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Analysts accuse donors for programme failures
By
Ayam Maeresa - 31-01-2002 |
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Economic analysts in the country have said both government and its leading development donor, the World Bank, have no practical intent to see that this country gets out of abject poverty.
After carrying out a number of donor-driven economic restructuring programmes since 1980s, observers said there is little to show that the programmes were bearing fruits.
University of Malawi economics professor Ben Kaluwa said in his paper ‘Thoughts on the state of the economy in Malawi’ presented at an annual general meeting of the Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) in Lilongwe that while there has been positive response at the international level to support social sector development through the Highly Indebted Poor Country (Hipc) facility, there were still notable failures.
He said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave done little to channel investments to marginalised areas.
Kaluwa said the government has failed to use special incentives to attract foreign direct investment such as export processing zones (EPZs), tax holidays.
These, he said, were the same systems that were instrumental for the development of Costa Rica, Israel and East Asia.
In addition, Kaluwa said little has been done at the political level to promote good governance and transparency in policy formulation.
“There is default at both the national and international level. The economy and the poor continue to suffer needlessly from this default and sometimes in ways which are not readily apparent,” he said.
“The World Bank should be taken with a pinch of salt because it doesn’t have commitment to see an industrialised Malawi,” he added.
Kaluwa’s comments were supported by other economists, who wondered why the bank and IMF keep on coming up with new development paradigms, such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).
Economist Ronald Mangani wondered why there is no proper mechanism to enable the country graduate from donor dependence.
“An impression is created here to the effect that we are entirely parasitical to donors,” he said.
Others noted that nothing tangible has come out of previous programmes like the Fiscal Restructuring and Deregulation Programme (FRDP) and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (Mtef).
However World Bank country office economist Taziona Chaponda challenged Kaluwa’s observations, saying the bank has not stopped supporting EPZs initiative.
Said Chaponda: “The World Bank generally promotes trade regimes with minimum distortions. Some of the interventional strategies that were available for East Asia are no longer applicable. There are being discouraged at the world level.”
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