National Planning Commission (NPC) says the hiring of foreign experts to help with the planning of national development has left local think-tanks frustrated and has resulted in them shunning development programmes.
NPC chairperson Professor Richard Mkandawire said this on Thursday during the launch of Malawi Development Digest journal by the Centre for Research and Consultancy.
The journal is a catalogue of articles that interrogate Malawi’s development path, especially what has worked and what has not worked as well as offering recommendations on the best way forward.
Mkandawire said Malawi needs to appreciate that many of the countries in South Asia, including China, have relied on their own experts to craft their national-development plans.
He said: “We should refrain from a situation where developmental ideas are parachuted from outside the country.
“As Malawi, we need to look at local brains because they have a better understanding of the cultural, political, economic and religious contexts.”
The publication’s chief editor Chinyamata Chipeta said Malawi has not laid a foundation to facilitate sound development, adding that not all development plans are based on sound knowledge of how the economy functions.
Centre for Research and Consultancy executive director Milward Tobias said the publication was conceived to mobilise expert ideas on thought-provoking and authoritative development issues.
