Zambia’s social protection initiative impresses Malawi

Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Community Development Principal Secretary Nwazi Mnthambala says Malawi should draw lessons from Zambia’s keep girls in school component under the Girls Education and Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods.

In a report on her delegation’s three-day visit to Zambia for policy level benchmarking on social protection interventions, she said the programme is effective.

Mnthambala, who is PS responsible for administration and finance, said Zambia’s dynamism in the implementation of the keep girls in school component was impressive.

The component provides Zambian girls a package to access school fees, boarding places, books, uniforms and sanitary pads.

Mnthambala said the project’s success was a learning curve to Malawi for a similar component under the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project.

She said: “I am pleased that our counterparts in Zambia spoke highly of the Unified Beneficiary Registry [UBR] which Malawi has implemented. It is a strength on our part and our counterparts have expressed interest in learning from us.”

On his part, Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs chairperson Savor Kafwawa, who was part of the delegation alongside four other legislators, said the visit was an eye-opener on innovative social protection programmes which can be replicated in Malawi.

“We have learned a lot. We are going back charged with knowledge on how to improve our social protection interventions,” he said.

The visit sought to document best practices, assess and appreciate Zambia policies, laws, design and financing of various social protection programmes such as  the social cash transfers, food security packs and supporting women’s and livelihood programmes that target the vulnerable and ultra poor.

The parliamentarians are expected to influence the design and operationalisation of the country’s social protection programmes and enhance the oversight function for the benefit of the people of Malawi.

The delegation also included officials from the National Local Government Finance Committee, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and from the Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare and Community Development.

The benchmarking exercise was funded by the World Bank through the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods (Tidzidalire) project.