Malawi’s Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa-Wirima, has launched the country’s first-ever National Research Agenda, calling for greater integration of research, science, technology, and innovation into the country’s development planning. Kambauwa-Wirima highlighted that the failure of the global south to invest in research and development, and science, technology, and innovation, is a reason for the economic divide between the north and south. The National Research Agenda will prioritize activities critical to achieving the desired transformation of the Malawi economy through research and development investments. The themes and priority areas of the agenda are organized according to Malawi 2063 pillars and enablers, ensuring that Malawi’s research, science, technology, and innovation interventions are locally driven to solve socio-economic development challenges. The NCST Acting Director General believes that the agenda will lead Malawi to its longed success and help drive the nail home in terms of why the sector is actually the key to the growth of any serious national economy.
Malawi’s Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa-Wirima, emphasized the need for the country to integrate research, science, technology, and innovation into its development planning and transformative process. This is essential for Malawi to achieve its developmental aspirations. Speaking at the launch of Malawi’s first-ever National Research Agenda, Kambauwa-Wirima said that the divide between the global north and south in economic development is due to the latter’s failure to invest in research and development and science, technology, and innovation.
The National Research Agenda was developed through a highly consultative process involving key players in the research and innovation ecosystem, including universities, public research organizations, think-tanks, private sector organizations, business enterprises, government ministries, departments, agencies, and non-state actors. The research agenda is part of the Malawi 2063 First 10-Year Implementation Plan and aims to narrow the gap in research and development expenditure to achieve inclusively wealthy and lower middle-income status by 2030.
The themes and priority areas of the agenda are organized according to Malawi 2063 pillars and enablers. These include Agricultural Productivity and Commercialization, Industrialization, Urbanization, Mindset Change, Effective Governance Systems and Institutions, Enhanced Public Sector Performance, Economic Infrastructure, Human Capital Development, Private Sector Dynamism, and Environmental Sustainability. The agenda aims to ensure that Malawi’s research, science, technology, and innovation interventions are locally driven to solve socio-economic development challenges.
The National Research Agenda will prioritize activities critical to achieving the desired transformation of the Malawi economy through research and development investments. It has been framed by the Malawian Research Ecosystem consultatively to solve locally demand-driven challenges. Kambauwa-Wirima directed the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) to immediately put up a Research Call through the National Research Agenda that will solve the negative effects of Cyclone Freddy using available resources in the Science and Technology Fund.
Madalitso Kambauwa-Wirima, Malawi’s Minister of Education, has urged youth and Early Career Researchers to respond to the Call for the application of Predictive Artificial Intelligence to project the occurrence of natural disasters. This move will help improve preparedness for such catastrophic phenomena. The minister also called upon organizations to support the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) in its quest to provide solutions through Science, Technology, and Innovation.
The launch of the National Research Agenda is expected to guide researchers, academic institutions, centres of excellence, local and foreign research and development stakeholders in generating knowledge, technologies, and innovations that will build a knowledge-based economy from Malawi towards inclusive wealth creation and self-reliance. NCST Acting Director General Gift Kadzamira believes that the agenda will ensure coordinated research areas and outputs that will lead the nation to its longed success. He stressed that the agenda will help drive the nail home in terms of why the sector is actually the key to the growth of any serious national economy.
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