As Norwegian ChurchAid (NCA) clocks 20 years in Malawi, our Staff Reporter BRENDA BULIYANI caught up with the organisation’s country director Havard Hovdhaugen to find out more about their journey over the years who cites that their biggest footprint is in the health sector. Excerpts:

Looking back to your operations in Malawi, what are some of your proudest achievements?

In the 20 years we have been operating in Malawi, we have contributed a lot to development. The health sector is where we have our biggest footprint in the 20 years, having constructed the intensive care unit (ICU); the high dependency unit (HDU) and six theatres at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH). We have also built the School of Anaesthesia at KCH; and in addition to that we have constructed 14 health centres in hard-to-reach areas across the country focusing on maternal health.

I am convinced that NCA has, over the years contributed to the reduced maternal mortality rates as these 14 health centres are impacting on both mothers and babies because now women do not travel long distances to reach health facilities and do not give birth at home which increases the risks. We have also contributed to the nursing education in almost all the Christian Health Association of Malawi (Cham)facilities, constructing various facilities to increase the enrolment of nurses in the country.

Over the past five/six years we have also established NCA as one of the major actors in the agriculture sector, focusing on food security, resilience towards climate change and have roped in smallholder farmers to increase production by introducing simple and affordable technologies and helping them to access markets and increase their income.

Another remarkable achievement is the contribution we made to the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Act that was passed in 2015. NCA was among the key players during the advocacy and lobbying with stakeholders and ensuring that the act was passed. And NCA-DCA has been funding the TIP implementation plan, from 2016 to 2022. Focusing on TIP and ensuring that there are laws and regulations is one thing that we’re proud of when we look back.

You have spoken about linking smallholder famers to markets, how is this going?

To be honest, this is one of the challenges that we have encountered, it’s not a quick-fix to link smallholder farmers to markets and make them move away from the subsistence farming that most smallholder farmers are involved in, but we try to identify markets and in one of our projects we have private sector players directly involved, who act as off-takers from the producers or the smallholder farmers. We also work closely with smallholder farmers and group them into cooperatives or produce groups, equipping them with skills to negotiate good deals as most farmers get very low prices for their produce.

What challenges are you facing in your drive to contribute to developmental growth inMalawi?

One major challenge that we have seen over the years is the high level of corruption and mismanagement of funds in Malawi. We can’t really talk about challenges without mentioning these two.They are a huge challenge for us because we try to build capacity; to build civil society; but over and over again we get disappointed that we would discover mismanagement of funds and to some extent corruption. However, that is something that we have addressed together with other civil society actors. I feel Malawi as a country has to address these issues in a serious way because it is sad that one third of world funding disappears to mismanagement and corruption. Imagine what the country would have achieved with that?It is a hindrance to development in Malawi and that is the major challenge we have seen.

We see some efforts being made to fight corruption in the country though, do you think we are doing enough?

More has to be done. We have seen some good developments lately, by both the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Ombudsman, but I feel that there is still a long way to go. And the challenge is that it’s in all levels of society, from the grassroots to the top, and why shouldn’t the ordinary person be roped into mismanagement when our political leaders are doing the same? It has to be addressed from the top level, and in a serious way and if Malawi does that, the development will benefit.

Looking ahead, how does the future look for you?

As NCA we have grown tremendously over the past few years. Also, the merging with DanChurch Aid (DCA) has made us stronger. In our 20th year we’re reaching out to more Malawians than ever, which in itself is a huge achievement. Nonetheless, growth alone is not a goal, but reaching out to more people and contributing to a more just Malawian society. And that’s what we’d expect in 20 more years to come. We’ll continue to challenge, and to stamp out injustices and inequalities. We have increased our portfolio to make the real impact in the Malawian society and contribute to the government’s efforts.

Speaking of the merger with Dan ChurchAId, what necessitated this?

We have similar priorities globally, and looking at Malawi, it made sense to us to join forces and become stronger as an organisation and reach out to more Malawians. We’re better positioned to attract more funding jointly to reach out to more people and have greater impact. And Malawi is not the only country where we have joint strategies with DCA, it’s the fourth. We have a similar arrangement in Zambia and in Malawi and Zambia we’re NCA-led and in Palestine and Myanmar we’re DCA-led and making greater impact.Through the merger effected in January 2021, we have reached more people and have become even more focused on addressing inequalities in the Malawian society. DCA, historically was stronger in human rights and fighting inequalities so now we’re better positioned to address inequalities in the Malawian society.

What would be your general remarks

Malawi being one of the poorest and least developed in the world, needs to have development partners like international non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in many years to come. Additionally, I would also encourage the government to maintain working relationships with the INGOs and ensure that their relationship contributes to the development of the Malawian society. We’ve also seen some challenges in laws and regulations for NGOs operating in Malawi, but let me say that we’re all in this together. We don’t want anything else but to contribute to the development of this country.  INGOs should not be seen as a threat to anyone. We are here to contribute to the development and what we ask for is a conducive environment to work.n

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