British minister on three-day visit to Malawi
political and food security challenges that are currently affecting the country before making calls to various stakeholders to join hands with government and offer support to President Peter Mutharika in finding lasting solutions to the challenges facing the country.of social, economic,
The CSOs also said it has noticed that hunger has hit Malawians hard; a situation it said was pathetic considering that hospitals are also affected.
In an interview, National Elections Systems Trust (Nest) executive director Unandi Banda, one of the CSO leaders present at the briefing, said CSP-CD believes that for the maize crisis to be taken head on, government should declare a state of emergency where hard-to-reach areas can get the grain through army helicopters and all those holding the grain in their warehouses, the police and army jointly can carry out searches to force those holding the grain to release in bulk to Admarc.
On her part, Faustace Chirwa of National Women’s Lobby Group said the current economic problems facing Malawi largely result from the country being a net importer.
Some CSO leaders present at the briefing yesterday included Maxwell Matewere of Eye of the Child, Billy Banda of Malawi Watch, Roselyn Mankhwala of Women in Partnership against HIV and Aids in Malawi (Wipam) and labour activist Luther Mambala. n
The Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell arrives in the country today for a three-day visit where, among others, he is expected to meet partner organisations working to deliver the £80 million (about K88 billion) UK Aid development programme.
“Mundell is expected to highlight our close cooperation with Malawi across a range of bilateral, regional and international issues and to encourage progress on the process of wide-ranging reform under the government of President [Peter] Mutharika,” reads a statement from the British High Commission in Lilongwe issued yesterday.
The statement says while in the country the minister will also launch the next phase of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms programme, which includes exchanges with schools in Scotland.
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the most senior British government minister to visit Malawi since May 2012 when former Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell was in the country.
Said Mundell in the statement: “I am looking forward to hearing from the Malawi Government and others about the urgency of broad reforms to move the country from aid to greater prosperity and self-reliance, while demonstrating that the UK and no more so than the people of Scotland, are proud to stand by the people of Malawi on that journey.”
