Today, 25 May 2023 the Minister of Information and Digitalization of Malawi, Hon. Moses Kunkuyu, and representatives of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), presented the first-ever Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES) for Malawi.
This tool has been developed under the Digital Finance Services for Resilience programme, funded by the EU and the OACPS and which is aimed at deploying digital financial solutions to deepen financial inclusion. In his introductory remarks at the opening ceremony, Mr. Escipión J. OLIVEIRA GÓMEZ, Assistant Secretary General of the OACPS said: “We are proud to join forces with the EU and UNCDF in contributing towards the Malawi Vision 2063 towards “An Inclusively Wealthy and Self Reliant Nation”, with the development of the country’s Inclusive Digital Economy Report and overall assistance that will enable Malawi to put in place new policy measures with a view of, among others, fostering enterprise competitiveness.”
A strategic tool…
The Inclusive Digital Economy Scorecard (IDES) is a strategic performance and policy tool that has been developed to support countries in better understanding and monitoring the status of their digital transformation, with a view to helping them make it more inclusive. Based on four pillars – Policy and Regulation, Infrastructure, Innovation and Skills, the IDES facilitates governments in setting the right priorities with stakeholders to foster the development of a digital economy that benefits all. While the tool is global, it requires a locally relevant and pragmatic approach for adoption at country level. In the case of Malawi, the IDES tool has been populated using high-quality local data sources in consultation with a wide group of public and private sector stakeholders.
Digital processes, products and services are becoming increasingly critical for Malawi’s economic growth and social development. As the country works towards becoming an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant upper-middle-income country by 2063, digitization can accelerate the achievement of these goals and the Ministry of Information and Digitalization (MoID) understands that strategic digital transformation is critical to this success.