1st Bridge Africa Conference Kick starts In Lilongwe

The 1st Bridge Africa Conference has started in Lilongwe on Wednesday with much anticipation from Malawi Government to learn best ways of achieving results in the Bridge Africa projects being implemented in the country.   

Bridge Africa Project aims at promoting field level efforts that expand access to quality education in Sub-Saharan African countries. 

Emmanuel Fabiano

“This conference is very important because it will be focusing on learning from each other between South Korean country and countries in Africa who have participated. So this will help Malawi to learn best practices from achievements made by other countries” said Malawi Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Emmanuel Fabiano when asked about Malawi expectations from the conference

Earlier, speaking when opening the conference, Fabiano commended Korean Government for its Bridge Africa Project which has brought together various African countries.

Fabiano underlined that collaboration and learning from one another as Bridge Africa conference has done will help African countries to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

He noted in his remarks that Bridge Africa Project approach is in tandem with SDG’s no. 4 which calls upon the World Community to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”  

“It is an innovative approach that would help developing nations to accelerate attainment of SDG no 4.” He said 

“I am fully convinced that the Bridge Africa Project concept has the capability of harnessing the potential and zeal of communities in addressing the education challenges faced by the communities themselves.  By empowering communities to take full control of their education development agenda, the Bridge Africa Project is not only promoting ownership of the education programmes by the communities, but is also encouraging them to break their mental barriers own what they can achieve for their children and for themselves in education.”

In Malawi KNCU is supporting Government in areas of Early Childhood Education, Adult Literacy and vocational Skills.

On skills development, Fabiano said on its part, Malawi Government is also championing programmes that are aiming at investing in human capital including Community Technical Colleges which empowers young people with relevant entrepreneurial and employable skills.

Hubert Gijzen

The Director and Representative from UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, Professor Hubert Gijzen also shared similar sentiments made by Fabiano on the importance of creating partnerships

“This new ambitious agenda needs partnerships at all levels. So this calls for new partnerships and new cooperation” he said adding there is also a need to look for new funding models of programmes especially domestic funding to achieve results

He said Bridge Africa Project focuses on Community Learning Centre because it intends to empower rural communities especially in African Countries where large portion of the population lives in the rural areas to start helping themselves in order for countries to achieve progress.

He also urged communities to own the Community Learning Centers and carryout by themselves all programmes so that they realise full benefits of the initiatives.

Korean National Commission for UNESCO (KNCU) and Malawi National Commission for UNESCO have organized the three day conference in Lilongwe with an aim of facilitating South-South cooperation to produce practical and incremental learning effects for all the participants and all the stakeholders in the Bridge Africa Programme through sharing of good practices appropriate to different local circumstances.

The conference will further provide participants from Bridge Africa partner countries with practical opportunity to better understand the concept and practices of Bridge Africa Programme and to form partnerships to develop innovative models for Community Learning Centres (CLCs)

The 1st Bridge Africa Conference is being held under the theme; Sharing Experiences, Paving Way Forward and has drawn 60 participants from Rwanda, Malawi, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Swazland.

Scottish Govt Donates K63 Billion To Malawi Towards Food Response

Mutharika and Mundell

Government of Scotland says is going to assist Malawi with £4.5 million translating to K63 billion,  to assist the country on humanitarian response for the population which was adversely affected by droughts and floods.

David Mundell, MP, Secretary of State for Scotland told Journalists after holding camera talks with President Peter Mutharika at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe that Scotland would like to help Malawi with money which will be used to buy food for the flood victims.

"We are increasing our humanitarian support to Malawi by donating £ 4.5 million. This support is for the procurement of food for the people who are facing hunger due to floods" 

He explained that Scottish Government is through this humanitarian response going to work with the World Food Programme (WFP) in the procurement and distribution of the food to vulnerable Malawians.

This announcement brings the UK’s humanitarian support in Malawi since October 2015 to £14.5m. In total, the UK’s £14.5m support will ensure:  The World Food Programme (WFP) can deliver emergency food packages including basic rations of maize and nutrient-rich cereals for over 800,000 people;  UNICEF can undertake mass screening of up to 800,000 children to identify urgent nutritional support needs;  A Save the Children-led consortium can provide small cash transfers to over 450,000 people to buy basic food supplies for their families at food markets, helping stimulate local maize and other food markets.  WFP and UNICEF can provide specialist supplies for up to 140,000 people suffering from acute malnutrition, including children under five, pregnant women and people who are HIV-positive or suffering from tuberculosis;  Vital protection support to vulnerable people, including women and girls, in displacement and refugee camps through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees  Support to improve livelihoods for some of the most vulnerable households, including vaccinations for over 150,000 livestock through the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Mundell also promised that Scottish Government will continue to support Malawi in several areas including health, education agriculture among others.

"Even though there might be some changes in donors approach but UK will continue with its support to support Malawi through number of areas that it is supporting. We are supporting the building blocks of Malawi but we rely on Malawians to lead the self efficiency” he added

During talks with President Mutharika, the Scottish Secretary of State said his Government welcomes Malawi's agenda of reforms and investments and expressed hope that investors from Scotland will also look into investment opportunities that Malawi has and hoped that president Mutharika's visit to Scotland later this year will offer opportunity for him to connect with prospective investors.

Scottish Secretary of state said was delighted to be in Malawi and believes that his visit will strength ties with Malawi and also promised that Scotland will “remain strong partner of Malawi”

The news of this assistance has been warmly welcomed by Malawi Government.

Minister of Foreign Affairs George Chaponda described the Scottish Government gesture as "true friend indeed"

"On behalf of Malawi Government I would like to appreciate the Scottish Government for this timely assistance."

He said this support will go along way at this time when the country is still looking for humanitarian support for 2.8 million people who are in need of food support following the adverse climate condition which caused reduction in food production in the country.

Chaponda further noted that as government is trying its best to make available of maize through ADMARC, therefore the support from Scotland will further give assurance of food availability throughout the year.


Earlier, President Peter Mutharika described the visit as “Clear testimony for cordial and bilateral relations with Scotland”


He said Malawi continues to enjoy long history with Scotland of 175 years and also appreciates continued support it receives from Scotland through Malawi Scotland Partnership and in number of areas including health, education among others.


He informed the Scottish Minister of climatic challenges that Malawi is experiencing to extent that there is significant reduction in country's food production as well as how his government is tirelessly trying to resolve the problem among others by crop diversification and taking several measures that mitigates climate change effects.


"We had unprecedented floods in some parts of the country, and dry spells in others. Consequently our national output dwindled significantly. So reduced , was the amount of food and export crop, and this led to significant macroeconomic challenges. My government appealed for humanitarian food assistance to the tune of US$146 million to avert the critical food shortages and so far, we have received support approximately US$100 million, with a shortfall of US$46 million.We are still looking for additional support to close the gap.


In our view, in order to avert the perennial droughts and dry spells, my government needs to aggressively embark on diversifying our economy through, among others, revamping the irrigation sub sector, through the Green Belt Initiative (GBI)." He said


He further mentioned number of measures on macro-economic stability to restore Malawi economy now going through difficult time.


"On the macroeconomic side, our low export earnings have translated into high inflation, high interest rates and depreciating currency. My government has, therefore, put in place measures to restore macroeconomic stability, through tight fiscal and monetary policies, as well as expediting implementation of Public Financial Management Reforms.


He continued "My government is prioritising skills development among our youth, through the establishment of Technical Community Colleges. This is to take advantage of the youth bulge of our country and ensure that they are properly trained and skilled to contribute better to economic growth. We believe this is an area too that Scotland can support us.


Honourable Minister, we will certainly invite Scotland to assist Malawi in industrial and technological development, through technical assistance and capacity building programmes." He said and appealed that further support from Scotland in all these areas to Malawi is welcome.


"My government also aims at improving our ranking on Cost of Doing Business. I am pleased to report, Honourable Minister, that for the first time in many years, Malawi has made recognisable improvements. According to the World Bank Business Index for 2016, Malawi has now been ranked 141 from 164 out of the 189 global economies. However, our main target is to achieve 100 top ranking as soon as possible." He said


He among others highlighted his Government efforts of wooing investors into the country and said Malawi recall promise made by Scottish investors and and that the Scottish Government agreed to set up an investment fund named ‘The African Lakes Corporation’ in memory of John and Fredrick Moir, to promote Scottish investments to Malawi. He, therefore said is hopeful that this initiative will be realized soon.


The Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell, will make a three-day visit to Malawi from 16 th to 18 th February 2016. Mr Mundell’s visit will further promote the strong ties between the UK and Malawi, and the close historical and modern relationship between Malawi and Scotland in particular.


While in Malawi, Mr Mundell will meet staff and partner organisations working to deliver the £80m UK Aid development programme, including those involved in providing the humanitarian response to Malawi’s current maize shortage. Mr Mundell will also meet a wide range of individuals and groups who contribute to the breadth of the UK - Malawi bilateral relationship, and those involved in promoting ever deeper Scotland – Malawi ties, such as the Malawi- Scotland Partnership.


He will also launch the next phase of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms programme, which has included exchanges with schools in Scotland.


In his engagements with the Malawi Government, Mr Mundell is expected to highlight close cooperation with Malawi across a range of bilateral, regional and international issues and to encourage progress on the process of wide-ranging reform under the Government of President Mutharika.

President Mutharika Wants Results From Ministers

Mutharika 

President Peter Mutharika has set record straight that he is not going to tolerate laziness among his cabinet ministers under his watch.

The Malawi leader issued the warning at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe during the occasion where four cabinet ministers were signing organization performance contracts on Commitment to Public Sector Reforms that are aligned to their respective ministries. 

“Signing commitment is not enough. But I want results from you just like other piloting Ministries have done. Underperformance will never be tolerated” he warned

President Mutharika has encouraged his four ministers to spearhead the implementation of the reforms and assured them of total support from his Government.

Signing organization performance contracts a Commitment to Public Sector Reforms were Four cabinet Ministers; Atupele Muluzi Minister of Land, Housing and Urban Development, Grace Chiumia Minister of Sports and Culture, Samuel Tembenu Minister of Justice and Constitution Affairs and Joseph Mwanamvekha Minister of Industry and Trade.

President Mutharika also urged each one of them to work tirelessly to promote development issues that are aligned to their respective Ministries.

President Mutharika also shared sentiments made earlier by the Vice President Saulos Chilima that it is no more a secret that significant progress are being registered since implementation of Public Sector Reforms as now the reforms are attracting more attention among Malawians hence there is need to seek commitment from Ministers to promote the implementation of these reforms. 

According to Chilima, Chairperson for the Reform Commission,  there are a number of achievements through the reforms that are worthy celebrations.

“I would like to assure the nation just like we said on 11th June 2015 that reforms are here to stay” Said Chilima

He mentioned that there are three notable achievements in the last fifteen months which are products of reforms.

He said the Ministry of Education whereby prior to November 2014, was drenched in the big problem of delays in the payment of teachers salaries. But he said after the President Mutharika's approval on reform to decentralise the payment of teachers salaries, things have changed.

"I would like to challenge those who are investigators to investigate this that there is no single months we have delayed salaries for the teachers. This is a progress” said Chilima

He also highlighted that reforms in the Ministry of Home Affairs on printing and issuance of Passports was decentralized as this is now being done in all the regions of Lilongwe and Mzuzu adding "now it is a thing of the past to see people camping in Immigration offices waiting for Passports."

Honorable Chilima said similar progress has been made in Road Traffic Registration System which is now fast and efficient as well as enabling the department to collect more revenue than before.

He also hinted that the process of issuing National Identification Cards to citizens which was expected to begin this year and this months will be lauched later in May and that the change is due to delays in the procurement of some resources. He assured that come 2018 more people will have National ID’s.

Chilima remarks also excited President Mutharika who upon hearing this, congratulated Chilima for highlighting such developments to inform critics that the reforms are indeed happening.

“Our permanent critics looks at the reforms as an event but it is a process. Things are happening” he said while advising critics to be “patient and don’t be over critical”

Eight cabinet Ministers already signed the commitment some two months ago and it is expected that in the next 30 days the remaining Ministers will join the other ministers.

T/A Kuulumda Faces Revolt As Subjects Wants Her Dethroned

Kingsley Juma presenting petition
to  Salima District Commissioner 
(DC) Rodney Simwaka

Govt Procures More Maize Expected To Last April

Malawi Government says ADMARC has procured additional stocks of maize bringing the total stocks of maize to 50, 500 (Fifty Thousand and Five Hundred) Metric Tons which is enough to feed the country up to April this year.

Allan Chiyembekeza

Minister of Agriculture, Allan Chiyembekeza disclosed this in Lilongwe on Monday evening at a joint press conference held with minister of Information Jappie Mhango to update the nation on the food situation.

Chiyembekeza said the new stocks of maize were procured after 59, 428 (Fifty Nine Thousand Four Hundred and Twenty Eight) Metric Tons of maize which Government procured through ADMARC and another bought from Zambia had only remained to 9000 Metric tons.

“This country has enough maize. It can last up to April this year if unscrupulous traders do not interfere with this maize” Assured Chiyembekeza who called Malawians to be watchful of irresponsible traders who may intend to buy that maize with intent to sell later at high prices.

Chiyembekeza explained that 59,428 Metric tons of maize set aside for ADMARC was near completion as ADMARC had remained with 9000 Metric tons by last week. He therefore said Government in collaboration with ADMARC has quickly procured additional maize which has now accumulated to 50,500 Metric tons.

He said the distribution matrix of the new stocks of maize is that, Southern Region has been allocated with 25, 833 Metric tons, while Central Region will have 16, 833 and Northern Region will get allocation of 8, 417 metric tons.

Chiyembekeza indicated that when the stocks were at 9 thousand metric tons, government procured at first 4 thousand metric tons then procured additional 12 thousand metric tons and 8 thousand metric tons. He said later ADMARC also procured 30 thousand metric tons.


He also indicated that buying rations remain unchanged to 20 Kg fearing that if it opens up too much, unscrupulous traders will take advantage.

Unlike the previous stocks which its distribution faced logistical issues, Chiyembekeza has assuringly said this time around there will be no such problems. 

“We tried to make sure that maize is available across the country but we faced logistical challenges. Most transporters were involved in distribution of farm input subsidy and food from World Food Programme so it was difficult for ADMARC to find transporters to distribute maize.”  He said adding that transporters were also denying to accept their big trucks to ferry maize into rural areas because of poor road networks and therefore few transporters with small trucks were ones involved in transporting small amounts of maize into rural markets

Poor roads like this broken bridge prevented
Transportation of maize to ADMARC selling depots

“Am pleased to note that now things are normalizing as most of the trucks that were involved ferrying farm input materials have now finished and are starting to transport ADMARC maize into all depots.” He said

The Agriculture Minister mentioned that Malawians should now be assured that there is adequate quantities of maize in ADMARC which is going to ease issues of buying maize at exorbitant prices from vendors.

He further expressed concern over reluctance among vendors to establish markets where they can sell out maize which they bought from farmers. He said Government believes that there is still 100 thousand metric tons of maize that traders are withholding hoping to sell in future at high prices. Chiyembekeza equally blamed maize traders for being responsible depriving poor Malawians from accessing maize in ADMARC depots because are the ones that are dominating buying of maize from ADMARC.

Following adverse weather conditions early 2015, Malawi's maize production and other food crops across the country declined by 30.2%  putting a total of 2.8 million people representing 17% of the country’s total population at risk of hunger during the 2015/2016. Following adverse weather conditions early 2015, Malawi's maize production and other food crops across the country declined by 30%  putting a total of 2.8 million people representing 17% of the country’s total population at risk of hunger during the 2015/2016.

An assessment by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC), carried out in June and July, 2015, the situation required humanitarian food to support the affected people was  of maize equivalence.

To stabilize the price of the commodity on the market through ADMARC the Malawi government also, using its own resources, bought 30,000MT of maize from Zambia for ADMARC at a cost of K2.8 billion, and 22,193MT of maize locally at a cost of K2.6 billion.

An assessment by the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee (MVAC), carried out in June and July, 2015, the situation required humanitarian food to support the affected people was  of maize equivalence.

To stabilize the price of the commodity on the market through ADMARC the Malawi government also, using its own resources, bought 30,000MT of maize from Zambia for ADMARC at a cost of K2.8 billion, and 22,193MT of maize locally at a cost of K2.6 billion.

Malawi Hosts 1st Bridge Africa Conference

Malawi Government has announced hosting of 1st Bridge Africa Conference beginning 17th February to 19th February in the capital, Lilongwe.

Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati announced this at a joint media briefing in Lilongwe held with Dong-Seok MIN, Secretary-General of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO (KNCU)

Kaliati said the conference will offer Malawi an opportunity of sharing experiences with other six African countries where Korean National Commission for UNESCO is working on similar projects being done in Malawi.

“We are going to share experiences with different countries; So we are going to share experience how to improve adult literacy in the country, how to eradicate extreme poverty that most of our people are experiencing now and also how to increase economic empowerment of our women in communicates where we are working with the Korean National Commission for the UNESCO.” Said Kaliati

Areas that KNCU is assisting Malawi includes: Mmera Mpoyamba (early childhood development); literacy education to women, adults and youth; help overcome absolute poverty through income generating training especially vocational training and skills youth, women and people with disability; and developing community ownership.

She also mentioned that the platform will also help the country to inform KNCU other needs that Malawi Government has in the Bridge Africa Programme including requesting KNCU to establish more Community Learning Centres across the country.

While thanking KNCU for number of projects it is doing in Malawi which the minister said are helping in poverty alleviation Kaliati further express gratitude to KNCU for the 19000 text books donated to Malawi which are assisting learners in various ways. 

In his remarks, Dong-Seok MIN said the upcoming conference organized by KCNU and the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO will bring meaningful contribution to the Bridge Africa Programme as partner countries will come together and share their experiences.

He said this 1st Bridge Africa Conference comes against the backdrop that through Bridge Africa Programme, the KNCU strives to serve as a reliable partner in the promotion of education in sub-Saharan Africa by sharing Korea’s experience and enhancing mutual understanding among nations.

“Education is a vital component in determining the future of a country. As such, in order to implement the Bridge Africa Programme successfully in reach of the countries in which it operates, it is equally vital that there is strong cooperation and solidarity among the government of each partner country, the National Commission for UNESCO in each partner country, and KCNU.

By enabling participants to share best practices applicable to their various local circumstances, the conference will facilitate South-South cooperation in the production of practical and incremental learning effects for all stakeholders in the Bridge Africa Programme.” said Dong-Seok MIN

Dong-Seok also highlighted that Bridge Africa Project, plays a role in promoting education and local development programmes including vocational and technical skills to enable people to earn income and become self reliant. 

He also assured that with funds donated by the Korean Ministry of Education and ordinary Korean citizens, the KNCU will continue its efforts to operate and improve the Bridge Africa Programme, which promotes field-level efforts to increase access to quality education in Africa.

Dong-Seok also indicated that after the conference, KCNU is expected to release Lilongwe Commitment.

Countries expected to participate are, South Africa, Lesotho, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe and Botswana as new comer in the programme.

CYECE Calls Govt, Regulatory Bodies To Rescue Youth In Drug, Substance Abuse

Sativa: another type of canabis being smoked
among youth 

Centre for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education (CYECE), has called on Government and its enforcement agencies to strengthen regulations of drugs and substance in order to protect youth from accessing drugs and substance easily and cheaply like it is the case now.

Executive Directors CYECE, Lucky Mbewe said in an interview following concerns that drug abuse are common among the youth in the country and the legal enforcers still have no capacity to contain the problem. 

Mbewe observe that as the result of the weakening enforcement of regulations on alcohol, substance and drug use, it is common to see young people easily access and afford drugs including Marijuana and that sometimes they openly use these in the public and entertainment places.

He expressed concern over Government silence on excessive use of alcohol and smoking of tobacco and Marijuana among young people and therefore underlined that these are some of the challenges that must be carefully and urgently to looked at.

“We want to call upon the Government especially also minister responsible and those in control in terms of regulation of smoking alcohol and drug abuse that we need to put in place strong measures that will help us to contain the problem. 

If it is the issue of smoking itself, to date a lot of young people are engaged in smoking and it is a big problem. And most of them are getting mad every day because of excessive use of those drugs. These are some of the issues we need to talk about.” He said 

“So we are appealing to the Government and Minister responsible for Youth to come out and rescue a lot of young people that are getting lost each and every day due to smoking of Indian hemp and substance abuse so much so that we have a better Malawian in future”