the core of our work as NPC and we’ll continue working with various government departments and agencies to institutionalize evidence integration in policy formulation, project prioritization, budgeting and M&E systems,” she said.
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