Malawi need development 3-Think tanks

We can all choose to agree that despite our political and belief differences, Malawi has to prioritize development. As a country we need to forge ahead and create an environment that the next generation should be proud of. We can be famous for witchcraft, section 65, fertilizer subsidy, clinging to power, etc, but all these are short term objectives of a few misguided fellows.

It is also true that we have celebrated the Independence Day for more than 30 times and yet we depend on some handouts from the so called donors. Most of whom are our former colonial masters. I would call this cosmetic independence. We are still struggling to fund our own pockets and we claim bragging rights of independence.

On the same, we can say we have been producing the catalysts of development in the name of graduates in our University of Malawi for close to the 30years mark. However, on the ground there is nothing to show for all the years of independence and investment in education. May be it is time we evaluate ourselves as a nation.

We seem to be moving purposeless and directionless. This is evident from the way we do our national projects. After 30 years of producing engineers at Polytechnic, I expected that the cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu could by now have master plans showing where additional roads will pass, where residential houses will be located, where electricity will come from, where water will be drawn from and etc. Yes, this is possible, we have been producing all kinds of engineers; others call themselves architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, town planners, etc. By now, there could have been plans on the much talked shire Zambezi waterway just waiting for implementation regardless of which leader is in State House. The green revolution dreams could have come from plans of Bunda agriculturalists many years ago and just waiting for implementation. I am sure by now we could have a vibrant agriculture whose subsidies could not have been fertilizer only but also tractors, center pivots and equipment.

By now, if we had national plans, we could have potable water at every corner of Malawi, very few hospitals but well stocked with medicines (good health result into fewer diseases hence fewer hospitals required) and state of art equipment developed by Kamuzu College of Nursing and College of Medicine. With good plans all our secondary schools could have been taught by well qualified Chancellor College graduates. But alas, we threw reason and planning to the wind.

After observing this haphazard way of doing things, I may conclude that if we do not change the way we do things we are doomed to underdevelopment. We can borrow from what our friends have done to reach where they are. We need well established think tanks to draw a road map to Malawi Development. A sort of development blueprint for every leader that comes our way. A think tank in this case would be a group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial and business policies and palns. Think tanks will offer independent actors in our democratic society assuring a pluralistic, open and accountable process of planning, policy analysis, research, decision-making and evaluation. Let the fruits of our investment in education be realised by entrusting the product of Malawian education to develop a development plan for Malawi. This group should be all inclusive representing engineers, social scientists, health experts, agriculturalists, etc, that are home grown and renowned in their fields. This way we will not have hotels being built almost on the M1 road, houses being built in rivers, forests collapsing, fish disappearing, no transportation and no energy for cooking.

We are a blessed nation and we can utilize our resources to our advancement. You talk of uranium, bauxite, Lakes, rivers and forests, we have them all. We can use them for our development agenda.