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MWASIP Project to accelerate Sustainable Landscape Management Practices

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MWASIP Project to accelerate Sustainable Landscape Management Practices

By Chisomo Phiri

Implementers of the Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP) says the project will  go a long way in supporting the implementation of the National Forest Landscape Restoration Strategy (NFLRS) which among others estimated that nearly 7.7 million hectares of degraded land requires restoration intervention.

This has been highlighted on Wednesday, October 20, 2021 during media engagement session held at Malawi Sun hotel, where among others journalists were drilled more on project’s components and effective models to disseminate information related to the project.

 According to the Technical team leader for planning, monitoring and evaluation of the project, James Kumwenda the MWASIP project is the first in a ‘Series of Projects’ complementing NFLRS which seeks to restore 4.5 million ha of the degraded landscape by 2030.

Kumwenda explained that the project consists of three components such as; improving Watershed Services, Technical and Project Management Support, and scaling up Landscape Restoration through which government is to scale up landscape restoration interventions in the Shire River Basin and other priority river basins such as Linthipe, Bua, and Dwangwa River Basins.

He said; “The upper and middle parts of the Shire River Basin alone provide the opportunity to restore more than 2.6 million ha of degraded landscape. This value represents more than half (57 percent) of the NFLRS target.”

“The Shire River Basin is, therefore, a priority watershed for achieving GoM’s strategic goals as laid out in the NFLRS and will, therefore, require continuing restoration intervention beyond this project.”

Kumwenda added; “The project will benefit national, district and community-level institutions by providing essential tools, knowledge, and strengthening their capacity to continue investing in sustainable landscape management beyond the project period.”

The project is estimated to cost a total of US$160 million of which US$78.5 million will be an IDA credit equivalent, while another US$78.5 million will be an IDA Grant of equivalent and government is to pump in US$3 million.

Then Kumwenda also cited that the advancement of the project shall be determined based on Proportion of target farmers adopting sustainable landscape management practice; Land area (ha) under sustainable landscape management practices; Land area (ha) showing an increase in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Land Surface Water Index (LSWI) among others.

Man gets 14 years jail term for defiling 7 year old girl

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Man gets 14 years jail term for defiling 7 year old girl

By Emmanuel Moyo

Karonga First Grade Magistrate’s court has convicted and sentenced a 43-year-old Chakufwa Nyirenda to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour for defiling a 7-year-old girl.

The court heard through state prosecutor, Sub-Inspector Harrison Mtambalika that on April 4, 2021 at Phapa fishing area in Karonga District, Nyirenda had unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 16 years.
Mtambalika submitted to the court that although the accused person is a first offender, the offence he committed is very serious that attracts a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
“The accused person is supposed to protect the girl child who is one of the vulnerable groups, instead of protecting her, he was on the forefront to defile her,” Mtambalika said.

Mtambalika added that children are entitled to be protected from the economic exploitation or any treatment, work or punishment that is likely to be hazardous, harmful to their health, physical, mental, spiritual or social development.
“Your worship, cases of defilement are on the increase in Karonga District as well as across the country, it is my prayer to this court to impose a meaningful sentence to the accused person in order to deter would-be offenders,” Mtambalika said.

In mitigation, Nyirenda asked for court’s leniency when passing a sentence to him because he has a big family responsibility.
Passing sentence First Grade Magistrate Julius Kalambo concurred with the state about the seriousness of the offence.

Kalambo quashed the mitigating factor of family responsibility, he said the accused person would have refrained from committing the offence.
“The accused person failed to love himself, as such, the court will also be harsh with him by imposing a long sentence to him in order to deter would-be offenders,” Kalambo said.

He therefore, sentenced Nyirenda to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour.
Nyirenda hails from Kandoda Village, Traditional Authority Mtwalo in Mzimba District.

Karonga District Hospital urged to replace old medical equipment

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Karonga District Hospital urged to replace old medical equipment

By Emmanuel Moyo

A health expert in Malawi, George Jobe, has tipped Karonga District Hospital to replace all old medical equipment saying they are essential in serving lives.

This follows, deaths of two patients who lost their lives while on life supporting machines which malfunctioned due to power cut and generator failure.
In an interview, Jobe described generators as being amongst vital medical equipments in hospitals.
“There is need for replacement of all old and unreliable generators in hospitals because these are part of vital medical equipment in hospitals and can help in avoiding avoidable deaths,” he said.

Health Expert George Jobe

Jobe has since pointed out the need for Electricity Supply Company of Malawi (ESCOM) to spare District hospitals during load-shading or designate special power grids to District hospitals.

On his part, Director of Health and Social Services for Karonga District Hospital, David Sibale, admitted that their main generator that is used for back up developed a fault.
“When escom power went off, we backed up the power with our main generator which later developed a fault and caused the death of two critical patients who were on life supporting machines,” he said.

UK Emergency Medical Team to provide COVID-19 support and training to health workers in Malawi

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UK Emergency Medical Team to provide COVID-19 support and training to health workers in Malawi

By Durell Namasani

A UK Emergency Medical Team (EMT) will be deployed to Malawi for 8 weeks to support the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 response, particularly in management of critically ill COVID patients, community perceptions around COVID-19 and support to community engagement on national COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

According to the statement issued of UK GOV website, The UK EMT is a rapid medical response capability, comprising of world-class experts who deliver front line medical care, advice and support to governments, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and local health workers during disease outbreaks and humanitarian emergencies to save lives and alleviate suffering.

Since the start of the COVID crisis, the UK EMT has been supporting global efforts to respond to the pandemic through the deployment of specialist staff to work alongside Ministries of Health, the WHO–EMT Secretariat, WHO country offices, as well as other UN agencies and international NGOs.

so far EMT members have deployed to Ghana, Cambodia, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, South Africa, Chad, Lebanon and lately in Armenia, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana.

In his statement ,British High Commissioner to Malawi, David Beer said COVID-19 is a global problem that requires a global solution. “No one is safe until everyone is safe. The UK continues to be Malawi’s close partner in responding to the pandemic, supporting vaccines and the medical response. We are delighted to be able to deploy a UK Emergency Medical Team in order to support the health authorities on the ground”.

UK EMT Team Lead Ngoni Mac Nyambawaro said “On behalf of the UK Emergency Medical Team, our team of highly qualified experts look forward to supporting national healthcare teams to attend to critically COVID-19 patients, and to develop their capabilities to ensure the impact of this response lasts well beyond the time we are in Malawi.

In her response , the Minister of Health Hon. Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said The COVID-19 pandemic presents a clear challenge to the country’s economy, communities and healthcare system. “The on-job support and capacity building of our health professionals by UK EMT, as well as risk communications and community and health worker engagement, will help us prepare better for future waves” said Chiponda.

The UK has been at the forefront of the global response to COVID-19, kickstarting the COVAX facility in 2020, and investing £90 million to support the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.In addition to supporting the immediate humanitarian response in Malawi with £9.67m, and co-funding the COVAX vaccines that Malawi has received, the UK has also provided 119,040 vaccines bilaterally so far.

Lipipa gives a short and superb analysis on the economy

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Lipipa gives a short and superb analysis on the economy

By Chisomo Phiri

The Vibrant Blantyre City South Constituency DPP Member of Parliament ( MP) Noel Lipa is one of such wise politicians who give superb narrations and analyses that carry power to transform Malawi into a better nation in Africa.

This time around, Lipipa has delivered another superb short analysis on malawi’s economy which if taken into practical consideration, it will see malawi’s economy recover from all the downs.

Hon Noel Lipipa

In his short analysis shared on his facebook wall, Lipipa says for the longest time, Malawi has been trying to economically reform, including restructuring of the public sector. He says the said process may never be on course until leaders realize the problem, not being the disease but the patient, unless they seriously deal with the civic morals and the target citizenry being 0-20 years saying if not then the implementation will remain only a pipeline dream.

He says ” My desire is that, we should focus on a bottom up to national patriotism campaign as a fundamental principle. Once that is achieved, the much needed transformation shall be guaranteed. Of course we all know that the said process is aimed at improving our overall publi financial governance while ensuring utilization of available resources in the most effective and efficient way to enable us achieve economic growth besides reducing our poverty levels” .

In the national assembly, Lipipa is the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on government assurance and public sector reforms.

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