In 2021, UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) made a commitment support the Government of Malawi with its digital transformation agenda by digitizing payments as well as digitizing other products and services in support of the SDGs. One key activity has been the implementation of the Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES), a strategic tool that supports countries in better understanding and monitoring the status of their digital transformation, ensuring these become more inclusive.

Ministry of Information and Digitalization (MoID) collaborated with UNCDF on the IDES validation workshop with 15 government ministries, institutions and stakeholders. Over three days in Lilongwe, technical experts from these institutions analyzed the status of Malawi’s digital economy across four key pillars – policy and regulation; infrastructure, innovation and skills – to measure the country's digital economy score, digital inclusiveness, and women’s inclusiveness as part of the digital economy. This assignment by UNCDF in collaboration with (MoID) has been made possible through the support from the European Commission and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States as part of the DFS4Resilience Programme.

The Director of E-Government, Mr Patrick Machika, who presided over the event on behalf of the Principal Secretary for E-Government Mr Francis Bisika commended UNCDF for partnering with the Government of Malawi in this initiative saying,

“This has been a critical process for us. Our aim in the Malawi 2063 is to deploy strategies and activities that transform our developing economy into an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialized upper-middle income country. To achieve this goal, we must utilize tools and resources that will bring true transformation when properly harnessed. By collaborating with the right partners and stakeholders we have the opportunity to establish the fundamentals of a digital transformation and spur the country towards sustained, inclusive digital economy and achieve the targets in Malawi 2063. We are proud to partner with UNCDF in this process.”

The validation workshop is the third activity on which MoID and UNCDF have collaborated. The first activity, held in May this year, was the introductory Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES) event. This was an opportunity for key industry stakeholders to be oriented on the tool and how it can be applied to support other Government policies and strategies. During the Introductory Event, representatives from fifteen government ministries, multiple institutions and other key stakeholders gained insights from sector experts on what inclusive digital transformation means for Malawi and how it can be achieved.

Following this meeting, a delegation of experts from Reserve Bank of Malawi, National Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Information and Digitalization, joined counterparts from Ethiopia to undertake a learning and exchange visit to Uganda. As one of the pilot countries for IDES, the Government of Uganda adopted IDES and is now leveraging the tool for planning and priority-setting in different government ministries. The lessons from Uganda provided participants with a clear understanding of exactly how the tool was used and integrated within the Government’s digital transformation agenda, and what can be obtained by using IDES.

Reiterating the value IDES provides, Ms. Iris Kissiti, UNCDF Malawi Digital Finance Country Specialist said, "Identifying the constraints that hinder the development of a country's inclusive digital economy is a crucial step toward designing the right solutions that foster a digital economy. It was meaningful for our country experts to see how this was done in other countries to achieve the level of success for Malawi.”

A key output following the IDES Validation Workshop will be a data-enriched report containing, among other information, Malawi’s i) digital economy score, which indicates the emphasis the Malawian Government places on advancing digital inclusion, ii) digital inclusiveness score, which indicates the population that is not digitally included, and iii) gender inclusivity score, which reveals how actively females participate in the digital economy. Data such as highlighted above is critical for strategy development as the government of Malawi furthers its work on the Malawi 2063 10-Year Implementation Plan and the Digital Economy Strategy. With clear data and strategies, the MoID and other ministries can actively monitor achievements within these strategies and ensure the country is on course to develop an inclusive digital economy from which all the people of Malawi can benefit.

By supporting and working with the government, UNCDF and other development partners support the development of an economy that includes all of society’s population groups – rural population, women, youth, disabled, elderly etc., – addressing barriers to usage and access, and enabling people to live more productive lives.

To learn more about IDES, visit the site here. Malawi’s validated data will be updated in October 2022.