The African Development Bank has approved its Country Strategy Paper for Malawi for 2018-2022 to boost economic diversification, reduce dependency on rain-fed agriculture and build resilience for growth.
The Country Strategy Paper will guide the African Development Bank’s operations in Malawi with regards to its financial, technical and knowledge assistance to the country.
It will seek to ameliorate Malawi’s low levels of industrialisation, infrastructure gaps in energy, lack of diversification, limited sources of export revenue and low financial intermediation.
The new five-year plan builds on the Bank’s previous Malawi Country Strategy Paper 2013 – 2017 and will advance corporate strategies and the country’s most pressing development needs detailed in Malawi’s Growth and Development Strategy III.
The strategic blueprint is articulated around two main strategic pillars focused on further development of the country’s energy, transport, agriculture and water sectors.
Infrastructure
The first pillar proposes investments in infrastructure development, while the second seeks to advance investments in economic transformation projects and programs.
Through these pillars, the Bank will aim to strengthen the foundations for private sector development by unlocking private and public investment, promote diversification, build economic resilience to reduce poverty and address rising income inequalities across gender.
Subdued agricultural output and increased maize import caused by two consecutive years of drought was responsible for the 2016 slump in economic growth to 2.7 percent.
Malawi’s economic growth however rebounded to 5.1 percent in 2017 owing to a recovery in agricultural production.
The Bank’s interventions will thus build on ongoing positive developments in the domestic environment, driving economic transformation and small industry to support diversification and (decent and formal) job creation.
The Bank’s plans will also support key water basins such as Songwe River and Lake Malawi.