President Lazarus Chakwera has said Malawi has very strong ambitions for World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) assistance on long-term structural issues.
Chakwera was speaking in Kenya Monday during the IDA Heads of State Summit.
The President, who described Malawi as a miracle having survived various shocks such as Covid, cyclones, cholera and the recent dry spell, described IDA as a reliable and trusted ambulance that has helped Malawi to survive, adding that the country is now showing signs of economic recovery.
“So in total, the emergency care we have received inside the IDA ambulance en route to the hospital has risen from an average of $100 million in disbursements four years ago to now around $600 million, which is a record.
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“In fact, Malawi is the first African country to sign up to the IDA’s new Crisis Response Toolkit, which will enable IDA to respond even more rapidly going forward,” Chakwera said.
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He added that IDA has helped Malawi in addressing structural imbalances on the fiscal, current account and monetary side occasioned by shocks the country has encountered.
Chakwera also noted that Malawi’s ambitions go beyond stabilising “the patient” as the country has done with macroeconomic conditions through its close collaboration with IDA and the International Monetary Fund.
In his address, Kenya’s President William Ruto called for the tripling of IDA’s financing capacity to $279 billion by 2030, while maintaining the essential concessional nature of its financing in accordance with the recommendations of the G20 Independent Expert Group.
Ruto said this would not only be a relief for many African and other developing nations facing severe debt crises, but also make available the much-needed resources to unlock Africa’s vast resources.
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“Our proposal and request entail a vision for Africa-driven socio-economic development, executed with transparency and inclusiveness, and our case is straightforward: Significant capital injection into IDA is crucial,” Ruto said.
Speaking during a Finance Ministers’ Meeting, Finance Minister Simplex Chithyola Banda underscored Malawi’s need for IDA’s support in capacity building for production and value addition.
“We need IDA to help develop the agriculture, mining and tourism sectors which will transform our economy. Tourism will attract more visitors who will bring more forex,” Chithyola Banda said.
The meeting was attended by World Bank Group president Ajay Banga and several African leaders.
Economist Milward Tobias Monday said IDA is for low-income countries and that qualification to the funding window of the World Bank must make Malawi feel “very uncomfortable” and take action to turn around the economy.
“We must participate in such fora with anger; this must also be the case for being chairperson of least developed countries.
“Africa needs economic graduation. True and capable political leaders must work hard to hand over to their successor a country that is out of eligibility for these poverty-connected platforms,” Tobias said.
