Analysis of MGDS II achievements 1.1 The Government of Malawi must be complimented for embarking on an ambitious strategy for the country over the past 5 years. Malawi developed many sectoral policies and strategies which became part of the overall strategy to implement the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS II). Despite unforeseen challenges, the country has placed itself on a path where, if certain bold steps are taken, the achievement of sound national transformation and self-sustaining growth and development can be reality.  
1.2 Malawi made significant progress towards achievement of some of the targets relating to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The country registered remarkable progress in the national response to HIV and AIDS, as evidenced through the decline in the number of new HIV infections and decline in AIDS related deaths.  Malawi’s rapid and successful Antiretroviral Therapy (ARV) scale up has critically influenced the HIV epidemic reducing mortality, morbidity and transmission. Malawi achieved and surpassed the MDG target on provision of safe drinking water. However, there remain large segments of the population in need of safe drinking water nation-wide.     
1.3 While this Review notes the need to accelerate efforts towards achieving gender equality, some steady progress has been registered during the MGDS II implementation period. Between 2012 and 2014, the country had women’s representation at the highest political level. There has been increased girl to boy ratio in primary and secondary education enrollment, leading to parity. An enabling legal environment has also been created for the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment through the enactment of laws related to inheritance, gender equality, marriage and trafficking. The relevance of gender responsive laws and policies is gradually being appreciated in emerging frameworks (for example, transport, mining, energy). Contraceptive prevalence rate has increased from 42 percent in 2010 to 58.7 percent in 2014, thus closing in on the MDG target of 60 percent. Despite remaining high, maternal mortality rates declined from 675/100,000 live births deaths in 2010 to 574 deaths/100,000 live births in 2014. Although concrete institutionalization remains outstanding, the pursuit of gender programming by ‘non-traditional’ Ministries such as Transport and Trade has been encouraging. So has the championing of the ‘He for She’ agenda at the highest political level.  
1.4 The Government of Malawi (GoM) thrust on Public Sector Reform, Public Financial Management (PFM), IFMIS, Organisational Performance Agreements, implementation of the Decentralisation Policy, are all steps in the right direction. The Programme Based Budgeting, currently being pilot tested in a number of sectors is also a commendable effort by the GoM to steer the country into self-sustaining growth and development. The embracing of the Sector-Wide Approaches (SWAps) and establishment of Technical Working Groups (TWGs) in a number of key sectors such as Agriculture and Food Security, Transport, Water Supply and Irrigation, Education, Health, Trade, Industry and Private Sector is a major effort undertaken by the Government of Malawi to establish functional structures to spearhead the implementation of the MGDS II. Through the Department of Economic Planning and Development, the GoM also sought to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems across the sectors, from central to decentralized levels. This is with a view to strengthening evidence-based planning. Despite these efforts, there are a number of challenges and opportunities that have been examined in this MGDS II Review and the Comprehensive Country Situation Analysis undertaken in the course of this assignment.     