Suzgo Judith Luhanga
Chief Economist, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning, and Development, Malawi
Ms. Suzgo Judith Luhanga is the Chief Economist for the Malawi Government working in the Poverty Reduction and Social Protection Division of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development. She has over 12 years’ experience in policy formulation, analysis and development of strategies in line with social protection programs. She has been engaged in various initiatives aimed at the provision of social support and resilience building for poor and vulnerable households through improved access to financial services. She successfully coordinated the development and roll out of the country’s Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR), the first single database for potential social protection beneficiaries, which has provided the requisite platform for harmonizing targeting mechanisms across various programs. She was also involved in the development of graduation pathways for the Malawi National Social Support Programme focusing not only on consumption support, but also building resilient livelihoods through increased participation of poor households in financial services, by, among others, promoting the use of e-payment in the delivery of transfers to beneficiaries Her main area of interest is to design policies and implement programs aimed at financially including social protection beneficiaries, especially women, and enabling them to sustainably participate more in economically productive activities. With the UBR in place, she is currently working on the development of a harmonized electronic payment system for multiple programs to promote financial inclusion for poor populations. In graduation pathways, she is also working on the development of a mix of interventions to increase access of social protection beneficiaries to financial services.