By Priscilla Phiri

Lilongwe, July 18, Mana: After nine years of successful implementation of a Food and Nutrition Security Programme (FNSP) designed to promote nutrition and food diversification in Malawi, GIZ Team Leader for FNSP, Dr Martina Kress said the outcomes of the project’s implementation would go beyond the project's life span as the programme concludes.

The Team leader said this at a learning event for Animal Source Food Programming which was organised by GIZ on Thursday, in Lilongwe.

Speaking at the event, Kress highlighted that through good partnership and structures laid out in the years of implementation, GIZ has been able to implement long lasting and sustainable impact in the catchment areas of its project.

“As we look back at many years of implementation of our nutrition programme which was designed to make people eat more diverse diets particularly to mothers and young children,

We have worked with our political partners, the department of nutrition in the Ministry of Health and through the structures that they have laid over the years, we were able not to just implement our project in the moment but to ensure that whatever we have implemented has an impact beyond the project’s life span,” she said.

Kress pointed out that throughout the years of implementing the FNSP project, GIZ has had an ample time to learn, question and analyse the outcomes of the project to be able to achieve its success.

“When you have a project that has taken so long you have an ample time for learning. The idea was never to design something that we would then implement without questioning what we started with,

But rather to design something and while we implement we check on it to see if we are achieving the desired outcome,” she explained.

Kress expressed confidence in the project’s outcomes that they would remain sustainable even after the project concludes.

 One of GIZ's partners in the FNSP project, representing Ministry of Health, Deputy Director for Department of Nutrition, Kondwani Mpeniuwawa commended GIZ for the initiative by saying it aligns with the country’s health agenda in Malawi 2063.

Principal Nutrition and HIV/AIDS Officer at Dedza District Council, Lottie Makina revealed that GIZ’s FNSP project remains an exciting prospect and still has a lot to offer to Malawian households.

“The project still has a lot to offer by helping the people to take livestock as part of their daily diet, because many people keep livestock for income generation neglecting its relevance in reducing malnutrition,” he said.

Meanwhile, GIZ’s learning event is still under way and it is set to close on July 19, 2024.

GIZ has been implementing the FNSP project and livestock production together partners with funding from the German Development Cooperation.

The project has been implemented in Dedza and Salima districts.