[{"bbox": [145, 145, 1081, 525], "category": "Table", "text": "<table><tr><td>External environment</td><td>Macroeconomic situation does not improve, and country remains high risk for financing & investment</td><td>High</td><td>High</td><td>Maintain technical dialogue with Ministry of Finance and relevant DPs including the IMF on improving the macroeconomic situation.</td></tr><tr><td>Planning, processes and systems</td><td>Resistance in the responsible key government departments to adopt new and better ways of executing their functions.</td><td>High</td><td>High</td><td>Maintain sound political dialogue and engagement with government officials at the highest level, ensure sound monitoring of activities, and provide support to institutional capacity building, including change management programme.</td></tr></table>"}, {"bbox": [145, 537, 306, 563], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Lessons Learnt:"}, {"bbox": [145, 578, 1082, 807], "category": "Text", "text": "After two decades of support to governance in Malawi, the major lesson learned from previous EU programmes is that support to institutions alone will have limited results if not paired with the genuine interest from Government counterparts. Past experience, also clearly signal the need for greater result-oriented interventions and culture of performance and that programmes work best when they include a focus on improving coordination, collaboration and cooperation amongst role players. Similarly, insufficient account was often taken of the public sector environment, where it is difficult to recruit and retain skilled people, the incentives for institutional change are very low and equipment, in particular IT, is particularly limited."}, {"bbox": [145, 820, 1082, 1076], "category": "Text", "text": "Against that background, this action benefits from the highest political interest (private sector, investment, exports, anti-corruption, etc...), as repeatedly highlighted by the Malawi authorities⁶ and enshrined in the country's long term blueprint \"Malawi 2063\", launched in 2021, and its first implementation plan, thus mitigating risks of insufficient interest from the government, at least until the next presidential election in 2025. The action focusses also on enhancing coordination among the key institutions, while also fostering performance with specific change management support to achieve results. This will also be supported by the supply of equipment, in particular IT, in order to foster digitalisation and e-governance. Moreover, the following will be duly taken into account during implementation:"}, {"bbox": [182, 1089, 1066, 1117], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Elaborate for any type of intervention a comprehensive and sound planning well in advance;"}, {"bbox": [182, 1119, 1080, 1175], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Define precisely the project's stakeholders, scope, quality baseline, deliverables, milestones, success criteria and requirements, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders;"}, {"bbox": [182, 1177, 1052, 1204], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Foster accountability by communicating clearly expectations and monitor closely progress;"}, {"bbox": [182, 1206, 755, 1233], "category": "List-item", "text": "- Anticipate risks and include risk modifiers where relevant."}, {"bbox": [145, 1247, 1082, 1358], "category": "Text", "text": "Last, as it is essential to transfer the external drive for accountability (often from development partners) to domestic entities to ensure that checks and balances are institutionalised at all levels, the action will strengthen citizen's voice and participation in governance as well as CSOs' capacity in research and issue-based interventions."}, {"bbox": [145, 1375, 458, 1405], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 3.5 The Intervention Logic"}, {"bbox": [145, 1420, 1082, 1501], "category": "Text", "text": "This action aims to improve Malawi's economic governance, to foster sustainable private sector-led growth and investment, creating more and better jobs. It addresses the challenges of Malawi's business environment and investment climate, which are compounded by fraud and corruption, in a"}, {"bbox": [145, 1563, 1080, 1612], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ These priorities were prominent in the discussions with EU Commissioner for International Partnership during her visit to Malawi in October 2022."}, {"bbox": [965, 1680, 1081, 1704], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 14 of 24"}]