By Cathy Maulidi
Anti-poverty and anti-injustice organisation ActionAid Malawi (AAM) has pleaded with development partners to resume direct budgetary support to Malawi for the country’s economy to get back on its feet.
In a statement released Wednesday, the organisation says the support should be beyond mitigating the economic shocks Malawi is currently facing.
“It will be of equal importance to align this to Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which will put Malawi on the right track to development for long-term impact as opposed to the short-term impact,” AAM said.
IMF announced last evening that Malawi had qualified for the ECF, which will see the country accessing $174 million over a period of four years.
- Advertisement -
In the statement, signed by its acting executive director Wongani Mugaba, AAM further asks the Bretton Woods institution and developed countries to “intensively” invest in Malawi’s public finance management systems.
The organisation also calls for the strengthening of oversight functions and institutions such as the National Audit Office, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Financial Intelligence Authority, Fiscal Police and the Judiciary, to effectively deal with financial crimes.
To regain donor confidence, AAM has advised government to tighten screws to protect resources from plunder.
Two weeks ago, Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda also requested the European Union (EU) to resume direct budgetary support to Malawi.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
“Our budget is always faced with a deficit, sometimes up to 40 percent, because our revenue and resources we get cannot meet all budgetary requirements. We really need the injection from development partners,” Chithyola Banda said.
In his response, EU Ambassador to Malawi Rune Skinnebach said clinching the ECF deal with IMF has put Malawi in good standing in terms of getting direct budgetary support.
EU and other donors, under the Common Approach to Budget Support, stopped providing direct budgetary support to Malawi in 2013 in the wake of the massive plunder of public funds which was later dubbed ‘Cashgate’.
