By Patience Kapinda

Lilongwe, August 6, Mana: The Tobacco Commission of Malawi has launched a crackdown on the illicit practice of "nesting," where unscrupulous tobacco sellers conceal inferior products or objects within bundles to deceive buyers.

According to Tobacco Commission Public Relations Officer, Telephorus Chigwenembe, a staggering 5,080 bells containing nested tobacco were confiscated during the 2024 selling season.

"Nesting is a serious problem that compromises the integrity of our tobacco industry and hurts our economy. We will not tolerate it and are taking decisive action to eradicate it," Chigwenembe said.

The Commission has implemented stringent measures to combat nesting, including confiscating bells containing nested tobacco, re-handling tobacco at the grower's expense, and collaborating with law enforcement agencies to apprehend middlemen and vendors involved.

Christopher Saka, a re-handling expert, explained the process of cleaning and sorting nested tobacco bells: "We sort and remove all waste tobacco from mixed bales. Our checkers inspect each bale for unwanted materials like plastic, papers, stones, sand, and suckers. We use qualified measures, including grading, to sort out nested bales separately and accordingly."

Saka noted a significant increase in nesting cases this marketing season: "So far, this year's tendency has increased a lot."

Despite the challenges posed by nesting, the 2024 tobacco selling season yielded positive results, with 133 million kilograms of tobacco sold, valued at $396 million, and an average price of $2.98 per kilogram.

The Tobacco Commission's crackdown on nesting sends a strong message to perpetrators and reinforces the government's commitment to promoting a fair and transparent tobacco industry.

By Solister Mogha

Zomba, August 6, Mana: Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources for Zomba District Council, Linda Mphande has advised members of staff under her supervision to adapt and change in the course of implementation of their various activities.

Speaking on Monday during a quarterly review meeting for Programme for Rural Irrigation Development (PRIDE), Mphande said each review meeting is supposed to offer new approaches to issues while also setting as a benchmark.

Mphande, however, said she was concerned that despite several review meetings, members of staff were still conducting business as usual.

“I feel we need to change in the way we conduct our activities. Why should we continue to have review meetings that have no impact,” Mphande said.

She therefore, warned to take action on officers who will fail to adapt to changes and continue to carry out activities according to instruction.

“In the civil service, there are rules and regulations and actions that must be taken on an officer who is reluctant to change. As head of the department and controlling officer, I shall be implementing just as such,” she added.

Mckenkly Dupu, one of the senior officers in the department, concurred with Mphande that failure to adapt to change has been a major setback in the department, saying this has contributed to stagnation of some projects.

“You can imagine some officers taking the whole month to submit their activity reports. This has heavily affected implementation of some of our activities,” Dupu said.

Director of Public Works for Zomba District Council, Henry Mwamvani who was the guest at the event, appealed to staff to take the concerns with serious concern.

“We all work for the betterment of the district and the country at large. I, therefore, urge you to improve and take keen interest at the resolutions made from this meeting,” he said.

By Sellah Chunda

Lilongwe, August 6, Mana: Vice President Dr Michael Usi has called upon chaplains across the country to embrace mindset change in order for the country to achieve its aspirations as enshrined in the Malawi 2063 (MW2063).

He was speaking Tuesday at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe during the opening of the Council of Chaplaincy Ministry (COCHAM) stakeholders conference.

Usi emphasized the council's crucial role in providing invaluable professional development services to chaplains across both public and private institutions, aligning with the MW2063 as a guiding bridge.

"One of the preconditions for fulfilling our development agenda is mindset change. This involves a shift from the traditional ways of conducting business in both government and the private sector. It's about diagnosing and addressing the undesirable behaviors that undermine our progress,” he said.

National Planning Commission (NPC) Director General, Dr Thomas Munthali, described the meeting as important in steering mindset change.

He concurred with Usi on the importance of chaplaincy in addressing mindset change issues hence the need to engage them.

"We are making progress, but it is slow due to the 'business as usual' mindset prevalent in both state and non-state actor sectors. If people are not in the right mindset and are influenced by false narratives, it hinders progress,” he said.

He appealed to men of God not to be compromised when they encounter powerful politicians but must deliver a clear message to change ways with integrity.

He said chaplaincy plays a vital role in providing quality and professional psychosocial and spiritual care which is essential for the nation's progress.

"If we have a positive mindset change, our public sector will improve and civil servants will start thinking differently thereby enhancing governance and human control,” Munthali said.

COCHAM Executive Director, Mavuto Chipeta, said chaplains have accepted to play the crucial role in changing people’s mindsets.

The inaugural COCHAM conference was held under the theme ‘Chaplaincy as a Vehicle for Malawi 2063.

By Solister Mogha

Zomba, August 6, Mana:  First Lady, Monica Chakwera has called on Civil Society Organizations and other partners to support girls’ education saying her organization ‘Shaping Our Future Foundation’ is already committed to girls’ education as this is key to Malawi's development growth.

Speaking on Tuesday in Zomba during the opening of Shaping Our Future Foundation’s 2024 Girls Empowerment Retreat, Madam Chakwera said she was saddened with the increasing numbers of girls dropping out of school due to lack of support and other social factors.

“My dream is to educate and empower girls in school so that they achieve their dreams and become self-reliant. As a foundation, we are committed to supporting all girls but we may not reach out to all, hence our call for your support,” said Madam Chakwera as she called on partners to come in with support.

She added that Malawi Vision 2063 recognizes human capital as one of the enablers and as such, investing in girls’ education could spur the country's development growth.

“By educating a girl child, we can educate the whole nation. I therefore appeal to all partners in and outside Malawi to help our girls who have big dreams but are faced with various challenges," she said.

The First Lady has also urged traditional leaders to take lead in promoting girls education by condemning some traditional practices that frustrate girls’ advancement in education, observing that traditional and cultural norms and gender based violence are some of the contributing factors to the girls’ failure to pursue their education.

She therefore encouraged girls attending the retreat to remain focused and work hard in school to achieve their desired dreams.

Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Jean Sendeza said girls’ education meet a lot of challenges that need collective efforts to address the hiccups.

The minister therefore hailed the First Lady for coming up with the foundation which she said is helping out girls to advance in their education.

“It is the wish of our ministry to see more girls complete their education and we are very grateful to the foundation,” Sendeza said.

Executive Director for Girls Education Trust, Dr. Limbikani Kamlongera said the trust intends to expand their support initiative so that more girls are supported, adding that girls education continue to meet numerous obstacles but with concentrated efforts, a lot can be achieved.

Meanwhile, University of Malawi pledged to play a complimentary role in supporting girls’ education by mainstreaming gender in its academic programmes to ensure equal opportunities for girls to pursue tertiary education.

Dr. Mufunanji Magalasi who represented the UNIMA Registrar said the college is working tirelessly to ensure 50:50 intakes of students, giving girls equal opportunity for higher education.

Shape Our Future Foundation held its first girls retreat in 2022 at African Bible College in Lilongwe, the second was at Mzuzu University in 2023 and the UNIMA retreat became the third edition.

During the four days retreat which has 150 secondary school students from the southern region, will provide opportunity for girls to hear motivation talks from ladies from various professions that will act as role models.

Before she opened the girls’ retreat, the First Lady toured pavilions by partners that support girls education and among the partners were; Joyce Banda Foundation, Sparkle Foundation, Advancing Girls Education in Africa (Age Africa) Partners Action for Sustainable Development (PASD) and  Youth Development for Productivity (YODEP)

By Andrew Mkonda

Lilongwe, August 5, Mana: Lilongwe District Council on Monday launched a multi-million-kwacha Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) projects for the third cycle in the district.

Speaking during the construction launch of Kalamba Health Post in the area of Traditional Authority Mazengera estimated to cost K 85 million, Ward Councilor for the area, Mphatso Kaduya, said the health facility would ease the long distances residents travel when accessing health services.

“We are very thankful for this development. People from this area had to walk seven kilometres to access health services and some have been dying along the way,” he said.

He asked the contractor, who has been awarded the project to avoid sub-standard work, which he said, is counterproductive.

On his part, Group Village head Biwi thanked government for different projects being implemented in the area aimed at improving the people's living standards.

Biwi asked the contractor to consider employing people from the area as casual labourers so that they could benefit from the project construction.

The Contractor, Tetra Building have since assured people in the area of their commitment to construct the health post within four months.

GESD projects are implemented through the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC), with funding from the World Bank.

By Arnold Namanja

Blantyre, August 5, Mana: Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Jean Sendeza has underscored the need for providing adequate institutional capacity to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country to ensure effective management of the non-state actors.

Speaking on Monday in Blantyre during the launch of the K1 billion NGO Fund, Sendeza observed that the 2023 NGO Report revealed that the NGO sector is one of the key drivers of the country’s economy, hence deserving special attention.

“The report shows that since 2020, at least 100 NGOs were dormant due to capacity issues and financial challenges. It was also discovered that most civil society organizations were duplicating their efforts which was crippling the work of such organizations,” she said.

Sendeza said poor alignment of the NGOs has also led to failure in profiling the NGO sector, leading to most civil society organizations working in isolation and not effectively engaging communities, they intend to serve.

“The Fund will help in closing gaps around community engagement during implementation of projects and also ensure sustainability of activities done through local NGOs. In order to address these challenges, government through the NGO Regulatory Authority (NGORA) is providing an enabling environment to ensure that local NGOs thrive,” she said.

Sendeza said the launch of the fund comes after a directive from President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera during the 2023 NGO Day that a comprehensive strategy to make the sector vibrant should be put in place.

“The NGO Fund is not only valuable in monetary terms but it will be impactful in form of consolidating the governance and management of NGOs especially CBOs to migrate to local NGOs,” Sendeza said.

The minister pledged that government would allocate resources to the NGO Fund annually to empower and sustain the activities of NGOs.

NGORA Chief Executive Officer, Edward Chileka-Banda said the regulatory authority is currently finalizing necessary procedures and that upon the completion of the exercise, NGOs depending on their eligibility, will be invited to apply for the fund.

“The NGO fund has been sourced from government subvention and NGO fees and aims to create an enabling environment for NGOs’ operations in Malawi. The fund will be used to build institutional capacity of NGOs that will include system strengthening and compliance to NGO Act and policy.

“Therefore, only those NGOs that are registered and have valid annual licenses will qualify for the fund,” said Chileka-Banda, adding that so far 463 NGOs have obtained valid licenses for the year 2024 and urged all NGOs yet to renew their licenses to do so promptly.

Speaking earlier, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Council for Non- Governmental Organizations in Malawi (CONGOMA), Ronald Mtonga expressed happiness to witness the launch of the fund, noting that most of the NGOs face challenges in terms of resource mobilization as such the fund would provide relief.

Mtonga commended government for the push towards the establishment of the Fund. However, he asked authorities to use the Fund for the intended purpose.

“For a start, K1 billion is a big sum of money. We hope that we move forward, the fund will grow to K5 billion, K10 billion and so on and so forth,” he said.

By Patricia Kapulula

Lilongwe, August 5, MANA: A study conducted by Mwapata Institute has shown a decline in the population of youths involved in agriculture for the past two decades from 83 percent in 2010 to 76 percent in 2020.

National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) partnered Mwapata Institute to conduct a study on Prospects and Barriers to Youth Engagement in Agriculture and Food Systems in Malawi.

The study looked at prospects and opportunities for youth engagement in agriculture and agri-food systems and barriers which constrain them from engaging in agriculture.

Speaking in Lilongwe on Monday at a press briefing to release results of the study, Mwapata Institute Executive Director, William Chadza, said levels of technology applied in agriculture, access to finances and structured markets are some of the challenges youths face in agriculture, hence the decline.

He said access to markets would give youth better returns from their engagements and investments in agriculture.

“We have also noted that although there is a relatively conducive policy environment but there are challenges in implementation especially on specific strategies which would guide what to be done to support youth engagement in agriculture,” he said.

NYCOM Executive Director, Rex Chapota, expressed concern over the decline saying youth are not attracted to agriculture because they feel it is not as profitable as they would want it to be.

He said the results are giving them an impetus to start engaging with all stakeholders in a rigorous manner to ensure that youths are involved in agriculture.

“The study will also help us to inform our programs. Currently, we are finalizing our strategic plan and the findings will find space in our plan so that we can bring back youth in agriculture.

“The kind of agriculture that youth are talking about is not traditional agriculture, they want commercialized, knowledge based and digitalized agriculture. This is a study that would inform our next steps,” said Chapota.

Despite the decline, Mwapata Research Fellow, Dr. Maggie Munthali, said there is an increase in use of modern technologies, hybrid seed, organic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides among the youth in agriculture.

The study has also shown that youth are not doing agriculture for business as most of them are traditionally involved in subsistence farming of low crop value chains such as maize, with 90 percent, and vegetables at 52 percent.