[stop-imf] Malawi: IMF promises policy change

[robert weissman]

*Note: text of story does not substantiate headline

http://www.dailytimes.bppmw.com/article.asp?ArticleID=3D8763

The Daily Times (Malawi)
IMF promises policy change
BY SUZGO KHUNGA
*17:51:12 - 18 March 2008*

*THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Malawi has promised to
change some of their policy to fit into the country=92s development needs.

Washington based IMF mission Chief Andy Berg said this on Sunday after
he visited some rural development projects in Mwaza where people are
engaged in poverty alleviation programmes.

He said he had seen for himself clearlyproblems the people faced, they
would work hard with the central bank and the Ministry of Finance to
ensure policy formulation was in alignment with the situation on the ground=
.

=93We hope this visit will help us to do our work better when dealing with
our partners. There is a big difference between hearing and reading
statistics and seeing the issues on the ground,=94 Berg said.

He however noted he was not completely surprised at what he had
discovered for himself but it has changed his way of thinking.

=93I will now be able to see faces behind the figures. I mean I couldn=92t
imagine my 7 year old daughter being together with 100 other kids in a
classroom with one teacher,=94 Berg noted.

The IMF mission chief visited Magwalume Primary School which has 694
pupils but five teachers and three classroom blocks.

Berg and the IMF resident representative Maitland MacFarlane also
visited Thambani health centre which has one clinician and one nurse and
the Chimlango Radio Listening Club which has managed to get development
through its recordings.

Action Aid Malawi governance and campaigns coordinator Chandiwira Chisi
said he knew government was constrained resource wise but blamed IMF
agreements which tends to affect how much government can invest in
certain sectors.

=93Such problems as we have seen here are recurring. We wanted the IMF
mission to see for themselves what implications their policies have on
ordinary people,=94 Chisi said.

Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) executive director Andrew
Kumbatira, who accompanied the mission, said the IMF mission had seen
for themselves that when government says there are no teachers and no
medicines in hospital, they will know the truth on the ground.

The IMF runs a Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (PRGF) economic
programme with Malawi where the country is required to meet certain
economic and social targets as a basis for qualification to low interest
lending facilities.