A Vision 2020 review exercise by the National Planning Commission (NPC) shows that the country’s first long-term national development plan, Vision 2020, has failed because it was successful in areas that were not primary.

NPC engaged Premier Consult Limited to review and analyse the Vision 2020 to identify lessons learnt and make proposals for possible priority areas for the next successor Vision for Malawi. The findings show that while the Vision 2020 has helped reduce income inequalities, access to education and improving the standards of health sectors, on the flipside, major failures include, below expected growth rates, “extremely low” per capita gross domestic product (GDP) by global standards, low global competitiveness, deterioration of economic infrastructure, decline in industrial production, worsening fiscal stress and poor governance.

During presentations of the report, NPC officials blamed the national development plan as too ambitious, yet it is said that Rwanda borrowed from the same plan and was successful. Vision 2020 also failed in reducing poverty, with 50.7% of the population still living below the poverty line of $1.90 (about K1 406) per day while 25 percent of the population live in extreme poverty.