Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi Ingrid Marie Mikelsen has pledged her government’s commitment to continue supporting smallholder farmers in Malawi amidst adverse effects of climate change.
Mikelsen was speaking Tuesday when she inspected a Rice Milling Plant belonging to Kaporo Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi which is under National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) and paddy fields belonging to some rice seed multipliers in Karonga District.
“Partnership between NASFAM and Norwegian Government started in 2000. Smallholder farmers promote government efforts in ensuring food security, they should add value to their farm produce for them to have ready markets for their produce,” Mikelsen said.
Ambassador Mikelsen appreciates a rice plant in Karonga
Norway understands the effects of climate change on agriculture in Malawi. This is why our government will continue supporting smallholder farmers for them to be resilient and mitigate such effects by practising climate smart agriculture,” said Mikelsen.
In her remarks, Chief Executive Officer for NASFAM, Betty Chinyamunyamu hailed the Norwegian Government for its support to smallholder farmers in Karonga who grow Kilombero Rice under KASFAM.
Mikelsen and Chinyamunyamu (R) at KASFAM Rice Milling Plant
“We depend on smallholder farmers in terms of food security and forex through their agricultural exports. We encourage them sell their farm produce and sell in bulk to attract good prices as such, NASFAM Commercial buys from them hence realizing reasonable profits,” Chinyamunyamu said.
She then advised smallholder farmers in Malawi to form cooperatives for them to access better markets and farm mechanisation equipment at cheaper prices.
One of the seed mutlipliers under KASFAM, Kings Mwambene from Fundi Village in the area of Senior Chief Kilipura in the district said collective selling out farm produce has proved a a very productive and efficient initiative in agribusiness.
Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) through Connect a School Project launched construction of 75 Information Communication Technologies (ICT) laboratory centres in Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS) across the country.
This Connect a School Project is under the Universal Service Fund, a digital inclusion arm of MACRA as the project seeks to build CDSS’s capacity as community ICT centres, targets over 40,000 students and 250,000 community members access the centres.
Speaking during the official ground-breaking ceremony of the construction of the centres at Nkope CDSS in Mangochi on Tuesday, Head of the Universal Service Fund at MACRA, Ronald Tembo said that Connect a School Project is a flagship project for MACRA in line with National Digitalization Policy.
‘‘In this project, we have taken a different model where we are working with the community, particularly the artisans who are trained by TEVETA and these are people who will be under management of National Construction Industry Council.’’
MACRA launches Connect a School Project which will see construction of ICT centers in CDSSs. Pic, Bishop Witmos (Mana)
‘‘For us to make access for internet to all, we need a very good internet capacity in the country. MACRA is working on a diplomatic data corridor to introduce Yathu Yathu data which aims to cover all the rural areas with affordable and reliable internet,” he added.
Tembo disclosed that MACRA was installing technology towers to be spreading both mobile network and broadcasting signals in the unserved communities.
He added that apart from constructing ICT laboratories in schools, MACRA intends to construct a total of 9,000 ICT laboratories in most public institutions, a project which would cost the communication regulatory authority over K 7. billion.
Director of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Ministry of Education, Prof. Chomora Mikeka said that Connect a School Project would help to build a human capital that would meet the demanded digital labour market.
He said the project was ideal in the digital transformation as it would help to transform the country’s economy.
‘‘This is a very critical project, as Malawians have demanded that we put each and every school an ICT lab in order to facilitate education digitalization, but also digital transformation in the country. This is bringing connectivity to schools and this is the way to go towards the Agenda 2063,’’ Mikeka said.
Out 6,954 Primary Schools in the country only 140 schools are connected to internet, while out of 1,774 Secondary Schools, a handful are connected to the internet, according to the Director.
Sub-Traditional Authority (STA) Chiwalo commended government for considering Nkope CDSS as one of the learning institutions to benefit from the project.
Minister of Gender Community Development and Social Welfare, Jean Muonaoauza Sendeza, on Wednesday led leaders of the civil society organizations (CSOs) and government officials in launching the Continental Study Report on the Children Without Parental Care in Africa at a function that took place in Lilongwe.
A consortium of six child rights-based CSOs, which include SOS Children’s Villages in Malawi, NGO Coalition on Child Rights (NGOCCR), National Youth Network on Climate Change (NYNCC), Joining Forces for Children, and the Citizen Alliance (CA), facilitated the launch of the report through the ‘No Child Should Grow Up Alone Campaign’.
The report was unveiled under the theme: ‘Strong families: key to the promotion and realization of Child Rights’.
In her remarks, Sendeza lamented the social and economic hardships children are forced to bear following the fall of marriages of their parents.
She therefore described the launch of the No Child Should Grow Up Alone a timely, stressing that the campaign aims at garnering political commitment and investment to end child abuse, neglect and exploitation, unnecessary child-family separation both in humanitarian and development settings.
“The relevance of this campaign is that, it is a great reminder that we have a lot of work to do to protect children, protect and strengthen families and community systems for child protection as well as monitor enforcement of child-related laws in the country. It is now time to propel bold strides towards the realization of the promise and aspirations of the agenda 2040 whose aim is to make Africa and Malawi fit for children. Malawi’s 2063 first 10 year Implementation Plan Enabler Number 5, emphasizes on Human Capital Development, and this can only be achieved through parenting and education support to families. It is only then, that Malawi will be able to build a strong, reliable, self-reliant, resilient and productive society,” said Sendeza.
The minister said it is time Malawians moved from more rhetoric to more actions, saying this is key to achieving the much-needed change around the sorry state of children without parental care in Malawi and beyond.
Jean Sendeza hoisting a cut ribbon to signify launch of the report
Sendeza assured the participants that the Government of Malawi will seriously consider the inclusion of Children Without Parental Care in national statistical databases or periodic studies such as Demographic Health Surveys (DHS), Multi-Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), and National Household Surveys to generate robust national-level statistics on Children Without Parental Care in the country in order to have accurate data to inform policy and strategy formulation.
“Government will facilitate finalization and gazetting of the Draft Child Care Protection and Justice Foster Homes Regulations which propose a range of suitable care options, comprehensive gatekeeping mechanisms, case management structures and systems, and comprehensive national information management and quality standards for alternative care provision as a way of domesticating the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Government and its partners will enhance child safeguarding and protection systems to ensure that all children under various care options are protected from all forms of abuse and neglect by allocating adequate resources to the Malawi Human Rights Commission,” she said.
Speaking earlier, the National Director for SOS Children’s Villages in Malawi, Smart Namagonya, reiterated the call for the government to expedite the finalization, gazetting and implementation of the Draft Child Care Protection and Justice Foster Homes Regulations in order to address challenges children without biological parents face in the country.
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