ATLANTA, September 30, 2015: predictably as has been Peter Mutharika’s presidency his speech at the UN went un-noticed expect by the hundreds of supporters he ferried to the UN.
William Jefferson Clinton at his foundation which meets the same time the UN meets every year mentioned that there are six African economies that are among the fastest growing economies in the world. We know for sure that Malawi is not one of those economies.
Malawians do not need a care taker for a leader but someone who is willing to think outside the box to solve the myriad of problems facing her. Malawi President speech went unnoticed because there was no original ideas in it except those already mapped for it by the United Nations.
Peter Mutharika was involved with Malawi Politics and its issues before coming back to support the Presidency of his brother, therefore more should be expected of him other than what he has offered to date.
Malawi as expected reaffirmed its commitment to take a leading role in the implementation of post 2015 development programs for the benefit of its people.
President Peter Mutharika made the commitment in New York on Friday at the UN general Assembly as part of his predictable address to the assembly.
The member states have gathered to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals which have been formulated to replace the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Agenda 2015.
The MDGs which had eight goals have not been attained by many countries that claimed the outgoing goals were unrealistic due to their failure address major challenges. The new goals whose target is 2030 are 17 in total.
Professor Mutharika told the general assembly that his country’s failure to attain four of the eight goals was because the goals especially those with gender connotations were not properly formulated based on the challenges that countries like Malawi encounter in the implementation of development programs.
He therefore assured member states that his government has put mechanisms in place aimed at tackling the factors that contributed to the failures in the just ending development program.
The four goals that Malawi failed to attain include poverty eradication, universal education, maternal health and gender equality and nutrition.
The country did well in reducing infant and child mortality, HIV and AIDS management, and environmental management including climate change.
According to experts, Malawi failed to attain the four goals since all of them needed gender related interventions which have been taken care of under the just adopted Sustainable Development Goals.
A nutrition expert and Principal Secretary in the ministry of Gender, Children, Social Welfare and the Elderly, Dr. Mary Shaba told Mana that gender integration remains a cross cutting issue and needs to be attended to in the implementation of the new goals to avoid a similar conclusion.
Malawi in this time of need is looking for out of the box leadership. 50 years after independence we cannot continue to slide downward when others facing the same challenges in Africa see their economies take a positive direction.
Yes the speech was unremarkable because it offered nothing.
