Malawi has long way to go to popularize SADC RISDP 2020-2030

Malawi: Non-state actors (NSAs) on the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) Revised Regional Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) for 2020-2030 attended a hybrid workshop on the SADC RISDP and Social Accountability in Public Resource Management on September 13-15, 2022.

Over 120 people from five of SADC's sixteen member countries participated in this dialogue from meetings in six locations (Dodoma, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Harare, Johannesburg, and Maputo) and virtually, representing various Non-State Actors (NSAs) such as civil society organizations (CSOs), smallholder farmers' associations, trade unions, youth organizations, people's movements, women's groups, faith-based organizations, media outlets, the GIZ-SNRL programme, parliamentarians.

During the breakaway sessions on September 14th, each group (country / regional) completed a template, noting (1) the agreed-upon short-term and/or long-term actions to be taken, and (2) providing 3-5 recommendations for the overall dialogue communiqué.

Some of the top officials from the NGO and government sectors who contributed to the issues raised by the Malawi team during the event agreed that there was still a lot of work to be done in terms of popularising (SADC) Revised Regional Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) for 2020-2030.

Deputy Director and Malawi SADC National Contact Person at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Faith Mwalubunju, maintains that the Malawi team raised this issue of lack of coordination among key stakeholders, e.g parliamentarians, NSAs, media, and private sector, for example, because stakeholders such as NSAs, CSOs, and others have limited information about these development projects and thus have no incentive to invest in them.

“The Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) is meant to be conducted similar to how the Malawi vision 2063 is being implemented by the Malawi Government, where development and funding are sourced under the national budget. This lack of orientation occurs when stakeholders of the RISDP work independently and achieve minimal outcomes,” she says.

During the breakaway meetings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among other actors, was tasked with training key stakeholders in M&E of RISDP implementation to address the lack of monitoring.

But how does the ministry see the importance of this, and how does it intend to address it?

Mrs Mwalubunju believes that training stakeholders in RISDP M&E is critical to the success of any programme or project.

She says organizations use this process to collect and analyze critical data in order to determine whether the project/project has met its goals and objectives.

Together with the ministry of information, the ministry of foreign affairs was also tasked with the responsibility of carrying out a number of activities including building social media visibility (Twitter, Facebook on SADC RISDP work from a local context).

In light of this, Mrs Mwalubunju thinks the Malawi team will work on the production of stories on TV, radio, newsletters, press releases, documentaries and online news stories on SADC RISD.

She adds that they will also work to improve media representation in SADC committees (MISA Malawi to be included as a member).

Chikondi Chabvuta, Regional Manager for Care, one of the leading organizations that took part in the event, says she fully supports the effort to popularize RISDP in Malawi.

According to Chabvuta, the RISDP is the guiding framework for the region into which countries feed their development plans, including those under food, nutrition, and security attainment for SADC.

Malawi, according to Chabvuta, needs to develop a clear costed plan that can be sold and financed.

Not only that, Chabvuta says Malawians can have a greater impact as a group, so non-state actors must work together to achieve the plans and priorities; popularize the SADC model law on public finance management and the Gender Model Law, and the need for countries to use the model law to realise their full potential and the progress that must be made in that direction.

Wales Chigwenembe, National Project Manager for PSA Project at ActionAid Malawi, who also attended the RISDP event, says that non-state actors (NSAs) (Malawi National Assembly, CSOs via CONGOMA, MEJN, and the media) are members of the Malawi SADC National Committee (SNC), which coordinates the planning, implementation, monitoring, and reporting of RISDP in Malawi, but the dialogue revealed that the aforementioned NSAs had very limited involvement throughout all processes.

As a result, he says, public social accountability monitoring is weakened, and when the NSAs plan projects and raise funds for their programmes, they do not align their strategic plans and programmes with the RISDP (MW2063) in Malawi.

He says that in order to achieve better and more sustainable results, the Malawi government must domesticate the SADC PF PFM model law as well as aggressively implement the recently approved Malawi Public Finance Management Law 2022.

All NSAs must monitor the implementation of all of these processes, he says.

Concerning calls to develop a clear costed plan that can be sold and financed, Chigwenembe says one of the major challenges for Malawi in implementing the RISDP is a limited resource envelope.

He claims that the RISDP has been completed and cost, but there is currently no clear plan for how the government will source funding for effective RISDP implementation.

According to Chigwenembe, a clear plan at both the national and district levels is required, which must be owned by all actors, including NSAs at all levels, in order to finance the strategic activities outlined in the costed plan.

He says NSAs must integrate the RISDP/MW2063 in their strategic plan to make sure that all activities implemented are linked to the RISDP/MW2063.

Julie Middleton, Consortium Project Manager – Strengthening Social Accountability and Oversight in Health and Agriculture in Southern Africa, ActionAid International, says the dialogue provided an opportunity for civil society organizations from across SADC, particularly those in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, to learn more about the SADC RISDP and its impact on development in their respective countries.

But then, how will PSA Alliance support and finance the Malawi action plan?

According to Middleton, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funding for the PSA Alliance project in Malawi (as well as Mozambique and Tanzania) will expire in June 2023, but they are working with partner organisations to identify possible new sources of funding.

Middleton says because the PSA Alliance project will continue at the regional level for at least until December 2024, Malawi partners will be invited to share their work and progress on regional platforms as well.

Middleton expressed his appreciation for the involvement of the SADC Secretariat and the SADC Parliamentary Forum in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) dialogue in general. Both institutions, as well as their national representatives - SADC National Contact Points and Members of Parliaments - are emphasizing the importance of civil society participation in regional processes.