Ken Lipenga, Malawi’s minister of economic planning and development, has noted that Africa is a net food importer with approximately $20 billion worth of food annually, thus making it the hardest hit by the global rising oil and food prices. According to the minister, transport, energy, water and telecommunication infrastruture in Africa also lag far behind the rest of the world. It is against the background of the unimpressive Scio-economic conditions in Africa Union adopted New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, in 2002, as a novel framework for shifting the destiny of the continent from poverty to prosperity. NEPAD was also hailed as a timely intervention, capable of helping the continent meet the global targets of the Millennium Development Goals.
The minister added that seven years down the line, NEPAD remained the only framework which Africa engaged with the West on Africa’s development. ” So far, the implementation of the programme in a number of countries across the continent has resulted in a number of successess and challenges.” he said.
Lipenga added that taking stock of the NEPAD process in Malawi is to see how the country has fared in translating the vision of the continent into tangible achievements and where the country has failed. In Malawi. NEPAD has been conceptualised both at policy and project levels and it has become part of the country’s national and sectoral development policies and plans. Malawi has built its agriculture development programme around the pillars of NEPAD agriculture programme known as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, and the budgetary allocation of 10 per cent is in line with the 2003 NEPAD Maputo Declaration.
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