NGOs implored to align their development projects to MW2063 national vision
The country’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been asked to align their development projects to MW2063 if the national vision is to be achieved of an ‘Inclusively Wealthy, Self-reliant, Industrialised, Upper-Middle Income Economy by the year 2063.
This call was made by Ivy Chauya, senior development planning specialist in National Planning Commission (NOC) responsible for social sector during the first of the sectoral workshops which NGO Regulatory Authority (NGORA) is hosting ahead of the NGO Day 2024 to be held on October 16.
The interface meetings, being held at Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre, have been organised in collaboration with Council of NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA) and the Ministry of Gender & Social Welfare and the theme for the NGO Day 2024 commemoration is; ‘Strengthening Partnerships and Capacity in the NGO Sector: Panacea for Achieving MW2063 Agenda’.
The workshops are in three parts, focusing on NGOs that deal in education on the first day (October 9); health on Thursday (October 10 and agriculture on Friday, October 11.
The NGO Day 2024 on October 16 will be presided over by President Lazarus Chakwera at Sanjika Palace mini stadium in Blantyre.
In her presentation, Chauya first took through the overall MW2063 vision; the First Year Implementation Plan (MIP-1); contents of the MIP-1, progress so far for MIP-1; how NGOs should align projects to MW2063 and the MW2063 implementation coordination & reporting mechanism.
She emphasised that first and foremost, the NGOs should know and understand the MW2063 overall goal of wealth creation; self reliance and inclusivity (gender, youth, people living with disabilities, rural areas, PLWHIVA) among others.
On planning for education development, the NGOs should focus on how their project can contribute to wealth creation; self reliance and what interventions can be implemented within a particular project that can contribute to the overall goal.
She emphasised that their projects are not in any way contributing to these three, then it means they are off-track.
She also highlighted that the NGOs need to understand the Pillars and Enablers of the MW2063 vision for them to assess what pillar or enabler of the vision relates to the project they want to implement.
“Your project document (strategy/plan) should demonstrate linkage to at least one or more of the pillars/enabler of the MW2063. Understand the objective of a particular pillar/enabler as well as its focus areas and align your project or project interventions to a particular focus area.
“In each of the focus areas, there are also outcome statements, strategies and the high-level priority interventions — relate to what your statements say.”
She further said the timeframe of the strategy or plan should align to MIP-1, which spans 10 years from 2021-2030 and not beyond as NPC’s milestone priorities beyond 2030 may be different.
“Essentially, the document’s life should be in sync with the MIP-1 period and the projects should also align to the MIP-1 indicators. Ensure that at all levels of development planning, the MW2063 and MIP-1 is not just mentioned to simply show alignment, BUT that defined strategies/interventions directly relate to truly achieving inclusive wealth-creation and self-reliance.
“It could be at the national, decentralised and household levels in the long-term; and pursuit of a lower middle-income country status and meeting most of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as the medium-term development strategy milestones that include jobs and wealth creation as well as food security.”
In an interview after her presentation, Chauya further enhanced that it was very important for the NGOs to be in sync with the MW2063 by reporting on what they are doing in line the national vision.
She took cognizance that NGORA actively brings together the NGOs and NPC for interface meetings because they need not work in isolation with the government alone, but through all Malawians, including the NGOs.
“NGO’s are a key sector in the development plans of MW2063 because they are implementing bigger projects and thus as overseers of the national vision, we need to work together,” she said.
On his part, NGORA Chief Executive Officer, Edward Chileka-Banda enlightened that the NGO Day brings all stakeholders in the sector to showcase their contributions towards national development and the workshops have been designed to deepen dialogue between the government and the NGOs.
“These workshops are to look at policy gaps and some critical issues that needs to be addressed,” he said. “NGOs are making some significant strides in as far as development if concerned but their projects are not captured and documented.
“There is lack of coordination between government and the NGO sector. Policy alignment is a challenge as most projects do not align with the national vision.
“We noticed there is duplication of projects and lack of accountability and we thought it was time to bring all resources together if we are to move forward,” he said.
In its 2024/25 National Budget, the government factoring in the NGO Fund, which Parliament passed pegged at K1 billion — a funding that was mooted by President Chakwera, when he attended NGO Day 2023 in Lilongwe where a 2023 NGO Sector Report was also launched, which highlighted some serious challenges the sector was experiencing.
The challenges included compliance rate of registered NGOs, which was at 61% and seeing the gap in capacity building due to financial constraints, President Chakwera directed Ministry of Gender, Community Development & Social Welfare and NGORA to work out how the sector could be capacitated.
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