SA mentors Malawi on capital development

South African representatives from the city of Johannesburg were in Malawi last Tuesday where they among others helped to mentor the countryt in developing its own capital, Lilongwe based on Joburg's experiences.

Jan Erasmus, one of the South African delegates in Malawi, was pragmatic about the trip.

"Lilongwe must not put us on a pedestal because we are also still working on building a better Joburg. But we will help them where we can," he told allAfrica.com the workshop.

Despite discussing several issues on the capital development, South Africa's officials l also provided technical assistance regarding the drafting of the strategy.
The country is to help with strategic analysis related to national frameworks, opportunities, environment, pre-evaluation and relevant lessons learned by the mentor city.

Malawi's capital, Lilongwe was also given advice on key topics such as local economic development, innovation and productivity, urban and spatial planning and natural resources, management and financing of infrastructure and services, set up of participatory processes, and methodologies and tools for an action plan.

The SA delegates also toured the Malawian capital, and assessed public service provision and growth trends.

The delegates who arrived last week Monday and visited businesses and got a geographical view of the place.

During the workshop, there were presentations on the approaches undertaken by Lilongwe in drawing up its City Development Strategy.

Johannesburg representatives also gave a presentation on moving from zero to results, and spoke about applying lessons learned.

The relationship between the two cities goes back to July 2007, when RSA hosted 19 African countries.

Representatives from Lilongwe said that they were struggling with a number of issues and asked for help from the city.

The chief executive of the South African Local Government Association, Xolile George, was tasked with supporting mentoring activities in Africa with formalising the mentor relationship between Lilongwe and Johannesburg. It is led by the city's central strategy unit.

Malawi bans maize exports amid food supply concerns

Malawi said on Wednesday it had banned maize exports to all countries, except Zimbabwe, to ensure it had sufficient stocks to feed over a million people who lost crops due to flooding earlier this year.

The move comes amid increasing concerns about rising food costs in developing countries as protests flare around the globe. Faced with surging commodities prices an increasing number of countries have curbed food exports in a bid to secure supplies and limit inflation.

"Anyone found exporting maize or maize products will be liable to prosecution. This is in accordance with the provisions of the control of goods act under the laws of Malawi," Minister of Trade and Industry Henry Mussa said in a statement.

Mussa told Reuters the ban did not apply to neighbouring Zimbabwe.

"The ban is targeting unscrupulous traders operating under the guise of trade liberalization to export maize illegally. But this (ban) does not stop exports to Zimbabwe," Mussa told Reuters.

The southern African nation of Malawi harvested 3.1 million tonnes of maize last season, its biggest in 10 years. Malawi agreed to export 400,000 tonnes to neighbouring Zimbabwe, which is battling an economic crisis.

Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world, started rationing the sale of maize two months ago following a report in parliament that the country's stocks were dwindling as heavy flooding wiped out many crops.

U.N. agencies in Malawi estimate that a million or more people may need food aid after floods destroyed fields in 14 districts earlier in the year. About 72,000 people have been left homeless and six killed by flooding.

Mussa said that Malawi has enough maize, but wants to make certain there is enough food in the country.

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has denied the country is running out of maize despite a report that two people starved to death, and opposition claims that the government sold too much of its maize to Zimbabwe.

"We had warned the government not to sell 400,000 tonnes to Zimbabwe at our expense and now this is what is happening," Ishmael Chafukira, spokesperson for the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, told Reuters.

"The ban should be extended to Zimbabwean exports," he said.

Impoverished Malawi set for another bumper harvest in 2008

THYOLO, Malawi — Impoverished Malawi is set for a bumper harvest of 3.3 million tonnes of maize which will yield a one million tonne surplus in a country once crippled by famine, officials said Wednesday.

"The first and second round of estimates show that Malawi expects to harvest 3.3 million tonnes of maize," Frank Mwenifumbo, deputy agriculture minister, told AFP.

Malawi, which annually needs two million tonnes to feed its population, in 2007 harvested 3.2 million tonnes, representing a 22 percent increase from 2006.

Over 400,000 tonnes of the surplus maize from last year's harvest was exported to cash-strapped Zimbabwe, once the region's bread-basket.

The poor southern African nation met its food needs in 2006 for the first time in seven years following a string of poor harvests, mainly due to drought.

Food security is a pressing issue in Malawi, where 60 percent of its people live below the poverty line and on less than a dollar a day.

Famine threatened up to five million people in 2005 following drought and the government spent over 100 million dollars to import food from South Africa and the region to avert hunger.

McConnell calls for Scottish agent in Malawi

Scotland should have its own representative in Malawi co-ordinating its aid effort in the African country, according to former First Minister Jack McConnell.

As the future British High Commissioner in the capital, Lilongwe, he told MSPs in Holyrood's External Affairs Committee yesterday that the level of activity sparked by his initiative in building a special relationship between Scotland and Malawi also required a central point of contact for offers of help in Scotland.

There should be better co-ordination of transporation of supplies to Malawi, as existing arrangements are no longer sufficient to cope with the desire of Scots to contribute. And he argued there should be widened support for older volunteers from the public sector to work in Malawi, while sustaining their pension contributions at home.

Mr McConnell, who has taken on a part-time role working with Malawi for the foundation set up by President Bill Clinton and Scottish philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter, said the relationship is not all about Malawians benefiting, but that Scotland is learning from the encounter as well.

The former government leader suggested the unusual relationship between the devolved administration in Scotland and the African state could be used as a model for other parts of Europe.

He said the revival of a relationship going back to imperial links through David Livingstone, missionaries and trading is seen in Malawi as "Scotland's second coming".

Also appearing before MSPs, Malcolm Bruce, the LibDem MP for Gordon who chairs Westminster's International Development Select Committee, said Scotland should not spread its aid effort too widely, but should focus on its "niche".