CRIDOC Malawi

Statement on Re-instatement of National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM)

2011-03-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

The National Youth Taskforce, mandated by a cross section of youth organisations and groups in all parts of the country, would like to commend the State President, Ngwazi Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, for directing that Government should rescind its earlier decision of dissolving the National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM).

The National Youth Taskforce was, through a consultative process, instituted by youth organisations and groups that are affiliated to the Council to lobby key Government authorities, including the State President himself, not to implement an announcement made in Parliament last year on Government’s intention to dissolve the Council.

We believe that the State President’s announcement at the public rally held on Sunday, 20th March 2011, in Mangochi, is not only a significant step in the right direction as regards the development of youth in the country, but it is also a milestone towards uplifting the majority of youth who are reeling behind poverty and high unemployment. We truly believe that this is a demonstration of Government’s commitment to recognise the youth as agents of positive change who are capable to contribute to the development of the country.

We believe that Government recognises the role and capacity of the youth in the country to bring unique perspectives that need to be taken into account in the development agenda of the nation, and that their involvement in national development, in decision-making, and in the implementation of national programmes is critical to achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Dissolving the Council should have, therefore, contradicted Government’s efforts in designing and implementing laudable programmes aimed at economically empowering the youth, such as the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). The decision to dissolve NYCOM could have watered down most of the positive efforts and significant gains achieved so far as regards youth development, participation and empowerment in the country.
However, the National Youth Taskforce would also like to take the opportunity to bring to the State President’s attention that since he has rescinded the decision to dissolve the council, the youth across the country will now be anxiously looking forward to see how the issues – which are both administrative and structural in nature – which, in the first place, influenced the Government’s decision to dissolve the Council will be sorted out. The youth in the country are now crying for a revived and revitalised Council. Indeed, while we sympathised with Government’s worries concerning the undesirable performance of NYCOM, the general view of the majority of youth practitioners was that the best solution should not have been necessarily dissolving the Council per se, as that would be killing the spirit of “youth participation” whose very concept is what the Act of Parliament that establishes the Council actually sought to promote in the first place. The dissolution would have undermined the service delivery of the 131youth organisations that are affiliated to NYCOM.

As such, we therefore believe that there is need to critically and collectively look at the sustainability of the Council for it to make more meaningful impact than before. For this to be achieved we have identified a set of recommendations, on top of what Government already has in store, as follows:

1. There is need to appoint a strong, visionary and vibrant Board for the Council that should ensure that all regions and sectors are represented, and one that is capable to address the voices of youths at all levels, equally.

2. There is need for a comprehensive functional review of the Council. Government should initiate a process of restructuring the Council so that it begins to deliver according to its aims and functions as stipulated in the Act. Such a consultative exercise, which would also involve the youth themselves, could expose critical gaps requiring urgent redress. The views/suggestions from the youths in particular could be useful in the whole restructuring process.

3. There is need for the review of both the National Youth Policy and the Parliamentary Act no. 22 of 1996 which created National Youth Council. The review will help to reposition the Council so that it ably responds to the contemporary demands, realities, and trends in the youth development sector.

SIGNED:
NATIONAL YOUTH TASKFORCE

2011-01-18T04:33:00.003-08:00

Statistics

Briefing Paper on the Proposed Dissolution of NYCOM

2010-08-20T06:32:00.001-07:00

1.0 BACKGROUND

There is no denying that the youth have capacity to bring unique perspectives that need to be taken into account in the development agenda of any nation. In addition, the involvement of today's youth in development, decision-making, and in the implementation of national programmes is critical to the long-term success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

On the other hand, the draft National Youth Policy recognises that more than half of the country’s population is below the age of 25, which means that Malawi is a youthful nation; and that the youth are the nation today and tomorrow. Besides, the youth are energetic, adventurous, industrious, and willing to learn. What they need is space, empowerment and motivation to contribute towards developing the nation and themselves.

It is against this background why in 1996, the National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) was conceived as the only national body established by an Act of Parliament to coordinate activities by youth-led organisations in the country.

Specifically, the mission of the Council was stipulated as follows: “To work towards empowering the youth of Malawi to utilize their potential to realize their aspirations and ambitions for their personal development and for national development.”

Some of the key aims and functions of the Council were as follows:

(i) To develop, promote, encourage and coordinate all forms of youth activities in Malawi;
(ii) To facilitate and encourage cooperation among registered youth organisations in Malawi;
(iii) To initiate operation and management of non-profit making and profit-making projects in support of youth development;
(iv) To organize and promote scholarships for youth workers, members of youth organizations and relevant officials.
(v) To foster the promotion of training courses.
(vi) To carry out registration and support of youth organisations in Malawi
(vii) To advise government and any authority either specifically or generally on matters relating to youth, sport and recreation.
(viii) To develop and institute guidelines for cooperation between government and other organisations and agencies operating for the youth in Malawi.

2.0 RECENT KEY POSITIVES/TRENDS

A series of recent developments or trends in Malawi have attested to the fact that Government is committed to recognising young people as agents of positive change who are capable of contributing to the development of the country if given space.

One clear example is the official launch of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YDEF) on 12 February 2010, whose vote was unanimously endorsed during the budget session of Parliament last year. The fund is not only a significant step in the right direction, but also a milestone towards uplifting the majority of youth who are reeling behind poverty and high unemployment.

Another example is a case when the State President, Professor Dr Bingu wa Mutharika, appointed the Board Chairperson of the now defunct NYCOM, Ms. Thembi Thadzi, to represent the voice of the Malawi youth in his newly instituted National Advisory Council for Strategic Planning.

Another case is that the Government has made youth as a priority within priorities which means the Government attaches importance to the development of the youth in the country.

3.0 CONSEQUENCES OF DISSOLVING NYCOM

In spite of the recent positive trends/developments as cited above, Government’s latest decision to dissolve NYCOM may water down almost all the positive efforts and significant gains achieved so far as regards youth development, participation and empowerment in the country.

While one might appreciate and sympathise with Government’s worries concerning the undesirable performance of certain parastatals – including NYCOM – the general view of the majority of youth practitioners, however, is that the best solution should not have been necessarily dissolving the Council per se. What Government has done is only to worsen the situation on the ground, which may prove to be counter-productive. Killing NYCOM is killing the spirit of “youth participation” whose very concept is what the Act of Parliament actually sought to promote in the first place. NYCOM as a regulatory body was responsible for providing quality, benchmarks, coordination, capacity building and relevance of the youth organizations. The dissolution undermines and leaves a void in the delivery of the youth organizations.

Furthermore, the dissolution of National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) means that all its functions as stipulated in Act no. 22 of 1996 which created National Youth Council will now be piled on the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which is already inundated with other functions and responsibilities. As such, we fear that the new development will have, but not limited to, the following consequences.

(a) Considering that one of the core functions of NYCOM was to register youth organisations in Malawi, its dissolution therefore means that all youth organisations and groups which were registered under it are equally dissolved by default. That means 131 youth organizations and groups lose their legal status.

(b) The governance structure – i.e. the Act stipulates that the National Youth Council shall comprise of the following, the General Assembly, the Board of Directors, the Secretariat and the affiliates – these are the platforms that the youth in Malawi used to exercise their right to participate in decision-making processes. Dissolving the Youth Council denies the youth of a vital participation structures. Practically, the Ministry cannot offer such participation structures; and consequently the practical meaning of “youth participation” will be lost.

(c) Young people will no longer have an independent platform through which they can voice their issues and concerns conscientiously against Government programmes since they will be reporting directly to it. Furthermore, if Youth Council stand dissolved, youth civic engagement will be stifled as the youth organizations will not be contributing to development at grassroots level.

(d) We do not believe that the Government, under the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has the capacity to competently coordinate all forms of youth activities in Malawi as stipulated in the Act.

(e) Government will no longer have an independent body to advise it “either specifically or generally on matters relating to youth” as enshrined in the Act.

(f) Links with the African Union – The African Youth Charter which is a framework within the African Union recognizes such structures as Youth councils in the delivery of youth programmes. Scrapping off the National Youth Council will not send a good message to the Africa Union Community particularly now that Malawi is chairing the African Union

(g) Links with the Commonwealth – The Youth Councils are part of the greater commonwealth programmes of undertaking and hence dissolving the National Youth Council means de-linking the youth of Malawi from the commonwealth family and this also has an impact on our relations in supporting the commonwealth agenda including the right to vote in commonwealth meetings.

(h) The dissolution also weakens the structures of strengthening the youth development as it is a priority within the priorities within the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy.

3.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

In view of the fact that the decision to dissolve NYCOM was based on the understanding that the Council was perceived to be among the parastatals that did not perform according to the Government’s expectations, the general feeling however is that the following two options should have been explored:

1. Government should initiate a process of reinstating and restructuring NYCOM so that it begins to deliver according to its aims and functions as stipulated in the Act. Such a consultative exercise, which would also involve the youth themselves, could expose critical gaps requiring urgent redress. The views/suggestions from the youths in particular could be useful in the whole restructuring process. It is sad to note that the youth in the country, especially those whose organisations were registered by the Council, were not even consulted on the dissolution of NYCOM.

2. Alternatively, Government should explore the possibility of merging NYCOM with another relevant body, such as the Sports Council of Malawi, so that the aims and functions of the Act must continue to be executed and accomplished thoroughly. The new body, which could be called “The Youth and Sports Council of Malawi” could be structured in such a way that it could be reporting to the Ministry of Youth and Sports; and it could have two main directorates as follows: (i) The Directorate of Sports, and (ii) The Directorate of Youth Affairs.

Will Advisory Council widen advocacy opportunities for youth?

2010-02-24T06:35:00.000-08:00

The youth in Malawi have welcomed with optimism news that President Bingu wa Mutharika on February 17, 2010 appointed National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) Board Chairperson, Thembi Thadzi, to the newly instituted National Advisory Council for Strategic Planning, in the hopes that the development will provide an opportunity to have the youth’s advocacy programmes and activities that are related to governance issues exposed and recognised by the State.

According to a statement from Chief Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Bright Msaka, the Council is a special team of prominent civil rights activist and notable politicians that will be advising Mutharika and his cabinet on national policies. It will be acting as a high ranking think tank on strategic development and management planning for national policy directions.

However, noting that there has never existed an office of a Presidential Advisor on Youth Affairs at the State House, but many youth in the country are now optimistic that for the first time Government and the State will seriously recognise them as affective agents of change or development following the inclusion of a youth representative on the Council.

In spite of a number of youth programmes and activities related to governance, anti-corruption, and accountability in the past, it still proved difficult for the state to acknowledge the work that the youth were involved in.

Corruption is a social vice that requires the intervention of all stakeholders in Malawi – including the media and the youth – as it affects every sector of the society in a country with a total population of 14 million people. According to an International Anti-Corruption Newsletter report of April 2001, written by Gilton Chiwawula, who was then Executive Director of the Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), corruption often affects 10 million people, 85% of whom live in the rural areas. The report further says any activity by any public official that affects the rural population impacts negatively on their personal and domestic economy.

On the other hand, the National Youth Policy recognises that more than half of the country’s population is below the age of 25, which means that Malawi is a youthful nation. Yet these youth are energetic, adventurous, industrious, and willing to learn. What they need is to be given a chance, space and motivation to contribute towards developing the nation and themselves, including combating corruption.

It is expected that youngsters will now be able to take advantage of youth representation on the Council to advocate for issues related to governance, corruption and accountability in the following ways and strategies: Petitions to the State channelled through the Council; lobbying with the Council; scheduled meetings with the Council; among other ways and strategies.

Investing in Malawi’s Children to Achieve MDGs

2010-01-03T04:13:00.000-08:00

On a boiling Sunday afternoon, as I jostle for a minibus to take me back to my neighbourhood in Lilongwe, I unexpectedly see a group of about 20 women walking past the minibus stage in Lilongwe Old Town. My mind suddenly switches to the scene. A few peculiarities catch my interest in a jiffy.

The first is the utter silence among these women, in spite of strolling in a cluster. These sombre-looking women are led by an elderly woman in her 60s who is carrying a hoe. She is flanked by another woman carrying what looks like a basket at a distance, wrapped up in white cloth.

To my amazement, not many people – including minibus taunts, drivers, conductors, vendors, and even some of the passengers boarding the minibuses – pay any particular attention. Not that they have not seen the women. They just don’t have any interest at all, seemingly.

Apparently noticing the surprise that is painted on my face, one of the minibus taunts whispers to me: “that is a funeral procession on the way to the grave. It’s another dead newborn baby.”

Yes, it is “another dead newborn” because – so I came to learn – people here are used to seeing women almost week-in and week-out from the Bwaila Hospital (still popularly known by its former name, the Bottom Hospital) which is within the vicinity, on their way to burry babies that have not had the luck to survive. Nothing peculiar!

I have also learnt that this was an epitome of the larger picture of a murky situation in the country where a lot of children are dying on the day of conception, not to mention those who are “fortunate” to survive up to the age of five. The situation is to a great extent worse than in most developed countries in Europe, which means there must be something fundamentally wrong with the way – and the socio-economic environment in which – our children are born and brought up during their early years here.

Surely, I can imagine that what I saw at Lilongwe minibus stage could have triggered much public interest if it had happened at one of the train stations in Brittany, a town in France. It would be peculiar!

Child psychology research has shown that it is during the early years of life that the development of intelligence and social relations occur very rapidly. Any irregularity in a child’s development at this stage will substantially reduce his or her future potential, sometimes even unnecessary death that could have been easily avoided.

Proper attention to the child’s development in the early years, therefore, can help to increase the child’s chances for survival, growth and development. It is believed that whether that child fulfils her or his vast potential is largely in the hands of the family, the community and country into which she or he is born. It is a child’s right to have every chance to survive and thrive.

Likewise, ensuring conditions for a child’s early years is one of the best investments that a country can make if it is to compete in a global economy based on the strength of its human capital. Or, to say the same thing differently, we should begin to forget about the prospects of achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) including, in particular, the goal number-one on halving world poverty by 2015, if public authorities, private sector, and even society at large, do not invest adequately in children during their early years of survival.

The Ministry of Gender and Women and Child Development (MGWCD) launched the National Policy on Early Childhood Development in 2003 which seeks to provide guidelines and coordination of ECD activities and for enhancement of support and investment to ECD programmes in Malawi.

According to MGWCD National ECD Coordinator, Francis Chalamanda, Government has since the launch managed to secure support and partnerships with various stakeholders, and put in place structures, a development which has seen the programme reach out to almost 3 million children in all the 28 districts.

“We have trained at least ten main facilitators in each district to implement the programme within our ECD structures. The beneficiaries’ access rate has now increased to 29 percent from only 5.6 percent in 2003, which is quite a success. The programme has a total of 24000 caregivers, of these 14000 have been trained at national, district and community levels,” he says.

He says his ministry is receiving financial and technical support from other stakeholders like the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Plan Malawi, Save the Children, among others, which have enabled Government to develop guidelines on ECD, put in place an ECD syllabus, and develop a comprehensive training manual in ECD. He also says besides linking up with the development partners, Government has achieved a great deal of networking at the community level as well as with other countries.

“Other countries look at Malawi as a star performer, and they regularly come here to learn. We are a model because we have put in place a policy, a training manual, guidelines and an ECD profile. In fact, Link for Education Governance (LEG) has rated our ECD programme with a distinction in terms of access and implementation,” he boasts.

Chalamanda is, however, cautious of complacency when he admits the fact that most of the financial support come from the development partners rather than from Government coffers, in a way justifying World Bank and UNICEF’s fears that many developing countries were giving ECD the least attention in spite of its value and importance to the global crusade against poverty.

“It is very difficult to say exactly how much goes to ECD from government coffers since the budget allocation for the ministry comes in one chunk to cater for many programmes, and ECD is just one of them. But what I can say is that only a fraction is allocated to ECD programmes as it is still accorded low priority from Government,” he says.

What this means is that in the event the international donors reduce or stop funding, Government would not be able to sustain the programmes and quality would significantly be compromised.

He, therefore, proposes the need to increase advocacy to raise awareness among policy makers and Members of Parliament on the importance of ECD to long-term national development, noting there is nothing ever debated in Parliament on ECD.

If that happened, they would now begin to appreciate how investing a significant portion of Governments resources into ECD would offer a lasting solution to the high levels of poverty for the betterment of the present and next generation.

Investing in Children with Disability

2009-12-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

Statistics show that up to 150 million children globally have adisability and the numbers are rising. Children with disabilities aredisproportionately likely to live in poverty. 50% of children who are deaf and 60% of those with an intellectual impairment are sexuallyabused. Parents and medical professionals who murder children withdisabilities often have reduced sentences and use mercy killingdefences – the lives of children with disabilities are not treated asof equal value with others. 98% of children with disabilities acrossthe developing world have no access to education. Discrimination in relation to life saving treatments, to health care,to child care services and education is endemic. Access to justice is routinely denied because they are not consideredcredible witnesses.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Malawi is asignatory, has special provisions for children with a disability.Article 2.1 prohibits discrimination on various grounds, includingdisability. Article 23 sets out the right to special care, ecudationand training.

In Malawi, nationwide statistics show that there were about 70,000children with special needs in all primary schools as of last year, of whom 21 percent were with visual impairment, according to DeputySpecial Needs Education Director in the Ministry of Education, David Njaidi. This number had, in fact, drastically increased from 43,500recorded only in 2005, which shows that there may be thousands more out there who are yet to out into the open (consider the stigmatisation aspect!).

It is, therefore, logical that more needs to be done from the government side by way of making significant investmentsand strategic programming to reduce and address the plight thatchildren with disabilities are facing in the country.

Children and Youth Development in Malawi

2009-12-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

Both local and international actors agree that in just one generation,the human gains derived from various well designed and wellimplemented programmes in child and child development can help breakthe cycles of poverty, disease and violence that affect so manycountries.The World Bank says ensuring healthy child development is aninvestment in a country's future workforce and capacity to thriveeconomically and as a society.

The benefits of investing children andyouth development encourage greater social equity, increase theefficacy of other investments, and address the needs of mothers whilehelping their children. Policies that seek to remedy deficits incurredin the early years are much more costly than initial investments inthe early years.

Yet, according to United Nations Children’s fund (UNICEF), the earlychildhood years tend to receive the least attention and lowestinvestment from governments, as every year, countless numbers ofchildren are stopped in their tracks – deprived, in one way oranother, of the love, care, nurturing, health, nutrition andprotection that they need to survive, grow, develop and learn. Itestimates that nearly 11 million children each year – about 30,000children a day – die before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly frompreventable causes. Of these children, 4 million die in their firstmonth of life.In many of the world’s poorest countries, child mortality rates haveeither not changed or else they have worsened. In sub-Saharan Africa,child mortality averages 173 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Accordingto the Malawi Multiple Indicator Cluster (MICS) 2006 survey, whichGovernment in collaboration with UNICEF officially launched in Julylast year, the maternal mortality remains at 807 per 100,000 livebirths in the country, which means Malawi still has one of the highestmaternal mortality rates in the world, even though the trends showthere has been substantial improvement in recent years. The infantmortality rate is estimated at 72 per 1000 live births, while the under five mortality is 122 per 1000 per 1000 births, according toestimates for five years preceding the survey.

It is clear, therefore, that Malawi needs to make substantialinvestment in Early Childhood and as well as youth development (themajority of whom face unemployment today) if the country is to makemeaningful progress in winning the battle to alleviate poverty for thebenefit of the generations to come.