Malawi with technical and financial support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on April 6, 2022, launched the 7th National Human Development Report.

The report themed, “Delivering Sustainable Human Development and Accountability at the Local Level – The Experience of Decentralization in Malawi,” aims at promoting district focused approach to sustainable human development by proposing policy measures that will strengthen local governance structures in the development process, thereby accelerating development at all levels of society.

Speaking during the launch, UNDP Resident Representative Shigeki Komatsubara said the 7th Malawi National Human Development Report (MNHDR) is bringing innovation to district planning, reporting, monitoring, and evaluation in support of the decentralization programme and the MW2063

“For the first time in the history of Malawi, national, district, and regional Human Development Indices (HDIs) have been computed in the country. This has been done with the primary objective of developing baseline and target indicators to track progress on socioeconomic interventions at the regional and district level,” said Komatsubara.

In his remarks, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Hon. Sosten Alfred Gwengwe, MP said the report is a good reference document for stakeholders in the development space as it outlines how decentralization and good governance at a district-level contribute to long term sustainable development.

“The current version of the Malawi National Human Development Report is unique in the sense that, for the first time, the report has separately calculated district-level human development indices that capture spatial differences in the level of human development across districts, cities and regions,” said Minister Gwengwe.

The 7th Malawi National Human Development Report analyses how local governance structures influence both decision making and development processes and has drawn lessons and made recommendations for enhancing the local governance systems to accelerate this local level development.

The report also advocates for improvements in the socio-economic well-being of the people by implementing development interventions in local government areas where most of its people live while achieving equal opportunities for and active participation by all.

In general, the report advocates and highlights three key messages on decentralization and good governance. It highlights on delivering services and promoting sustainable development more effectively and efficiently. It advocates on giving people a voice to actively participate in the development process of their country in a more inclusive way. The report also highlights empowering the local people to demand transparency and accountability from the duty bearers and service providers.

The overview and the full report can be downloaded at https://www.mw.undp.org/.