President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera has delegated Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change Michael Usi to represent him at COP28 Summit that will take place from November 30 to December 12, 2023 in Dubai.
Few weeks ago, President Chakwera announced a break from all international trips as a measure to save resources due to the economic challenges that the country is currently going through.
COP28 is a gathering of representatives from different countries who agree to take actions of tackling the climate crisis and Malawi is a party to that.
Michael Usi
Announcing the news at a media briefing on Monday, Usi said the meeting in Dubai will present a pivotal platform for Malawi to engage with world leaders on how to address pressing challenges posed by climate change.
Said Usi: “COP28 Dubai will give us a platform to collectively chart a course of action towards a sustainable and resilient future.”
“Our presence at this summit is not merely symbolic, it is also an opportunity for Malawi to actively contribute to the global discourse on climate action.”
He further said Malawi acknowledges the global nature of climate change, hence the need for collective and inclusive response to issues of climate change.
He added that Malawi will therefore play a part to contribute towards formulation of policies and work towards consensus building to ensure that the outcomes of COP28 reflect the shared responsibility of all nations.
“Our delegation will engage in constructive dialogues, share our experiences and seek collaboration with other nations to enhance our adaptive capacities,” Usi said.
Malawi’s priority areas of discussion at COP28 include climate finance, loss and damage, building adaptation and resilience, agriculture, food security and nutrition, among others.
Children involved in various degrees of accidents will now be admitted and treated in a new unit at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital(QECH) in Blantyre following the construction of a 1 billion Kwacha Chidren’s and Emergency Centre Anadkat Centre by Anadkat family.
Speaking in an interview after the official opening of the centre ,Meeta Anadkat, said her family decided to construct the centre after noting an urgent need of children’s accidents and emergency ward at the hospital.
“It was very traumatic to see how children were suffering in the absence of the unit. Many children were dying due to lack of proper support, hence, our support,” she said
Meeta added that the refurbishing of some sections of the hospital fell under the mantra belief of the Hindu community of supporting the underprivileged.
“Supporting charities is at the heart of our family. We believe in malawi and philanthropy,” she added
In a separate interview, the director of the hospital, Kelvin Mponda said inadequate facilities for the children care were among the major challenges the referral hospital faced.
He said the hospital used to record high levels of deaths amongst the children due to poor service delivery.
“Therefore, this facility will go along the way to save lives and reduce the deaths of children,” said Mponda
According to him, 50 percent of children die within the first 24 hours of admission due to poor care and support.
” Actually, we need a vibrant unit and specialists in a bid to reduce the deaths. At this hospital, child mortality rate is at 33 percent of that we administer 24,000 children a year,” he said.
In her remarks, Kandodo Chiponda who was the guest of honour, commended the Anadkat Family for sacrificing their personal funds to help give the health facility a new face and thereby putting a smile on Malawian children and the staff working at the institution.
The minister further said the Children’s Accident and Emergency Anadkat Centre is set to provide special life-saving treatment to children and reduce congestion at the main Accident and Emergency Unit at the referral facility, thereby reducing paediatric deaths at the institution and Malawi at large.
“The fact of the matter is that the majority of avoidable paediatric deaths occur in the first 24 hours of their reporting to the hospital and this is due to inadequate resuscitation or triage as the patients come in.
“The rehabilitation of this Children’s Accident and Emergency Unit has provided facilities to improve triage and resuscitation, which is an important ingredient for the hospital to manage very sick patients earlier and adequately and so reduce paediatric deaths. The procedure room will allow management of various forms of trauma and injuries so that avoidable suffering, disabilities and deaths are prevented,” said Chiponda.
While reiterating government’s commitment to improving emergency services in the country, Chiponda said her Ministry and various health experts were last week during the National Trauma Consultative Forum, brainstorming on how trauma can be prevented and how, in the event of trauma events, lives can be saved in Malawi.
The facility whose walls are beautifully clad with hand painted murals, comprises several modern treatment areas that include a triage area, where children are assessed upon arrival and depending on the nature of the case, treatment is provided in one of the many private rooms.
Adjacent to the seating area, is a newly built and functioning high dependency unit (HDU), which is a breath of fresh air to both, patients and clinical staff alike.
Alongside that, there is children’s mortuary, one of its kind, which was built and designed with careful detail and thought, such as the memorable wall mural that provides a semblance of much needed calm during the loss of a child.
This is not the first project in the emergency medical services that the Anadkat family has supported at QECH as they are also on record to have assisted the refurbishment of the adults’ Accidents and Emergency and Trauma Centre and they also built the doctors’ hostel at Kamuzu University of Health Science (KUHeS).
Apart from that, the Anadkat family has also previously paid school fees for more than 500 needy students in tertiary, provided K200 million support for cyclone Freddy survivors, as well as the construction of 472 bed prison block just to mention a few.
The Insurance Association (IAM) has announced the introduction of a digital motor insurance certificate system with the aim of eliminating fraudulent vehicle certificates.
IAM Innovation Committee chairperson Donbell Mandala told journalists in Blantyre on Thursday November 23, 2023 that the coming in of this technology means people will be paying for vehicle insurance and getting the certificates online and later printing them on their own using ordinary A4 papers.
Donbell Mandala
Mandala added that this step by IAM is vital to making Malawi a digital economy.
“Apart from the convenience, the milestone is coming from the sense that the previous insurance discs used to be forged but because this one is digital, it cannot be forged,” said Mandala.
On his part,the association’s executive member Wales Meja, who is also Britam Insurance Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said the digital insurance certificate will bring a number of benefits to the insurance industry and will respond to the government’s call to make Malawi a digital economy.
“All general insurance companies will use one system for issuance of insurance certificates. This means that there will be one database for keeping all motor insurance certificate records,” he said.
Meja said the system can also be used to trace vehicles that have been stolen, adding that law enforcement agents can detect them during spot checks.
He indicated that the insurance industry already started issuing digital insurance certificates from October 10 this year, but will continue to issue pre-printed certificates until December 31 this year.
According to Meja, the development means that pre-printed insurance motor vehicle certificates will no longer be used from January 1, 2024 and that effective January 1,2025, only digital motor insurance certificates will be accepted on the country’s roads.
Workers at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) are expected to receive their November salaries late due to the alleged government’s delay in providing subvention to the institution.
This is according to the University’s Registrar Christopher Francis Namagowa.
Says Namagowa:”I write to inform you that there is a delay in payment of salaries for November 2023 due to cash flow challenges that Kuhes is facing.
“The University is in this situation because the government is yet to provide subvention for the month of October and November 2023.”
But Namagowa assures the staff that the university authorities are currently engaging the government to resolve the challenge.
Meanwhile, treasury is yet to comment on the matter.
A team of eight Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST) students has won the ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM) AgriTech Category award for their innovation in agriculture.
ICTAM held its annual general meeting between November 24 and 25, where, among others, it awarded innovators in the National Bank of Malawi (NBM) sponsored ICTAM Innovation Jam.
The eight students (four females and four males), are all in fourth year of their Bachelor of Computer Systems and Security studies and their names are Thokozani Kamkamba, Yankho Kamtukulo, Hanifa Maulidi, Christina Mwapwele, Blessings Saini, Sydney Simbi, Patrick Hambeyani and Ndagha Kang’oma.
For winning the award, the team went away with a K1 million cheque courtesy of NBM.
The students designed and developed a secure Internet of Things (IoT) based chicken farming monitoring system that allows farmers to monitor the health and behavior of their birds in real-time.
The system also controls ventilation, lighting and gets rid of harmful gases in chicken houses without human intervention.
Reacting to the award winning, one of the students, Patrick Hambeyani said they were thrilled and honoured to have emerged winners of the prestigious award
“We thank God for this great achievement. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Mr Allan Chongwe, our supervisor for his mentorship and university management for its support. For us, winning this award is more than just a recognition of our efforts, it symbolizes the culmination of tireless dedication, relentless perseverance, and a shared passion for pushing the boundaries of innovation. As a group of students, this achievement is a testament of our collective commitment to harnessing technology for real-world solutions,” he said.
Looking ahead, the awardees said they see a future where their innovation becomes a standard in poultry farming, thereby enhancing productivity, ensuring animal welfare, and promoting sustainability.
“Our commitment to innovation doesn’t end here; rather, it fuels our determination to further refine, improve, and expand our project’s capabilities. We want next year by this time we should have a number of farms using our system,” said Patrick on behalf of the team.
This is not the first time MUST computer studies students have won this and other national and regional competitions.
The students have been reigning champions for the Southern Africa Cybersecurity Challenge competition for three consecutive years.
Supervisor of the eight students and mentor of the cybersecurity champions and lecturer at MUST, Chongwe said the win was encouraging because it showed that the skills and knowledge the students are gaining in their studies was relevant and can offer solutions to national, regional and global challenges.
Two team members, Christina Mwapwele and Patrick, represented their colleagues at the awards ceremony held at Nkopola Resort in Mangochi.
