Mw Govt Downplays Global Fund Under-Utilization Fears

President Peter Mutharika signed Global Fund 
Partnership with Mark Dybul, 
Executive Director of the Global Fund 

The Malawi Government has refuted information sourced by the Parliamentary Committee on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS that the country has delayed in the use of the Global Fund money and there is risk of under-utilisation of the approved funds.

The entourage from the Ministry of Health lead by Secretary in the Ministry, McPhail Magwira and Chief of Health Services, Charles Mwansambo has enlighten the Parliamentary committee that there has been no delays in the use of the funds but Government has only faced a challenge of instituting the Project Implementation Unit (PIU).

On Wednesday, the team from Ministry of Health was meeting with the committee on issues on Nutrition, HIV and AIDS but the clarification on the issues followed worries expressed by the committee it got information that there has been no action on the ground in terms of use of approved funds by the principle recipients and the committee feared risk that the country will under-utilise the funds come 2017.

Responding to this question, Mr. McPhail Magwira, Secretary in the Ministry of Health said the Ministry has already started utilizing the money, however, he explained that the only area that delayed in the Global Fund programme was putting together of Project Implementation Unit (PIU) and not utilisation of the money.

"Despite the fact that the unit is not in place, we were allowed to proceed to utilize the funds.  So, the fact that the PIU is not in place and despite the fact that we needed to start in January, but in terms of resource utilization we have already started.” confirmed Magwira

He told the Committee that although it took long to put together PIU, Government has now resolved the problem as it has put together all the necessary staff there.

"This was the case as most of the members of staff from PIU are seconded from  Government except for the very few posts. We have already advertise the posts but in the interim we have also made arrangement for the Project Manager to come in to put the unit in place." said explained 

Chef of Health Services in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Charles Mwansambo shared Magwira sentiments by further assuring the committee that the money from Global Fund have been used.

“Indeed we were supposed to start from the 1st of January and am pleased to report that the Global Fund has provided moneys to Ministry of Health and to other principle recipients, ActionAid and World Vision.So the funds are in the country and were transferred in December for the activities that we said we are going to do that period. 

So, there is no reason to worry, the funds have already started to come in for specific activities that were targeted for the first months that were slightly delayed because of PIU." He said

Cementing on Magwira's justification of the delays in organising PIU office, Mwansambo explained to the committee that the delay to organise the PIU chiefly originated from the reason that non of the Government officers qualified from the interviews that were conducted for the post of managing PIU following advice from Global Fund that PIU management should be seconded from Government because from experience elsewhere, such officers stay even if  Global Fund moves out. 

“So, we went back to Global fund to ask them if we could recruit from outside, now, they have given us ok." He said adding "So, some of the people will be recruited from outside the market while the supporting team will be from Government. That is why it was slightly delayed."

Mwansambo also downplayed fears that National Aids Commission (NAC) is facing problems after it failed to become a principle recepient of Global Fund.

He said "The main role of NAC is to coordinate national response and they are ably doing that with support from various donors including World Bank, so, they are able to play that function."

“With the new funding model, the Global fund did advise countries to go for dual tracking where you get a principal recipient from Government and another from non-governmental organization. So, for Malawi since most of the biomedical part was being conducted by the Ministry of Health, when they advertised for the principle recipient, Ministry of Health applied and NAC applied also. Of course, since we were the ones implementing, we had a competitive advantage over NAC and that is why we got the funding but at present the other two principle recipients are ActionAid and World Vision and these are implementing the non-biomedical part of the project." He said 

"So, I don’t think NAC is at disadvantage at present or there are problems at present." Added Mwansambo

Malawi and the Global Fund strengthened their partnership by signing grants worth more than US$332 million in October last year, to expand treatment and prevention for HIV, TB and Malaria and build resilient and sustainable systems for health. 

The signing brought the total Global Fund commitment to Malawi to US$616 million from 2014 to 2017.

The HIV and TB grants total US$298 million and the malaria grants US$34 million. Malawi has also committed US$30 million of its domestic resources for procurement of health products and to strengthen health systems.

Investments through the grant will enable Malawi to provide HIV treatment for 745,000 patients by the end of 2017, which represents 70 percent of the people in need. The grants will be implemented jointly by the Ministry of Health and two non-governmental organizations, World Vision and ActionAid who will implement the grants directly, strengthening the community-based response to the diseases.

Health Minister Says No Homosexuality Ties In Global Fund Grant

Some Legislatures suspects Malawi Government accepted Homosexuality as condition to obtain Global Fund grant money signed a month ago in Lilongwe.

Parliamentarian from Lilongwe Msodzi South Vitus Dzoole Mwale was a first member to ask the Minister of Health to provide clarification on the matter.

Minister of Health, Peter Kumpalume downplayed the suspicions saying there is no single condition relating to homosexuality in the Global Fund Grant money.

The parliamentarians raised concerns during the continuation of the debate on the State of the National Address delivered by President Peter Mutharika on Friday 6th November.

“Global Fund does not place on us any obligation to accept homosexuality at all in giving us money to combat HIV/AIDS in Malawi." Clarifies Kumpalume

"The Ministry of Health is in the job of helping people at the point of need. We do not ask how people got their HIV from, we simply treat them.” he said

He then explained that “We as a country when we ask for money for the particular programme we tell them exactly what we want to use that money for but nothing to do with legalizing homosexuality. Global Fund does not ask for that it just give the money for the purpose we ask for.”

Global Fund assistance is used for the fight of Malaria, HIV and Tuberculosis (TB). 

In October, Global Fund gave Malawi US$378 million towards the fight of HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

US$346 million is for HIV and TB while US$32 million is for the fight against malaria. 

President Peter Mutharika signedd Partnership and Acknowledgement of Grants Agreement with the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Mark Dybul, at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe.

The US$ 378 million support is the largest allocation that the Global Fund has made anywhere in the world and President Peter Mutharika said the support will save millions of lives of people. 

Global Fund Support To Save Millions Of Malawians-Mutharika

Global Fund gives Malawi US$378 million towards the fight of HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

US$346 million is for HIV and TB while US$32 million is for the fight against malaria. 

After signing Partnership and Acknowledgement of Grants Agreement with the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Mark Dybul, at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe, President Peter Mutharika said the support will save millions of lives of people in the country.

There was excitement at Kamuzu palace when Malawi and Global Fund was signing Partnership and Acknowledgement of Grants Agreement 

The US$ 378 million support is the largest allocation that the Global Fund has made anywhere in the world and President Peter Mutharika said the support will save millions of lives of people.

Mutharika said there is need to strengthen tremendous gains made against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria because there is hope that Malawi can defeat also many other diseases that continue to afflict the country today. 

He said Government is committed to develop innovative ways of locally financing its HIV response and other health programs.

He also said his government has committed to pay US$30 million over a three-year period under the “Willingness to Pay”, towards the National Response to HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. 

Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, and Chairperson for Malawi Global Fund Coordinating Committee both assured Global Fund that strong measures are in place to ensure that the grant is used as outlined in the agreement.

The Executive Director of the Global Fund, Dr. Mark Dybul expressed hope that with Malawi will effectively and efficiently used the money because there is clear indication from its leadership in the fight of HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis globally.

Earlier, making goodwill messages, USA ambassador Virginia Parmer said this grant will help to drastically reduce HIV spread in Malawi and create a free HIV Generation.

While Ambassador Marchel Gerrmann Head of EU Delegation said the new agreement is a valuable contribution to Malawi which is facing at the moment economic problems.

But, UN HIV Director, Michael Sidibe, in a video clip said Malawi s making headways globally in the fight against HIV citing its commitment by adopting the Option B+ and Vision 909090.

In the three year agreement Malawi is expected to receive US$616 million to be divided between ActionAid, World Vision and Ministry of Health.

Malawi Govt Revamps Secondary School Bursary for Girls

• Govt to target only Utra-poor girls from all constituencies and names of beneficiaries to be verified
• Global fund is ready to revamp the project

Hon Kaliati

Secondary School Bursary for girls to revamp says Malawi Government. 

The Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) bursary will be one way of promoting girl child secondary school education and ending early marriages.

Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Honorable Patricia Kaliati confirmed that plans are underway and probably in September this year, the programme will rollout.

She said government wants to invigorate efforts to keep girls at school and estimates that roughly 80 girls from utra-poor families per constituency will benefit from project.

Currently Malawi girls from poor families face number of challenges in their education, as such; most school dropout statistics shows more girls leave school at each level of education and right away from primary school.

But one of the common hindrances to their secondary school studies is school fees, if they can’t afford then end up in marriage.

In an effort to keep more girls at school and finish their studies, Malawi Government is taking further step in girl child education by revamping school bursary to all girls from utra-poor families.

According to Kaliati, Malawi Government has partnered with Global Fund to revamp a Gender Equality and Women Empowerment GEWE Bursary. However, she did not indicate the amount of money and period to which the programme will last once it kicks off.

She said plan to restore the project is underway after Global Fund Chief Executive pledged the commitment at the recent meeting with Malawi Government in South Africa.

“We met with Global Fund Chief Executive and he has promised that they are going to revamp the programme and will start paying bursaries for school fees for utra-poor and this is what we are looking forward to be doing” said Kaliati

Kaliati said GEWE Bursary which stopped some years ago, helped a lot of secondary school girls to finish their studies.

The Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare Minister observed that such assistance to girls is the right direction to supplement number of government efforts in ending early marriages and school dropouts among girls.

She said the GEWE bursary will greatly support Malawian girls from utra-poor families who struggle in their daily life to access to secondary education.

Hon Kaliati has assured that the existing structures will be used identify the deserving girls from each constituency across the country 

“It is the same as we used to do in the past where we asked members of parliament to submit to social welfare names of those who are struggling to get school fees.” She said

Social Welfare, child protection, will verify the identified beneficiaries she said; “What we are looking for is utra-poor” she emphasized “We will therefore empower social welfare to go back to constituencies to assess whether the names are indeed for the utra-poor” said Kaliati