Lessons for Effective Development Planning: Evaluation of the Pre-final Version of the Draft Malawi’s Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP2)

Key Findings It is Essential that NAIPs: - Focus on core strategic initiatives essential to achieve development outcomes; - Present the pathways to change; - Align and consider international, African and regional instruments and declarations; - Acknowledge that constitutional and transversal development frameworks are foundations of all development efforts and align M&E with these; - Establish appropriate technical and political structures; and - Ensure that clear coordination, supervision, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting structures and frameworks are set out in a coherent and integrated manner. Key Messages Regarding the Second Draft MAIP: - An appropriate alignment with Malabo architecture is lacking; - The draft MAIP is largely a work (performance) plan to implement the 2016 NAP, and is not a strategy focusing on agricultural transformation, food security and nutrition; - The MAIP’s conceptual framework, content, governance and implementation modalities, and monitoring and evaluation sections need significant improvement; - Alignment with international, African and regional instruments and the Malawi constitutional and legal framework is needed; - Benchmarks, pathways to change and appropriate indicators for monitoring and achieving progress on the Malabo commitments are missing; - The elements on food security, nutrition and gender are inadequate to achieve the stated performance targets of the Plan; and - The sector-coordination structure is inappropriate for a NAIP and needs to be broadened and located in the National Planning Commission.