United Nations

Office of the UN Resident Coordinator – MALAWI
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PRESS RELEASE

Government of Malawi signs the 2008 – 2011 United Nations Development Assistance Framework

LILONGWE, 5 February 2007 – United Nations in Malawi will contribute to the Government of Malawi’s development objective by supporting investment in Malawi’s primary asset, her people, and by strengthening the management and accountability systems that are needed to ensure that growth benefits every citizen, including women, children, the very poor and the most vulnerable.

The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2008 – 2011 provides the context and structure of the UN’s programmes in response to the needs and priorities of Malawi and based on the objectives of the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy. The strategy aims to promote economic growth as a means to reduce poverty and aid dependency and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Elaboration of the UNDAF has included a series of consultative sessions to provide an opportunity for the Government, the UN and development partners to define and agree on specific targets and outcomes, in the spirit of the Paris Declaration. 
The five areas of priority or outcomes for the five-year programme plan are a) Sustainable Economic Development and Food Security b) Social Protection and Disaster Reduction c) Social Development relating to health, nutrition, water and sanitation and education d) HIV and AIDS and e) Good Governance.

Human development requires democratic participation, human rights and other forms of empowerment to avoid inequality in economic growth especially by marginalized or vulnerable groups. To achieve this, the priority areas are articulated around Gender Equality, Human Rights, Disaster Risk Reduction and Capacity Development as cross cutting issues.

Malawi’s Minister of Finance Hon. Dr. Goodall Gondwe, and UN Resident Coordinator Mr. Michael Keating during a ceremony to sign off the UNDAF 2008 – 2011. Also in the picture is Ms. Maha Bahamdoun, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Programmes. The United Nations Country Team and government officials were at the event.

The priorities reflect areas of the UN’s skills and knowledge to support national ownership, coordination and alignment of assistance behind the MGDS, strengthening and greater use of nationals systems and results based management – measured by improvement in the wellbeing of every Malawian.

This is the third time the UN is preparing UNDAF for Malawi, which meets the objectives of the UN reform process that began in 1997, aimed at enhancing programme collaboration and stronger coherence among UN agencies as well as between the UN and development partners.

The 1997-2000 UNDAF had poverty eradication as its focus, while the 2002-2006 UNDAF focused on poverty reduction, democratic governance and prevention and mitigation of the impact of HIV/AIDS among other development challenges.

For more information contact:
UN Communication Officer, Susan Muguro +265 9 967 991, susan.muguro@undp.org