The World Bank said on Monday it is waiting for government to implement its Second Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDSII) before releasing its fifth Country Assistance Strategy (CAS).
Malawi’s fourth CAS, which ran from 2007 to 2010, was last year extended by one year to implement the full programme.
World Bank Malawi spokesperson Zeria Banda said on Monday that a new draft CAS to cover 2012-2016 is awaiting submission to the World Bank board.
“As per bank procedure, this submission can only be done after the Malawi Government has finalised its second Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDSII). The Government has not yet formally submitted to us its final new national development strategy.
“As all national strategies for IDA [International Development Association] countries, the final MGDSII will be reviewed in a Joint Staff Assessment Note (JSAN) by the World Bank and the IMF. A JSAN needs to be shared with our board prior to submission of a new CAS since the CAS is the bank’s expression of how it will support MGDSII,†said Banda.
She hoped that government will finalise its strategy soon so that the local bank office can take the draft CAS to the World Bank board before mid 2012.
“The Bank’s programme of support to Malawi is based on the strategic framework as spelt out in a CAS. We, therefore, need to have a CAS to allow for an overall strategic context in which to run our programme.
“Investment programmes that are currently running in Malawi are based on the previous CAS. Specific investments can overflow from one CAS period to another. We have a number of projects that started in the fourth CAS and will close in 2015/16.
“You will recall that towards the end of 2011, we provided Malawi with about $260 million [K43.4 billion] to finance five operations in water, energy, finance, environment and mining. The water, finance and environment ones are already effective,†said Banda.
Deputy director of economic planning in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Ephraim Chilima, told a Common Approach to Budgetary Support (Cabs) review meeting last October that the MGDS II draft document was submitted to Cabinet for consideration and approval.
