Malawi gets K2bn boost from Iceland

Malawi has signed a partnership agreement worth $13 million (about K2.1 billion) with the Iceland International Development Agency (Iceida) in Lilongwe towards the implementation of the Mangochi Basic Service Programme.

Iceland has been supporting Malawi in the implementation of a number of programmes in Traditional Authority Nankumba in Mangochi for the past 20 years, but Iceland last year closed the programmes due to unspecified reasons.

Speaking during the signing ceremony on Friday, Iceida country director Steffan Hafstein said following the closure of the programme, Iceida engaged the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development into discussions that resulted in the development of the Mangochi Basic Service Programme.

Said Hafstein: “In this new programme, Iceida will scale up its operations to cover four new traditional authorities of Mponda, Chimwala, Chowe and Namavi.”

On her part, newly appointed Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Grace Maseko thanked Iceland for the new programme and said government expects that more people will be reached with development interventions.

The programme has four areas of focus, namely, capacity building and technical assistance, water and sanitation, education and public health.