By Memory Chatonda

Blantyre, June 14, Mana: Government plans to establish 395 civic education hubs across the country to advocate for a positive mindset change among citizenry on various issues of development.

Deputy Director of Civic Education in the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Lawrence Useni disclosed this Friday in Blantyre during capacity building and knowledge sharing of civic education hubs for southern region.

Useni said Malawi 2063 mandates the Ministry to establish the hubs comprising civil society organizations and government extension workers to sensitize the public at the village, traditional authority and district levels on various issues of development.

“So far, we have established 14 hubs and these structures are working hand in hand with district councils to identify areas that are problematic for sensitization. In some councils, their concern is school dropouts among girls, while in others, their area of focus is child protection in general,” he said.

National Planning Commission Development Planning Officer responsible for Mindset Change enabler, Salim Ahmed Mapila described the civic education hubs as crucial in the overall implementation of Malawi 2063.

“If you look at the vision document itself, it’s anchored on three pillars and seven enablers and a cross-cutting and key among the seven is mindset change. Within that, we are looking at how we could change people’s way of thinking as a development tool so that we have a citizenry that is geared towards development,” he noted.

Mapila asked for increased popularization of the document, saying the development would lead to the recruitment of more mindset change agents to help in the implementation of Malawi 2063. 

“Currently, nearly 90 percent of Malawian adults are aware of the vision document and some pieces of what is contained in the document, but what the commission is geared at now is to let the people understand it better and help in its implementation. So, the civic education hub is one of the avenues we are exploring,” he said.

One of the participants from Chiwalo Civic Education Hub in Phalombe, Fanny Khalambe hailed the government for establishing their hub, which has gone far and beyond in sensitizing communities on the vision document and also seeking their effective participation to achieve the Malawi 2063 development objectives.

“Besides, we advocate for girl-child education, improved farming technologies and lobby for market linkages from various local and international organizations,” she said.