By Tione Andsen
Lilongwe, August 7, Mana: United Nations (UN) said Malawi has become a great example of Sustainable Development GOAL (SDG) 16 on peaceful coexistence and strong institutions.
UN Resident Coordinator, Maria Jose Torres disclosed this Thursday during the panel discussion at the official launch of the Malawi Growth Development Strategy (MGDS) III mid-term report at Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.
She said the role played by the Judiciary, Parliament, Armed Forces, Political Parties, Civil Society and the citizens was commendable and sets a great example for region, the African continent and the World.
“Allow me to refer to an achievement by Malawi in terms of the SDG agenda that requires be noting and applauding, even if it not strictly linked to the MDGS III, the peaceful transition through elections from a government to another in 2020,” Torres pointed out.
UN Resident Coordinator said the June 23, 2020 fresh presidential elections in the country would remain a model to other countries for long time as a way of enhancing and consolidating democracy.
She said the MGDS review report comes at a very opportune time as we enter the decade of action which is the last ten years of the implementation of the agenda 2030.
The UN Resident Coordinator added that in this decade of action, the UN in Malawi through United Nations Sustainable Development Corporation Framework was invested in accelerating the SDG agenda together with the government, development partners, civil society and other stakeholders through two elements of strong partnerships and rights based approach.
Torres congratulated the government and National Planning Commission (NPC) for undertaking this very important review of Malawi’s medium-term development strategy.
“The MGDS III is the country’s first strategy to have domesticated the SDGs and it has been instrumental in facilitating implementation, monitoring and reporting of the SDGs in the country,” she added.
Torres said the country need to have updated data during the planning process of any development to help the planners do their work efficiently.
Data Expert, Sofi Kang’oma expressed concern that several sectors were not willing to share their data for comprehensive for consolidation at national level.
“We need to have updated data when formulating any development programmes. The challenge that we are facing was that sometime we depend on data which was collected three years back when designing our projects,” she lamented.