President Lazarus Chakwera has called the need for development partners and potential investors to support disaster risk financing for Malawi to help protect the country from external shocks that detail economic gains.
Chakwera said this in New York, United States of America where he is attending the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“We have set our sight towards achieving the upper middle income status by 2030 and we are eyeing on graduating from the least developed countries in line with the Doha Programme of Action. For this to happen, Malawi’s economy has to grow by not less than six percent; per annum,” said Chakwera.
He added that there was hope that the target in sight would be achieved when growth projection for Malawi’s economy was set at 5.4 percent but that hope was dashed when four cyclones, one drought, a global pandemic and a nationwide cholera outbreak hit the country.
The Malawi president further highlighted that there is need for a global coalition of partners to leverage foreign direct investment towards unlocking enormous potential Malawi has for transformative productivity in Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM strategy).
“The level of investment needed to achieve this in the next seven years is close to US$ 100 billion, which is pocket change for economies that have contributed the most to climate change, but the tenth of this needs to go towards resilience building and protect the gains from being eroded by external shocks,” he highlighted.
Chakwera has however asked investors to scale up their investment out of faith in the potential of Malawi, for a sustainable transformation that can withstand shocks in future.
On her part, World Bank Managing Director Anna Bjerde said Malawi has had a share of climate related challenges.
“Climate shocks have derailed economic strides. I visited Malawi just after Cyclone Freddy to review the impacted areas and appreciate stories of affected communities and what I saw is a reminder that climate action must be prioritized in everything we do,” said Bjerde.
The conference, attracted foreign governments, high level development and donor partners, potential investors and the academia and more.
Meanwhile, participants have made concrete pledges and commitment towards supporting Malawi for a transformative and sustainable socio-economic growth that can withstand catastrophic climate shocks.
