Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda Kandodo on Thursday hailed National Statistical Office (NSO) for timely completion of Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
The MICS tracks many child welfare & SDG indicators. Key among findings, the survey found that Malawi has only met 17 percent of the 169 Sustainable Development Goals but the country has made progress in child education, mortality rate, and child health.
Present at the launch Hon Khumbize Chiponda
Chiponda emphasized that statistics are crucial in policy making, planning and implementation of sustainable development goals which can build Malawi.
Commissioner of Statistics Mercy Kanyuka, said the findings are pivotal towards attaining of the country’s developmental agendas hence it is important that all stakeholders follow up on the report.
UNICEF’s Country Representative Rudolf Schwenk concurred with Kanyuka saying it requires all stakeholders to join hands in order to achieve a very health population as the country now understand a number of issues statistically from the survey report.
“Every intervention we support has to be founded in evidence. It is only when we know that a certain percentage of children has no access to critical services that we can mobilize resources and partnerships to support the government,” said Schwenk
UNICEF’s Country Representative Rudolf Schwenk
The Malawi Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was carried out in 2019-20 by the National Statistical Office as part of the Global MICS Programme. Technical support was provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with government funding and financial support of UNICEF, the Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE), German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Global Alliance for Vaccinescand Immunizations (GAVI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Global MICS Programme was developed by UNICEF in the 1990s as an international multi-purpose household survey programme to support countries in collecting internationally comparable data on a wide range of indicators on the situation of children and women. MICS surveys measure key indicators that allow countries to generate data for use in policies, programmes, and national development plans, and to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other internationally agreed upon commitments.
In an effort to address school level challenges that come during the registration and payment of examination fees for Primay School Leaving Certificate of Education ( PLSCE), Junior Certificate of Education ( JCE) and the Malawi School Certificate of Education ( MSCE), the Malawi National Examinations Board ( MANEB) with support from the Ministry of Education ( MoE) through EQUALS project has introduced the e-registration and e-payment of examinations fees for the three exam levels.
Briefing media on Wednesday in Lilongwe, MANEB Executive Officer Professor Dorothy Nampota said the e-registration and e-payment of registration fees will among others dress challenges such as wrong capturing of candidates data by the school administrators and the misappropriating of the examinations fees.
Nampota said the first e-registration and e-payment of examination fees was piloted in the 2021 PSLCE, JCE and MSCE examinations in Zomba district and proved to be successful. She said the districts which will implement the e-payment and e-registration of examination fees project for 2022 PSLCE, JCE and MSCE are nineteen, that is all districts in the Northern Education Division, all districts in Central West West Education Division and all districts in South East Education Division. ” For the 2022 PSLCE,JCE and MSCE, the e-registration and e-payment of examination fees will be done in 19 districts and 3 divisions,” she said.
Nampota said through the process, candidates details will be captured at school level online and in real time on MANEB servers. She said the candidates or their guardians will pay examination fees digitally direct to MANEB through Mo626( National Bank of Malawi), Mpamba NBS Easy bank and that the arrangements are at an advanced stage to integrate Airtel Money, Standard Bank and FDH Bank into the e-payment system.
Namopta added that the rollout of the e-system is being done in phases and that for the 2022 PSLCE, JCE,MSCE examination districts and schools in the Central East Education Division, South West Education Division and Shire Highlands Education Division will will still use manual system to register their candidates and pay examination fees.
The registration of candidates for 2022 PSLCE, JCE and MSCE examinations will start on January 4, 2022 and will close on February 18,2022.
The name YALI network is no longer new to majority of young and ambitious Malawians. Year after year we hear of outstanding young men and women being given opportunity to be mentored into becoming great leaders. The YALI Network is a 700,000 members plus vibrant online community where young African leaders can learn how to effect change around important issues in their communities and improve their leadership skills through tailor-made online content. Recently , Youth worker Migress Jeremiah had a Yali experience which she is sharing with fellow Malawians and the world.
Migress Jeremiah is the founder of Lomfom Foundation that works on empowering girls by providing education resources to enable them continue with their education. She was given opportunity to be on the 8 week program on civic leadership . Speaking to 247Malawi News , Migress said she was thankful for the opportunity Yali gave her “I am thankful for the opportunity to share my YALI experience with you. My special gratitude goes to YALI, and all partners who labour to offer us young African leaders a platform to sharpen our skills towards Africa’s development. I also would like to acknowledge the facilitators, technical team, and communications team who tirelessly guided the entire cohort 1 through the restrictions and huddles of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic”
The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) was launched by the United States of America Government as a signature effort to invest in the next generation of African business and social enterprise leaders launched the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). YALI promotes three models designed to identify and empower young leaders: four Regional Leadership Centers (RLCs), the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) and the YALI Network.
YALI is described as a catalyst for transformational learning and leadership for youth in Africa; a robust program delivered using holistic, interactive, simulations and mentorship approaches.
Migress Jeremiah was born in Blantyre, Malawi. Her cohort comprised of other African young leaders from Kenya , Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria among other and was facilitated by Desiree Mulemfo. Migress Jeremiah, founded LoFom Foundation, a non-profit organisation that provides educational resources in the form of tuition packages, study kits, eco-friendly sanitary accessories, mentorship, and social re-education programs required for underprivileged and socially challenged young female learners to complete their primary and secondary school education in Malawi. The CSO also thrives to advocate for effective policy reforms to improve access to educational and economic opportunities for the socially and economically disadvantaged girls as a way of reducing dropout rates and breaking the poverty cycle.
Migress Jeremiah was invited to be among the four official speakers at the YALI Wide Africa, Cohort 1 graduation ceremony. Representing Southern Africa region, Migress addressed the congregation of 250 Graduates who are actively pursuing social-economic change through various projects in different communities across Africa. Sharing her experience Jeremiah said, “as part of the YALI Cohort 1 program, I was privileged to learn more on civic leadership, specifically on the dynamics of corporate governance, networking, social marketing, as well as the much needed accountability and transparency in driving social change in my country, Malawi”.
Furthermore, in her speech Migress Jeremiah highlighted the need for the graduates to be actively engaged in their communities to make the best use of the knowledge and resources received during the 2 months and 2 weeks program. “As we graduate today, allow me to remind you that together we are YALI, Not because of where we have been, BUT because of what we aspire for our nations to become. We are a community not because of what we are waiting for – but because of what we are going for. With this I hope in a year from now, we will all be celebrated again for adding a new spark of achievements to the alumni community as we drive our projects at a higher level in our respective communities”.
Apart from the YALI Africa facilitators and organizers, the event was also graced by distinguished delegates from USAID and the Mastercard Foundation as the key Sponsors of the prestigious program. In the past LoFom Foundation has managed to provide tuition to girls and low cost study guides. In its upgraded dimension, the organization has innovative projects lined up for its 2022 business year which include sending some of the 230 prospective beneficiaries back to school. In commenting about the CSO’s plan for the near future, Migress said her CSO’s research centered approach will contribute to the knowledge gap in the area of girls empowerment in selected areas with high dropout rates in Malawi. With a team of young professionals who have a rich background in research, communication, culture, gender and sexuality as well as policy in development, LoFom Foundation will soon open its offices in Blantyre, and Lilongwe following Covid-19 regulations.
Born in a family of three, Migress Jeremiah completed her primary and secondary-education in America, and later attended university back in Africa (Monash South Africa). As the Founder of LoFom, her vision is to expand the organization’s scope and quality of impact in providing education and leadership opportunities to female learners up to tertiary level in Malawi.
Lilongwe city council has today elected a new mayor. Councillor Richard Banda has emerged winner in a contest that saw former mayor councillor Juliana Kaduya failing to retain the seat .
In an election that took place at Civic Offices in Lilongwe, Richard Banda won by 13 votes out of 30. The deputy mayorship has gone to Esther Sagawa who got a total of 17 votes, beating six contenders. Former Mayor Kaduya amassed six votes against Banda’s 13.
New City Leaders: Mayor Richard Banda and Deputy Esther Sagawa
The breakdownof the contest was as follows. The mayor outclassed others by 13 votes out of a total of 30 seconded by cllr Tsokonombwe with 9 votes followed by Cllr Juliana Kaduya with 6 votes. The rest got one vote each.
Lilongwe City has 27 ward councillors and 4 MPs making it 31 votes. Honourable Msungama who was eligible to vote did not vote as he is out of the country for other duties.
The Special Law Commission that was instituted to review the witchcraft Act, that had been in use since 1911, has recommended that a new law recognizing witchcraft should be passed in parliament.
Chairperson of the special law commission, Justice Robert Chinangwa, Retired, made this announcement at Capital Sunbird Hotel in Lilongwe during the presentation of findings of the commission that sat since 2009.“The commission holds the view that the law must recognize existence of witchcraft and failure to do so is failure to recognize what is happening in the society.
Justice Robert Chinangwa Making the announcement
The Commission therefore recommends recognizing the existence of witchcraft and states that the law must penalize all witchcraft practices,” he said.The commission has defined ‘witchcraft’ as a ‘supernatural art or unnatural act, use of magic practiced within the spiritual realm or in secret, in words or deeds for purpose of causing harm to a person or damage to property or death or misfortune or to incite fear or violence.
