National Planning Commission elected regional co-lead
The National Planning Commission (NPC) and its Zambian counterpart were on Wednesday elected co-lead in the formation of a community group of such institutions.
It is expected to bring together the planning entities in southern Africa to share knowledge and best practices one effective national development planning and implementation mechanisms.
The two were elected in Johannesburg, South Africa, during a meeting organised on the sidelines of Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) meeting.
National planning entities met to review Sadc’s Vision 2050 which is under development along with its10-year Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).
Malawi, through the National Plannin g Commission and Zambia through the Ministry of Development Planning have been champions of the initiative; hence, tasked with leading operationalisation of the network which include defining its financial sustainability mechanisms.
Speaking from Johannesburg recently, NPC Director General, Thomas Munthali, said southern Africa can be a power house of socio-economic prosperity if the development planners are networked.
“Let’s prosper together through sharing knowledge and wisdom. Nothing brings you together like a common enemy of dehumanising poverty.
“Let us together change the region’s narrative from poverty reduction and act on a positive focus of inclusive wealth creation and self-reliance,” Munthali said.
The network will provide a platform, physical and virtual, for sharing experiences, human resources through exchange visits, ideas, lessons learned and best practices amongst national planning entities in Southern Africa.
The network will also facilitate capacity development of officers and the planning entities themselves as institutions.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and IM-Swedish have since committed to supporting the take-off of the network and provide the necessary support citing the importance of multi-stakeholder development planning.
ECA’s southern Africa will be the interim secretariat in the initial years of the network.
