Italy has committed to walk Malawi through the troubled times with by supporting various sectors, including agriculture, education and a 40 million euro (about K40.8 billion) package for health projects.
The commitment comes at a time aid from some of Malawi’s partners, including the United States Agency for International Development is in suspense.
Unveiling the packages in Lilongwe yesterday, Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Development Cooperation director general Stefano Gatti said Malawi is now a new priority country for the Italian Government’s support to Africa, emphasising Italy’s commitment to strengthen its partnership with Malawi.
The two projects, namely Not Too Late and Inter-Linked, aim to fight HIV and Aids, tuberculosis (TB), cancer in women and other non-communicable diseases. They wil be implemented by the University of Rome, Community of Sant’Egidio Dream Programme, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and the Peace and Development Trust.
Said Gatti: “This is the beginning of a long-term collaboration with the Government of Malawi in health.
“Somebody mentioned that other countries are out, it is not my role to speak about other countries and what they do, it is my role to tell you that Italy is in. Italy has arrived in Malawi and we are in to stay.”
He called on implementers of two projects to play their part for the successful delivery of the projects which will be implemented in six districts namely, Machinga, Blantyre, Balaka, Mangochi, Dedza and Dowa for three years.
Gatti said besides the health projects, Italy will soon unveil additional support for projects in the agriculture and education sectors, depending on outcome of pending agreements with the Malawi Government.
“Italy is one of the leading cultures in the world in terms of food. We export around €70 billion of food from Italy. We have a sophisticated food system and are willing to share experiences and support Malawi,” he said.
In his remarks, Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Samson Mndolo said the support from the Government of Italy has come at a crucial time when donor aid is shrinking.
He observed that the projects will help sustain Malawi’s efforts in the fight against HIV and Aids, TB and other diseases, urging Italy to also increase its contribution towards the Global Fund so that IT has more resources to support Malawi and other beneficiary countries in the Aids fight.
“Malawi has made a lot of progress in terms of HIV and Aids, but progress is not success. If we take the foot off the peddle, chances are high that we will go back to what we used to have 20 years ago, when HIV was like a death sentence,” said Mndolo.
Dream Sant’Egidio head of programmes and clinical services Hawa Sangare Mamary assured that the resources for the two projects will be used for THE intended purpose, which will enhance the fight against diseases that are claiming people’s lives.
“The projects are there to complement government efforts to scale up towards 2030 goals,” she said.
Commenting on the aid, National Advocacy Platform (NAP) chairperson Benedicto Kondowe hailed Italy for its commitment to hold Malawi’s hand as donor funding is declining saying the support will help alleviate the dire need that Malawi finds itself in.
Malawi is aspiring to be a self-reliant, inclusively wealthy and upper middle-income nation by 2063. To achieve that it is promoting human capital development, health, agriculture, tourism, transport and infrastructure, mining and other sectors.
