IMF Promises Policy Change
Suzgo Khunga
The Daily Times - Malawi's Premier Daily
Mar 18, 2008
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Malawi has promised to change some of their policy to fit into the country’s development needs.
Washington based IMF mission Chief Andy Berg said this on Sunday after he visited some rural development projects in Mwaza where people are engaged in poverty alleviation programmes.
He said he had seen for himself clearlyproblems the people faced, they would work hard with the central bank and the Ministry of Finance to ensure policy formulation was in alignment with the situation on the ground.
“We hope this visit will help us to do our work better when dealing with our partners. There is a big difference between hearing and reading statistics and seeing the issues on the ground,” Berg said.
He however noted he was not completely surprised at what he had discovered for himself but it has changed his way of thinking.
“I will now be able to see faces behind the figures. I mean I couldn’t imagine my 7 year old daughter being together with 100 other kids in a classroom with one teacher,” Berg noted.
The IMF mission chief visited Magwalume Primary School which has 694 pupils but five teachers and three classroom blocks.
Berg and the IMF resident representative Maitland MacFarlane also visited Thambani health centre which has one clinician and one nurse and the Chimlango Radio Listening Club which has managed to get development through its recordings.
Action Aid Malawi governance and campaigns coordinator Chandiwira Chisi said he knew government was constrained resource wise but blamed IMF agreements which tends to affect how much government can invest in certain sectors.
“Such problems as we have seen here are recurring. We wanted the IMF mission to see for themselves what implications their policies have on ordinary people,” Chisi said.
Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) executive director Andrew Kumbatira, who accompanied the mission, said the IMF mission had seen for themselves that when government says there are no teachers and no medicines in hospital, they will know the truth on the ground.
The IMF runs a Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (PRGF) economic programme with Malawi where the country is required to meet certain economic and social targets as a basis for qualification to low interest lending facilities.
