Boma Ndi Lomweli
Kupititsa Chitukuko chathu Patsogolo. Full Manifesto is now available for Download!
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
Fellow Malawians, I would like to thank you most sincerely for trusting me to be your President, which has been an incredible honour. Since June, 2020 when we started this journey together to build a new Malawi we have experienced a lot together - both painful and joyous moments. On the painful side we have had to contend with multiple threats to our shared dream of building an inclusively wealthy, industrialized, and self-reliant upper middle-income nation as stipulated in the Malawi 2063 vision.
First, we were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 whose negative effects continue to this day; we were hit by tropical storms Ana and Gombe in 2022, which affected close to 1 million people and led to loss of lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure. That same year, the Russia-Ukraine war broke out triggering dramatic global price increases, especially for essential commodities like food, fertilizer and fuel. That war and its devastating effects on our economy continue to this day. As if that year was not painful enough, Malawi witnessed the worst cholera outbreak in its history, which affected and killed thousands of Malawians in every district in the country. We did not know that the worst was yet to come because in the first quarter of 2023, we were hit by Cyclone Freddy, which was the worst climate related event in our history, it killed thousands of people, left over half a million Malawians homeless, and affected over 2 million people through destruction of crops, businesses and infrastructure that will take decades and cost trillions to restore. In 2024, flash floods and prolonged droughts related to El nino conditions destroyed food crops in 23 districts leaving 5.7 million Malawians facing hunger.
The impact of these disasters on Malawi’s economy and your living conditions, as Malawians, has been excruciating. Our farmers have felt the pain of rising fertilizer prices, loss of their crops, livestock and loss of access to markets as a result of destruction to infrastructure and global supply-chain disruptions. Our women have lost businesses due to rising cost of imported merchandise, which they sell. Our youth have felt deep levels of despair because of unemployment occasioned by disruptions to businesses and markets. Our civil servants have struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living to meet their daily needs. Workers in all sectors of the economy have struggled to make ends meet, to pay bills, and care for their families. There is no household or citizen that has not felt the pain or paid the cost of living in an economy that has suffered these unprecedented calamities, which have required me to declare a State of Disaster every year since I took office. As such, we were already a nation in pain from these assaults, when we lost our beloved Vice President, Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima and 8 other Malawians in a tragic plane crash; a moment in our journey together that felt like the end of our dreams and hopes.
If it was not for the grace of God, combined with both your resilience as Malawians and your hard work in all sectors of our economy where we have rolled out programmes and projects, our nation would have collapsed and I would not have delivered any of the things I promised. That grace, resilience, and hard work are what have made it possible for my Government to deliver the kind of progress that should not even have been possible. For instance we should not have been able to build infrastructure such as roads, rail, ports, bridges, schools, hospitals and health centres, offices, water projects, stadia and other public buildings and houses for security agencies, but we did. We should not have been able to deliver the MK55 billion, which has improved service delivery by Local Councils demonstrated by delivery of new projects such as new markets, bus depots, stadia, classrooms, public toilets, water points and other projects that have to improve the lives of Malawians living in rural areas, but, through the Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD), we did. We should not have been able to deliver new infrastructure for transport, education, health, water and sanitation, security needs in every constituency, but through the increase of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from MK30 million prior to my administration to MK230 million during my administration, but we did.
We should not have increased access to electricity for Malawians from 11% to 25%, but we did. We should not have been able to create 275,000 new businesses through the disbursement of MK250 billion in loans to mostly youth and women, but, through the National Economic Empowerment Fund (NEEF), we did. We should not have been able to remain united and peaceful, as a nation, but, through our active engagement with various stakeholders, such as religious leaders, traditional leaders, civil society organizations (CSOs), development partners, and others, we did. We should not have been able to create over 2.4 million formal jobs that have put to work 30% of the previously unemployed youth, but through ATM+M investments, construction projects, NEEF funded enterprises, we did. We should not have been able to regain donor and investor confidence or restore cordial relations with neighbouring countries and the global community, but through reforms in macro-economic management, governance institutions and economic diplomacy, we did.
These achievements and many others outlined in this manifesto have been a fulfilment of the pledges I made under the SUPER HI-5 agenda namely, Servant Leadership, Uniting Malawians, Prospering Together, Ending Corruption and Rule of Law. They serve as a solid foundation on which you and I will build the pillars of a better and prosperous Malawi for all by 2030. For this reason, this manifesto is both a report of how far we have come on the journey against all odds and an invitation on the journey that lies ahead to finish what we started. It will be a journey guided by and building on the aspirations of the Malawi 2063 vision, the ATM+M strategy, the SUPER HI-5 achievements of the 2020 Manifesto, and the philosophy of a capable Democratic Developmental State. The upcoming election is not a choice between who can prevent economic pains arising from global disruptions and climate disasters that cause price hikes and economic slowdowns. No one has the power to do that. Rather, the upcoming election is a choice about who is able to remain steady, inspire unity, provide hope and deliver progress in our development when disaster strikes. Having co me this far on our journey together, this manifesto is my humble appeal for us to stay the course by taking our development forward until we finish what we started, under my steady and focused leadership.
