Tanzania will soon start demarcation of its borders with Mozambique and Zambia, the National Assembly was told here yesterday. The Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr John Chiligati, said there were disputes on the country’s borders with Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, the Comoros and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Moving his ministry’s budget proposals for 2008/09 financial year, Mr Chiligati said Tanzanian officials have consulted their counterparts in Mozambique and Zambia over the issue. He said the demarcation project would be financed by the German Development Fund (GTZ).
Mr Chiligati asked the House to endorse his ministry’s budget of 27,286,790,000/- for the 2008/09 financial year.The minister said diplomatic consultations were going on between Tanzania and Malawi on the protracted border dispute over Lake Nyasa.
“Tanzania says half of the lake belongs to the country, while Malawi contends that it owns the whole of it,” Mr Chiligati told the House. The minister urged authorities in districts on the country’s border to make regular checks and hold good neighbourliness meetings with their counterparts in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Malawi, Mozambique and the Comoros.
Mr Chiligati said the government would continue surveying land in villages and issue title-deeds under customary law. He said until June this year, 690 villages in Shinyanga Rural, Karagwe, Mtwara Rural, Morogoro, Mvomero and Kondoa districts were surveyed.The minister said 500 villages in Mtwara, Kagera and Morogoro regions would be surveyed during the 2008/09 financial year.
He said the ministry would continue to register and offer title-deeds to houses built in unsurveyed areas. He said until June, this year, 264,360 houses were registered in Dar es Salaam. “People holding title-deeds of these houses will have various rights including access to loans in financial institutions,” he said.
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Malawi's tobacco earnings jump 88 pct this year
Malawi expects revenues from tobacco, its main foreign exchange earner, to rise 88 percent this year to about $348 million from $185 million last year, officials said on Wednesday.
Tobacco accounts for over 70 percent of exports and 15 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in this poverty-stricken southern African country.
A total of 143,000 metric tonnes of tobacco was auctioned by end-July pushing tobacco revenues higher, against total volume of 150,000 tonnes exported in the previous year, the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) said.
Higher prices on the auction market in the last two years have encouraged tobacco production, and pushed production from 140,000 tonnes in 2006 to 150,000 tonnes in 2007.
The tobacco regulatory authority projects a steady 150,000 tonnes of output for 2008.
The biggest auction floors saw farmers sell their crop at an average of $2 per kg after Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered buyers to offer better prices or leave the country.
For many years tobacco prices had hovered around 70-90 U.S. cents per kg, far lower than the $1 that it costs to produce one kg of the golden leaf, farmers say.
The country's auction market will close early next month.
About 2 million of the country's 13 million people depend on tobacco and related industries for their livelihood.
Tobacco accounts for over 70 percent of exports and 15 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in this poverty-stricken southern African country.
A total of 143,000 metric tonnes of tobacco was auctioned by end-July pushing tobacco revenues higher, against total volume of 150,000 tonnes exported in the previous year, the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) said.
Higher prices on the auction market in the last two years have encouraged tobacco production, and pushed production from 140,000 tonnes in 2006 to 150,000 tonnes in 2007.
The tobacco regulatory authority projects a steady 150,000 tonnes of output for 2008.
The biggest auction floors saw farmers sell their crop at an average of $2 per kg after Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika ordered buyers to offer better prices or leave the country.
For many years tobacco prices had hovered around 70-90 U.S. cents per kg, far lower than the $1 that it costs to produce one kg of the golden leaf, farmers say.
The country's auction market will close early next month.
About 2 million of the country's 13 million people depend on tobacco and related industries for their livelihood.
Finances & Rural Life in Malawi
This post is about how the average rural Malawian can deal with finances. It has a lot to do with the Waterloo chapter’s term theme – micro finance. This is just a broad overview of how people keep money, the banking situation, and the loan situation in Chinteche. Feel free to post, email, or call me with questions! Questions can be anything…from where does your family keep their money, to how is the NGO sector benefiting or hindering the rural poor? Alright, here goes…ChintechePopulation: 4-5 thousandFeatures: the midpoint between Dwangwa and Nkhata Bay (which are almost a day’s drive apart). Basically truck/bus stop. Lots of bars, restaurants and places to sleep. Also a good sized market, but things are pricy, since most things (besides some crops that are locally grown) come from Mzuzu, the nearest big city.Banks in Malawi: NBS, National Bank, and Standard BankNearest banks: There is only one NBS bank between Mzuzu and Salima (which are over 500km apart), and that’s in the town of Nkhata Bay (40km away from Chinteche). Mzuzu and Salima both have all three banks.Cost and time to nearest banks: Mzuzu — 2-3 hours by mini-bus or coach, MK750. Salima — 6 hours by mini-bus or coach, MK800 or so. Nkhata Bay — 1 hour by mini-bus or coach, MK350.This isn’t realistic for most people. That’s a lot of time and money spent just to go get money. Also, banks have a minimum amount that you need to keep in them, usually a few thousand kwacha, which is definitely not something most people have lying around.So who uses these banks? Mainly government and NGO employees. Maybe some businesses that are doing well, but generally small business people don’t use banks.Where do people put their money?Ask the post office to hold their money. I think all trading centers have post offices, and you can ask the post office to keep your money safe. However, they can sometimes be jerks, and if you want to take about more than K2000, you need to write a letter. Ya…a lot of people can’t even write!Ask a trustworthy old person to keep your money. The elderly are very respected in village life, so you can trust that they won’t have your money stolen. However, the problem here is, if they die suddenly…where did they keep your money?Keep it in your house and hope for the best!How do people get loans?Informal lenders, called ‘catapira’ (I may have the spelling wrong here, I’m not sure). They charge usually about 50% interest, which is ridiculous! I would compare them to loan sharks in North America, but maybe involved in less drugs. They’re usually just regular people who have saved up a lot of money, quit their jobs and become catapira. They expect to be paid on a monthly basis, and if you miss a payment, then interest increases. If you miss a lot of payments, they’ll take your furniture and things.If they have a job, many places have it set up that employees can ask for loans that are automatically deducted from their salaries. For example, the Vizara rubber making factory has this set up. For every loan you take, they take K1000 off your salary every month. However there is a cap for some reason, so you can’t take a loan of more than K5000.NGOs in my area making loans? I only know of one, and I haven’t found out very much about it yet. It’s called Thincom, and operates in Nkhata Bay. They do business skills trainings before they give out their loans. They expect 50% interest, and they expect payment on a weekly basis. That’s all I know about this organization…I will try to find out more!Find a friend who has more money than you! This obviously doesn’t work well for large loans…but if you need a bit of cash, find someone who has a job, and if they like you, you’re in luck! Often, this is more of a form of charity, and the ones giving the money call it a loan so that their friends can keep their dignity.Challenges: I’m sure you’ve picked up many, in just reading the above descriptions. It’s really hard for people to get a good chunk of money at a decent interest rate. It’s nearly impossible. More often than not, when people need money, they go to close relatives or good friends. I feel like the only people able to get loans are people with a bit of money already, even from the NGO sector.
Malawi Parliament Agrees to Pass Budget Subject to `Resolution'
Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe tables a ``resolution'' explaining government expenditure over the last four months.
It would be illegal to pass the 229.2 billion Malawian kwacha ($1.6 billion) budget before the resolution, Friday Jumbe, a spokesman for the opposition United Democratic Front, said in Lilongwe today.
``While there's general agreement now that the budget should be passed, we can't do so until the finance minister has tabled a financial resolution authorizing government's expenditure over the last four months,'' Jumbe said. The budget should be passed by the end of the week, he added.
The UDF, the Alliance for Democracy and the Malawi Congress Party have delayed passing the budget every year since 2004. The opposition parties say President Bingu wa Mutharika's ruling Democratic Progressive Party holds as many as 70 illegal seats in parliament after lawmakers changed allegiances to join his DPP.
Wa Mutharika won Malawi's presidency on a UDF ticket before quitting the party to form his own.
It would be illegal to pass the 229.2 billion Malawian kwacha ($1.6 billion) budget before the resolution, Friday Jumbe, a spokesman for the opposition United Democratic Front, said in Lilongwe today.
``While there's general agreement now that the budget should be passed, we can't do so until the finance minister has tabled a financial resolution authorizing government's expenditure over the last four months,'' Jumbe said. The budget should be passed by the end of the week, he added.
The UDF, the Alliance for Democracy and the Malawi Congress Party have delayed passing the budget every year since 2004. The opposition parties say President Bingu wa Mutharika's ruling Democratic Progressive Party holds as many as 70 illegal seats in parliament after lawmakers changed allegiances to join his DPP.
Wa Mutharika won Malawi's presidency on a UDF ticket before quitting the party to form his own.
Widespread NRTI and NNRTI resistance seen in Malawian patients failing first-line
To date, few data have been reported on emerging drug resistance patterns in Africa. In an oral presentation at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City on August 5th, delegates heard that drug resistance was widespread among people failing antiretroviral treatment in Malawi, due to lack of viral load testing to identify virologic treatment failure.
Patterns of resistance mutations among this group were also described in data presented by Mina Hosseinipour of the UNC Project, Lilongwe.
People who are allowed to continue on a treatment regimen after virologic failure (i.e., after viral load has rebounded to consistently detectable levels) are highly likely to develop resistance to one or more of their treatment drugs, and possibly cross-resistance to other drugs in the same treatment classes.
However, since many resource-limited settings are unable to provide viral load monitoring, virologic failure is seldom detected. Instead, treatment failure is gauged by clinical progression or immunologic failure (falls in CD4 cell count). As virologic treatment failure almost always occurs first, reliance on clinical or immunologic signs of treatment failure virtually guarantees the development of drug resistance.
Over 130,000 HIV-positive persons in Malawi have started antiretroviral treatment. First line therapy for all patients is stavudine (d4T), lamivudine (3TC) and nevirapine (NVP); patients may be switched from d4T to zidovudine (AZT) or nevirapine to efavirenz for reasons of toxicity. Those who fail first line treatment are started on a combination of AZT, 3TC, tenofovir, and lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra). According to Malawian national guidelines, clinical failure is defined as the development of a new Stage 4 condition, and immunologic failure is defined as a decline in CD4 cell counts to 50% of the pre-treatment CD4 cell count baseline; patients are only switched to second-line therapy when either of these conditions occurs.
Due to inability to afford routine viral load testing, "we are rarely able to catch virologic failure," stated Dr. Hosseinipour. "We simply hope that there are no lopinavir resistance patterns in patients failing first-line therapy, so that patients have the best chance of success with second-line treatment."
In this prospective study, the research team evaluated the prevalence and patterns of resistance mutations emerging in patients failing first line ART in Lilongwe and Blantyre. A total of 101 patients confirmed as meeting the definition of ART failure (according to the definition above), from December 2005 to July 2007, were evaluated. Virologic failure was confirmed by viral load testing; genotypic analysis was then performed on blood samples with HIV viral loads of at least 1000 copies/ml. Resistance mutations were defined as per IAS-USA guidelines.
In the 101 patients analysed, the mean CD4 count was 121 cells/mm3, mean viral load was 135,984 copies/ml, and mean duration on ART was 38 months. Ninety-six patients were identified with virologic failure with viral loads over 1000 copies/ml. HIV RNA in two samples could not be amplified, leaving 94 samples for analysis.
Resistance patterns identified
Five percent of the samples were wild-type, with no mutations identified.
NNRTI mutations (181C, 103N, 106M, 188L, 190A) were seen in 93% of the samples. The 3TC-associated M184V (or M184I) mutation was seen in 81% of the samples. These were most commonly seen together: no samples showed only an M184 mutation, and only 2% had only an NNRTI-associated mutation.
The so-called TAMs (thymidine analogue mutations), associated with resistance to AZT and d4T, were identified in 56% of the samples – one or two TAMs in 32%, three or more in 25% (three or more thymidine analogue mutations are likely to substantially reduce the response to tenofovir in second-line treatment). The most common pattern overall was an accumulation of NNRTI mutations, plus M184, plus one or more TAMs (the most common being 215F/Y).
Tenofovir-associated mutations (K65R or K70E) were seen in 23%, and tenofovir mutations plus TAMs in 7%. What Dr. Hosseinipour referred to as "pan-nucleoside mutation combinations" occurred in 17%: these corresponded to K65R or K70E plus additional multi-nucleoside resistance mutations, most commonly the Q151M complex and/or (more rarely) 69 insertions.
Risk factors for resistance
CD4 cell counts below 100 cells/mm3 significantly increased the risk of K65R or K70E mutations (adjusted odds ratio, 6.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.47 to 25.0) and of pan-nucleoside mutations (odds ratio, 9.8; 95% CI, 1.16 to 82.9). Use of AZT lowered the risk of both types of mutations, with an odds ratio of 0.18 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.94) for K65R/K70E, and 0.12 (95% CI, 0.014 to 0.978) for pan-nucleoside mutations. (All figures were from a multivariate analysis adjusting for sex, viral load, CD4 count, and AZT use.)
However, both CD4 cell counts < 100 cells/mm3 and AZT use increased the risk of developing more than three TAMS: the odds ratio for CD4 cells was 5.57 (95% CI, 1.41 to 22.02), and for AZT use, 3.4 (95% CI, 1.07 to 10.97).
Study limitations included not knowing the exact duration of virologic failure, of using phenotypic resistance associations for clade B virus that might not necessarily apply to clade C or other virus, and of being unable to determine any potentially archived resistance beyond that detected in circulating blood.
However, the researchers were able to conclude that, "upon first line ART failure diagnosis which relied on clinical and CD4 monitoring, extensive resistance was present to NRTI/NNRTI agents, including 17% of patients who acquired pan-NRTI resistant virus and an additional 56% who likely had reduced susceptibility to multiple NRTIs." Including AZT in the first-line regimen "appears protective for the emergence of tenofovir and pan-nucleoside resistance mutations but increases the risk for developing multiple (three or more) TAMs."
These findings "have profound implications for the optimal time to switch treatment and the choice of second line therapy for developing countries." Depending on the second-line combination chosen, between 22% and 50% of Malawian patients with first-line failure may have no fully active drugs in their second regimen part from Kaletra.
In a question and answer session, Dr. Hosseinipour reiterated that "viral load monitoring does have to come into the forefront. We have to find some feasible method of measuring viral load in resource-limited settings, if not necessarily the standard assays now in use. Other studies all point to the need to use virologic monitoring to ensure treatment success."
Asked whether specific drugs appear to select for K65R, Hosseinipour stated that "all K65Rs except two were in people who'd been on d4T, and the other two were only on AZT for short periods of time, so it seems it's very clearly d4T that's selecting for K65R."
(The questioner, McGill University's Mark Wainberg, stated that this was in agreement with their own data, and that "we should stop referring to K65R as an tenofovir mutation and acknowledge that it's selected by multiple drugs including NRTIs.")
Patterns of resistance mutations among this group were also described in data presented by Mina Hosseinipour of the UNC Project, Lilongwe.
People who are allowed to continue on a treatment regimen after virologic failure (i.e., after viral load has rebounded to consistently detectable levels) are highly likely to develop resistance to one or more of their treatment drugs, and possibly cross-resistance to other drugs in the same treatment classes.
However, since many resource-limited settings are unable to provide viral load monitoring, virologic failure is seldom detected. Instead, treatment failure is gauged by clinical progression or immunologic failure (falls in CD4 cell count). As virologic treatment failure almost always occurs first, reliance on clinical or immunologic signs of treatment failure virtually guarantees the development of drug resistance.
Over 130,000 HIV-positive persons in Malawi have started antiretroviral treatment. First line therapy for all patients is stavudine (d4T), lamivudine (3TC) and nevirapine (NVP); patients may be switched from d4T to zidovudine (AZT) or nevirapine to efavirenz for reasons of toxicity. Those who fail first line treatment are started on a combination of AZT, 3TC, tenofovir, and lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra). According to Malawian national guidelines, clinical failure is defined as the development of a new Stage 4 condition, and immunologic failure is defined as a decline in CD4 cell counts to 50% of the pre-treatment CD4 cell count baseline; patients are only switched to second-line therapy when either of these conditions occurs.
Due to inability to afford routine viral load testing, "we are rarely able to catch virologic failure," stated Dr. Hosseinipour. "We simply hope that there are no lopinavir resistance patterns in patients failing first-line therapy, so that patients have the best chance of success with second-line treatment."
In this prospective study, the research team evaluated the prevalence and patterns of resistance mutations emerging in patients failing first line ART in Lilongwe and Blantyre. A total of 101 patients confirmed as meeting the definition of ART failure (according to the definition above), from December 2005 to July 2007, were evaluated. Virologic failure was confirmed by viral load testing; genotypic analysis was then performed on blood samples with HIV viral loads of at least 1000 copies/ml. Resistance mutations were defined as per IAS-USA guidelines.
In the 101 patients analysed, the mean CD4 count was 121 cells/mm3, mean viral load was 135,984 copies/ml, and mean duration on ART was 38 months. Ninety-six patients were identified with virologic failure with viral loads over 1000 copies/ml. HIV RNA in two samples could not be amplified, leaving 94 samples for analysis.
Resistance patterns identified
Five percent of the samples were wild-type, with no mutations identified.
NNRTI mutations (181C, 103N, 106M, 188L, 190A) were seen in 93% of the samples. The 3TC-associated M184V (or M184I) mutation was seen in 81% of the samples. These were most commonly seen together: no samples showed only an M184 mutation, and only 2% had only an NNRTI-associated mutation.
The so-called TAMs (thymidine analogue mutations), associated with resistance to AZT and d4T, were identified in 56% of the samples – one or two TAMs in 32%, three or more in 25% (three or more thymidine analogue mutations are likely to substantially reduce the response to tenofovir in second-line treatment). The most common pattern overall was an accumulation of NNRTI mutations, plus M184, plus one or more TAMs (the most common being 215F/Y).
Tenofovir-associated mutations (K65R or K70E) were seen in 23%, and tenofovir mutations plus TAMs in 7%. What Dr. Hosseinipour referred to as "pan-nucleoside mutation combinations" occurred in 17%: these corresponded to K65R or K70E plus additional multi-nucleoside resistance mutations, most commonly the Q151M complex and/or (more rarely) 69 insertions.
Risk factors for resistance
CD4 cell counts below 100 cells/mm3 significantly increased the risk of K65R or K70E mutations (adjusted odds ratio, 6.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.47 to 25.0) and of pan-nucleoside mutations (odds ratio, 9.8; 95% CI, 1.16 to 82.9). Use of AZT lowered the risk of both types of mutations, with an odds ratio of 0.18 (95% CI, 0.04 to 0.94) for K65R/K70E, and 0.12 (95% CI, 0.014 to 0.978) for pan-nucleoside mutations. (All figures were from a multivariate analysis adjusting for sex, viral load, CD4 count, and AZT use.)
However, both CD4 cell counts < 100 cells/mm3 and AZT use increased the risk of developing more than three TAMS: the odds ratio for CD4 cells was 5.57 (95% CI, 1.41 to 22.02), and for AZT use, 3.4 (95% CI, 1.07 to 10.97).
Study limitations included not knowing the exact duration of virologic failure, of using phenotypic resistance associations for clade B virus that might not necessarily apply to clade C or other virus, and of being unable to determine any potentially archived resistance beyond that detected in circulating blood.
However, the researchers were able to conclude that, "upon first line ART failure diagnosis which relied on clinical and CD4 monitoring, extensive resistance was present to NRTI/NNRTI agents, including 17% of patients who acquired pan-NRTI resistant virus and an additional 56% who likely had reduced susceptibility to multiple NRTIs." Including AZT in the first-line regimen "appears protective for the emergence of tenofovir and pan-nucleoside resistance mutations but increases the risk for developing multiple (three or more) TAMs."
These findings "have profound implications for the optimal time to switch treatment and the choice of second line therapy for developing countries." Depending on the second-line combination chosen, between 22% and 50% of Malawian patients with first-line failure may have no fully active drugs in their second regimen part from Kaletra.
In a question and answer session, Dr. Hosseinipour reiterated that "viral load monitoring does have to come into the forefront. We have to find some feasible method of measuring viral load in resource-limited settings, if not necessarily the standard assays now in use. Other studies all point to the need to use virologic monitoring to ensure treatment success."
Asked whether specific drugs appear to select for K65R, Hosseinipour stated that "all K65Rs except two were in people who'd been on d4T, and the other two were only on AZT for short periods of time, so it seems it's very clearly d4T that's selecting for K65R."
(The questioner, McGill University's Mark Wainberg, stated that this was in agreement with their own data, and that "we should stop referring to K65R as an tenofovir mutation and acknowledge that it's selected by multiple drugs including NRTIs.")
Scores killed in Malawi road crash
Blantyre - Twenty-four people were killed and another 26 injured when a five-ton lorry overturned in northern Malawi, police said on Tuesday.
"The cause of the accident was due to overspeeding as the driver failed to negotiate a sharp bend," Clifford Bandawe of Mzimba district police said. The driver suffered minor injuries.
The accident happened on the main highway linking the capital city Lilongwe to the north on Monday night. The vehicle was carrying 50 people.
Those injured were transferred to the main hospital in Mzuzu, some 100 kilometres away.
Drivers in rural Malawi often overload vehicles with passengers, and road crashes kill an average of four people per day in the impoverished country.
"The cause of the accident was due to overspeeding as the driver failed to negotiate a sharp bend," Clifford Bandawe of Mzimba district police said. The driver suffered minor injuries.
The accident happened on the main highway linking the capital city Lilongwe to the north on Monday night. The vehicle was carrying 50 people.
Those injured were transferred to the main hospital in Mzuzu, some 100 kilometres away.
Drivers in rural Malawi often overload vehicles with passengers, and road crashes kill an average of four people per day in the impoverished country.
Mtawali takes a step higher in coaching
Former Mamelodi Sundowns legend Ernest Mtawali is set to add another feather to his coaching cap as he is scheduled to attend an international Uefa ‘A’ licence course at Lilleshall in England from August 16.
Mtawali, who is Malawi’s national Under-20 team coach, has been earmarked to attend the course alongside another up-and-coming Malawian coach McDonald Mtetemera, who was an assistant to former Flames English coach, Stephen Constantine.
“Mtawali has shown a lot of promise during his short spell with the Under-20’s and we want to groom him so that we can have a pool of highly qualified coaches,” says Football Association of Malawi (FAM) administration manager Suzgo Nyirenda.
But Malawi FA’s choice of Mtawali has sparked some controversy with national women football trainer Thom Mkorongo claiming that he was the right man to travel to UK for the course.
Mkorongo argues that England FA instructors recommended him for the ‘A’ licence course alongside Blackpool FC coach Trevor Kajawa after they both emerged on top during an international preliminary course held in Malawi last year.
But FAM chief executive officer Charles Nyirenda has hit back at Mkorongo, saying it is the association which chooses candidates for training basing on several factors, “hence Mtawali qualifies for the UK training and Mkorongo should be patient.”
24 killed in Malawi road crash
BLANTYRE - Twenty-four people were killed and another 26 injured when a five-ton lorry overturned in northern Malawi, police said yesterday.
"The cause of the accident was due to overspeeding as the driver failed to negotiate a sharp bend," Clifford Bandawe of Mzimba district police said. The driver suffered minor injuries.
The accident happened on the main highway linking the capital city Lilongwe to the north on Monday night. The vehicle was carrying 50 people.
Those injured were transferred to the main hospital in Mzuzu, some 100 kilometres away.
Drivers in rural Malawi often overload vehicles with passengers, and road crashes kill an average of four people per day in the impoverished country.
"The cause of the accident was due to overspeeding as the driver failed to negotiate a sharp bend," Clifford Bandawe of Mzimba district police said. The driver suffered minor injuries.
The accident happened on the main highway linking the capital city Lilongwe to the north on Monday night. The vehicle was carrying 50 people.
Those injured were transferred to the main hospital in Mzuzu, some 100 kilometres away.
Drivers in rural Malawi often overload vehicles with passengers, and road crashes kill an average of four people per day in the impoverished country.
Group from the U of R heading to Malawi
REGINA -- University of Regina faculty members will be heading to Malawi next Thursday to implement a project aimed at improving technical vocational training in the African nation.
The project began in 2001 when faculty members from the University of Malawi Polytechnic came to visit SIAST and expressed an interest in working with the University of Regina as well.
"They came to us and we had some initial discussions," said Abu Bockarie, a education professor and member of the adult and human resources development program at the U of R.
"Then after that we got some support from the university here to travel down to Malawi to look at the technical vocational education system there to see how we can help to build some capacity to the system."
The group, which consists of members from the U of R as well as SIAST, will spend 10 days in Malawi gathering information and drafting a revised proposal to submit to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The agency's University Partnerships in Co-operation and Development Program is funding the project along with the federal government.
"We're going to prepare the project implementation plan. That involves looking back at the proposal that was submitted to CIDA originally, because that was done about a year ago so we look at new developments in the country, we look at new policies, etc.," explained Bockarie.
"On the basis of that we are going to update the proposal to make sure some of the things that were mentioned before are still okay and are still valid."
The group will also develop a year one work plan that will detail what they hope to accomplish from October until the end of March.
Finally, based on any revisions and new developments, the final six-year project plan will be submitted to CIDA for approval.
Bockarie said one of the key aspects of the project will be developing strategic planning processes and methods with the faculty at the Malawi university.
"There will be a workshop there, we will travel and work in Malawi to deliver the project on that particular topic," he added.
Another key topic will be the idea of fostering partnerships with other businesses, industries and organizations in Malawi.
"One of the problems they have was that the curriculum of the polytechnic vocational training down there does not meet initial developmental needs, doesn't really meet the needs of business and industry," said Bockarie.
"Part of the reason for that was because there was no collaboration, no partnership, with businesses and industries. So one of the things we want to foster is how can you work together as a partner. On this project we are working with SIAST, we are showing that a partnership is a wonderful thing."
Bockarie pointed out that the most important aspect of the project is "the notion that people should learn to work together for the benefit of society as a whole."
"Its not really about us here, it's about the people of Malawi. If we are able to build the capacity of the technical vocational education system down there, the chances are that they are going to be able to produce graduates who are employable in the public and private sectors," he explained.
"If people have the skills necessary, the competencies necessary and the abilities necessary to find jobs, that's going to help in terms of the eradication of poverty across the country. That's our hope."
The project began in 2001 when faculty members from the University of Malawi Polytechnic came to visit SIAST and expressed an interest in working with the University of Regina as well.
"They came to us and we had some initial discussions," said Abu Bockarie, a education professor and member of the adult and human resources development program at the U of R.
"Then after that we got some support from the university here to travel down to Malawi to look at the technical vocational education system there to see how we can help to build some capacity to the system."
The group, which consists of members from the U of R as well as SIAST, will spend 10 days in Malawi gathering information and drafting a revised proposal to submit to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The agency's University Partnerships in Co-operation and Development Program is funding the project along with the federal government.
"We're going to prepare the project implementation plan. That involves looking back at the proposal that was submitted to CIDA originally, because that was done about a year ago so we look at new developments in the country, we look at new policies, etc.," explained Bockarie.
"On the basis of that we are going to update the proposal to make sure some of the things that were mentioned before are still okay and are still valid."
The group will also develop a year one work plan that will detail what they hope to accomplish from October until the end of March.
Finally, based on any revisions and new developments, the final six-year project plan will be submitted to CIDA for approval.
Bockarie said one of the key aspects of the project will be developing strategic planning processes and methods with the faculty at the Malawi university.
"There will be a workshop there, we will travel and work in Malawi to deliver the project on that particular topic," he added.
Another key topic will be the idea of fostering partnerships with other businesses, industries and organizations in Malawi.
"One of the problems they have was that the curriculum of the polytechnic vocational training down there does not meet initial developmental needs, doesn't really meet the needs of business and industry," said Bockarie.
"Part of the reason for that was because there was no collaboration, no partnership, with businesses and industries. So one of the things we want to foster is how can you work together as a partner. On this project we are working with SIAST, we are showing that a partnership is a wonderful thing."
Bockarie pointed out that the most important aspect of the project is "the notion that people should learn to work together for the benefit of society as a whole."
"Its not really about us here, it's about the people of Malawi. If we are able to build the capacity of the technical vocational education system down there, the chances are that they are going to be able to produce graduates who are employable in the public and private sectors," he explained.
"If people have the skills necessary, the competencies necessary and the abilities necessary to find jobs, that's going to help in terms of the eradication of poverty across the country. That's our hope."
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