By Sylvester Kumwenda

Dowa, October 16, Mana: Police in Dowa on Tuesday arrested a 25-year-old man at Lirambwe village for allegedly cultivating Indian hemp popularly known as Chamba without a license.

Dowa police Public Relations Officer, Alice Sitima has identified the suspect as Timothy Banda of Lirambwe Village, Traditional Authority (TA) Nkukula in the district.

Sitima said police received a tip-off from concerned citizens that Banda was cultivating Indian hemp but did not have a license for that.

"Through the Criminal Investigation Department, police conducted investigations which led to the arrest of the suspect.

"Banda admitted to having cultivated Indian hemp on his quarter-acre farm, located approximately five kilometres from his village, along the Chaliwe Dambo River.

"During the time of arrest, he was on the verge of harvesting around 4000 plants which have since been destroyed by the police," said Sitima.

She said the suspect will soon appear in court to face a charge related to illegal cultivation of Indian hemp.

By Beatrice Bangula

Blantyre, October 16, Mana: President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has applauded Non - Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the country for their contribution to national development and compliance to regulations governing the NGO sector.

The president was speaking on Wednesday during the commemoration of NGOs Day at Sanjika Mini Stadium in Blantyre under the theme: “Strengthening partnership and capacity in the NGO sector: Panacea for achieving Malawi 2063.”

Chakwera expressed gratitude that over the years there has been increased NGO accountability as well as compliance to various pieces of legislation governing the sector.

“I am pleased to hear that 498 NGOs have submitted their reports to Non-Governmental Organization Regulatory Authority (NGORA from 432 which did so last year which is a sign of growth and transparency in the localization agenda,” he said.

He, therefore, encouraged the NGOs to continue working in collaboration with government, saying both government and NGOs have one goal of serving people.

“As we look back to the progress registered last year, I am pleased to report the remarkable progress that has indeed been made today particularly in the area of NGOs compliance and accountability.

“Statics speak for themselves, in 2023 we had 77 NGOs registered under Non-Governmental Organizations Regulatory Authority (NGORA) and am glad that this year, the number has more than doubled to 148,” he added.

Chakwera said government established the NGO Fund which was launched in August this year to help in building the capacity of NGOs and a more responsive NGO sector.

However, the Malawian leader said government is committed to ensuring that it creates a viable environment for the civil society to operate in. 

Chief Executive Officer for NGORA, Edward Chileka Banda said in line with this year’s theme, NGOs are playing a pivotal role in ensuring that they support government.

"As seen during the pavilions, NGOs are investing in various sectors which are education, agriculture, health and many more. NGOs have now accepted that their role is to support government and making sure that together we transform Malawi," he said.

Board Chairperson for Council for Non-Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA), George Jobe said NGOs are committed to align their programmes and work within the Malawi 2063 Agenda.

"CONGOMA coordinates the work of NGOs in the country and we commit to work with government and ready to comply with laws of Malawi including getting licensed through NGORA. 

“We commit to work as the representative of local NGOs and with Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to ensure that violence is condemned in all its forms especially against women aspirants in the 2025 general elections,” Jobe who is also Executive Director for Malawi Health Equity Network said.

By Lily Kampani

Lilongwe, October 16, Mana: The European Union (EU) has committed to renewing its partnership with Malawi to help accelerate the achievement of sustainable solutions by introducing a new budget support programme of EUR 55 million.

The Budget programme, ‘Malawi State and Resilience Building Programme,’ will target the education sector and Public Finance Management (PFM).

Speaking in Lilongwe on Wednesday during the signing of the financing agreement with the government of Malawi, EU ambassador, Rune Skinnebach said the event is a powerful symbol of renewed collaboration and commitment to shared goals of stability, progress and inclusive development in Malawi.

“The EU believes that effective PFM will help safeguard public resources, build stronger governance systems and create fiscal space necessary for targeted investments in critical sectors such as education, health, and infrastructure.

“Investing in secondary education is investing in the future of Malawi. It is about expanding opportunities for the next generation, equipping young people with the skills they need, and creating an environment where every student has a fair chance to succeed,” he explained.

Skinnebach called on the government to improve PFM and meet a series of indicators including Integrated Financial Information Management Systems (IFIMS) but also in education where current expenditure levels must be increased, to maintain the programme.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Simplex Chithyola said the Malawi budget had been run with a huge deficit because they could not get enough resources to implement several programs, after a decade without donor budget support.

“The coming in of such a huge sum of money as budget support is an indication of the degree of confidence and trust, in Malawi's leadership and reform programs,” said Chithyola.

Chithyola said their ministry will ensure the use of the resources for their intended purposes and appealed to implementers to practice prudence but also financial probity.

In her remarks, Minister of Education, Madalitso Wirima Kambauwa thanked the EU for the continued support in the education sector for over 10 years.

“the program will support reforms in several areas including ensuring secondary bursary schemes are more efficient and transparent, reforms aimed at improved teacher management and strategies and reforms for ensuring effective models for teacher education sector budget.

The new program aligns with the government of Malawi's priorities under Malawi 2063, as well as the European Union's Global Gateway investment strategy, which aims to support a strong inclusive, green and digital transformation in the country while enhancing living standards and promoting long-term, inclusive growth.

By Ephraim Ngwira

Karonga, October 16, Mana: General Secretary for Karonga Press Club (KPC), Walughano Lumbira, has called on communities to foster unity and compassion for the elderly, urging an end to harmful practices such as accusing elderly people of witchcraft.

Lumbira made these remarks on Tuesday during a charity initiative organized by the KPC to celebrate World Mother’s Day.

As part of the event, the club donated essential items, including maize, soap, cooking oil, and sugar, to elderly women in need.

“We used this opportunity to promote peace and remind the community that elders are the backbone of society. They should be loved, cherished, and supported,” Lumbira said.

“People must stop discriminating against the elderly and falsely accusing them of witchcraft. Instead, we should share the little we have with those in need, fostering a spirit of unity in our communities.” he said.

Lumbira also emphasized the importance of corporate social responsibility by journalists.

“As reporters, we have a duty beyond writing news stories. We should use the resources we have to support those less fortunate,” he said.

One of the beneficiaries, Margret Mwanganda, expressed her gratitude, saying the assistance came at a critical time for her and her family.

By Rose Cross Mahorya

Mzuzu, October 16, Mana: Business persons and entities in the country have been encouraged to take advantage of digital trade platforms to benefit from global trade opportunities.

Speaking in Mzuzu during a one-day Digital Trade Protocol sensitization meeting for academia, business community and the media in Malawi on Monday, Director of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Patrick Machika said even though digital platforms are there, Malawians can only benefit if they are utilizing them.

“There is still underutilization gap on digital tools and platforms that Malawians can use for trade.

“Through these digital platforms, businesses people and entities can trade with others in and outside the country and boost their businesses,” noted Machika.

While acknowledging that using digital spaces for trade activities can be risky, Machika was quick to point out that government has enacted several policies aimed at protecting digital space users.

One of the participants, Specklah Newa of Speck Holdings in Mzuzu City, concurred with Machika that there is low utilization of digital spaces, a development she said was largely due information gap on utilization.

“Most people do not know how to use digital platforms to boost their businesses, as a result, utilization is mostly for personal use.

“At the same time, running digital platforms for businesses is expensive and it needs one to invest a reasonable amount,” said Newa.

The sensitization meeting which was organized by Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI) was aimed at orienting stakeholders on what African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) and its Digital Trade Protocol are all about and how Malawi can benefit.

According to Thokozani Ngwira, a Trade Law expert at ESAMI’s Trade Policy Training Center in Africa, Malawi stands to benefit a lot from utilizing the existence of AFCFTA which can easily help break international market barriers for business entities.

“Malawi is a small country with limited business opportunities hence the need for entities to take advantage of the policy and existence of digital trade platforms to break through into the international market,” said Ngwira.

By Wanangwa Tembo

Kasungu, October 15, Mana: At around dawn, Maness Banda wakes up together with other women at a village in Kasungu East, heading to a warehouse located at Sub-Traditional Authority Mdunga’s headquarters.

There, they load hoes, picks, panga knives and shovels into a wheelbarrow and trek down to their degraded gardens and nearby deforested landscapes where they would spend their morning.

“Our work involves constructing contour marker ridges in the gardens. Marker ridges are pointers which help us to properly construct ridges across the slopes and prevent soil erosion.

“We also dig trenches which help to trap water. These help to retain moisture in the gardens so that crops can withstand prolonged dry spells,” Banda says.

According to her, the community is aware of the realities of climate change and its impact on agricultural activities.

She says the changing climatic pattern has largely threatened food security amongst many households in the village hence the need to engage in environmental conservation initiatives.

“We are also into planting trees using nurseries which we prepare on our own. This time around, we are busy preparing tree nurseries in readiness for the planting season.

“Again, we promote natural regeneration of forests so that our deforested areas should be green again as they used to be in the past,” she says.

From a distance, the work the women do could culturally be considered a man’s job looking at the lifestyles of many communities in the district.

But Banda challenges this thinking.

“Environmental conservation is everyone’s responsibility. And for us women, this is a must because if you reflect on the many effects of climate change, we are the most affected.

“A woman will walk long distances fetching water and firewood. When there is no food in the house, the children look up to their mother. So we are at the centre of this,” she says.

Banda and her friends are among the 7, 000 female participants in the Climate Smart Public Works Programme (CSPWP), a component of the Social Support and Livelihood Resilience Programme in Kasungu district.

Government is implementing the programme through the National Local Government Finance Committee with support from the World Bank and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund.

Further east of the district at Mpherere in Traditional Authority Simlemba, conservation works are also in progress with communities involved in constructing check dams, soak pits and similar conservation assets.

Mary Thole, 45, from the area says as women, they have resolved to actively participate in conservation activities to restore their degraded landscapes hoping they can contribute to fighting food insecurity in their households.

She says while there are immediate monetary benefits of their participation in that they receive MK38, 400 after working for 24 days, the communities also understand the long term impact of their work.

She says: “Yes, we get immediate monetary benefits by participating in the conservation works. But more important to us as a community is that we have owned this initiative because we know the long term benefits.

“There is high interest amongst the communities to join the works. Given that chance, many would join us.”

The interventions under the CSPWP are centred on land and soil conservation following the catchment approach where a number of interventions are implemented.

These include construction of assets such as swales, stone bands, ridge alignment, marker ridging, planting vertiver grass and fast growing species through nursery establishment, and promotion of natural regeneration of trees.

All these help in the reduction of soil erosion and improvement of soil moisture retention that helps in plant growth, thereby reducing land degradation and deforestation.

Environmental District Officer for Kasungu, Herbert Bolokonya notes that the gully control measures help farmers to turn unproductive areas into productive land while the constructed storm water drains assist to reduce uncontrolled runoff.

“The knowledge and trainings that are given to the participants are designed to provide a ripple effect in the replication of interventions into their fields,” he says.

Bolokonya says the interventions under the CSPWP are helping to reduce massive deforestation and general land degradation in the district.

“Forests are experiencing high deforestation rate estimated at 2.8 percent representing an annual average loss of 250,000 hectares of forest cover. As the statistics say, land degradation and soil erosion is on the negative trend and is supposed to be corrected,” Bolokonya says.

He touts the CSPWP as a huge contribution towards restoration of the degraded landscapes.

Overall, the CSPWP aims at restoring the environment to shrug off climate change shocks that threaten people’s livelihood while at the same time building livelihood resilience for the poor and vulnerable people.

At least 80 percent of the country’s 20 million plus population live in the rural areas engaging in farming as their most dependable source of income and food, hence, land degradation could be a significant hindrance to their socioeconomic wellbeing and the country’s overall economic development and achievement of the 2030 sustainable development targets. 

Studies show that population growth places huge demand on natural systems with more land being converted to agriculture and more forests being harvested for the wood fuel supply.

Unsustainable land management practices and shortage of funding for environmental management are blamed for causing environmental degradation.

Globally, studies show that at least 20 to 40 percent of world’s total land experienced degradation thus affecting nearly half of the global population. 

In Kasungu, forests have been cleared largely due to agriculture expansion and tobacco farming activities causing massive landscape degradation that threatens food security for the district’s 1 million people.

The district has the largest number of estates in the country and is one of the leading tobacco producers.

However, through the CSPWP which is now in its third cycle, communities have resolved to restore the destroyed landscapes back to their former glory and counter threats on agriculture, their means of survival.

Desk Officer for the project at Kasungu District Council, Ignatius Lipato says the initiative is designed to enroll any household that has labour.

“The interest the women have shown in embracing conservation is very encouraging and gives great hope for the project’s sustainability.

“Conservation of the environment is everyone’s responsibility. So it is encouraging that both men and women are well represented which is good for the project’s sustainability,” he says.

Lipato points out that not all work under the programme is paid for, saying the programme designates some 10 days per cycle where members work voluntarily as their community contribution towards the initiative.

“This arrangement ensures that there is community ownership of the conservation activities. Everything is for them and they must own it.

“Worthy noting is that the participants are aware of this and they take it very seriously,” he says.  

On her part, Assistant Forestry Officer for Kasungu, Leah Ndovi, says community contribution has largely helped to improve the survival rate of trees which are planted in the catchments.

She says unlike in previous interventions where emphasis was only on planting trees, the CSPWP has helped to ensure that the planted trees are taken care of and as a result, most of them survive.

Kasungu district has 24 catchments where conservation activities are taking place and has a total of 23, 242 participants with at least 41 percent women.

Malawi has committed to achieving land degradation neutrality by 2030, rehabilitating 4.5 million hectares of degraded land for crop production and restoring 820 000 hectares of native forests by 2030.

It is the resolve Kasungu women have made to put their efforts together and contribute towards these national targets while fortifying their households from the threats of hunger and poverty.