Malawi has almost 500 NGOs,
most of which are funded by international donors. But many NGOs don’t
work closely with local communities, so when they leave, projects
collapse.
After working in the Mulanje district for 15 years, World Vision stopped facilitating a project that provided vulnerable children with school materials and basic healthcare, and the local community with low-cost maize. The people entrusted with maintaining the project failed to pay the rent and the landlord evicted them. Now only an empty building signifies the project ever existed. World Vision relocated to another area of the country.
Fred Movete, Mulanje district commissioner, says that organisations must prioritise what the community wants if sustainability is to be achieved. “NGOs must follow the district’s development agenda so that we can carry on once they leave. But it is also a problem that the NGOs don’t implement what the community needs,” says Movete. “In the past, a lot of money [from NGOs] has been channeled to HIV/Aids. Even if we tell them our priority its water and sanitation because a lot of children are dying from waterborne diseases, they will never buy it.”
Not involving the local community from the start of a project is a common problem. “When we sat down at our organisation we realised that we are lacking community participation,” says Andiyesa Mhango, project manager for Enhanced Livelihood through Gender Empowerment, an Adventist Relief Agency (Adra) project. She adds: “When you involve people right from the beginning, they own it and when it comes to rolling out the project, the community knows everything, including where they can source money.”
Mhango cites a community that has managed to build a school costing 8m Malawian kwacha (around £9,500) without the assistance of any organisation. According to her, the members mobilised themselves and wrote a proposal to the government, which was later accepted, through a local area development fund.
Another organisation that is doing things differently is European Coalition of Positive People, an NGO that pays school fees for orphans and runs after-school centres where children can learn carpentry, tailoring and music and have a hot meal. It has worked in Malawi for 13 years and supported more than 2,500 orphaned children.
ECPP is now scaling down some of its operations and handing over its maize mills, transformers and other electrical equipments to traditional leaders, who will act as patrons of the centres. “The ECPP has been working with these communities for a long time and through the years has trained and empowered communities, including some orphans who are now graduates in different fields, in understanding their roles and how to manage these projects,” says Joan D’Souza, director of operations for ECPP.
Senior chief Chikumbu, who was entrusted with running one of the ECPP orphan centres, says hopes the project will continue. “We’ve been trained in how to take care of the place, and the nursery, tailoring and carpentry schools will help us generate funds for the project,” she says.
“By keeping people at the centre of the design process, you’re far more likely to arrive at solutions that they’ll adopt and embrace,” says D’Souza. “This will enable the success of the projects.”
One organisation that has experienced a heavy blow is the National Association of People Living with HIV and Aids in Malawi (Napham), one of the earliest organisations to address HIV/Aids issues in the country. Established in 1993, the organisation ran support groups across the country and projects to support people with HIV, including community gardens.
Lack of funding led to many support groups closing down and it’s not clear how the NGO will sustain its activities.
Malawi’s dependence on foreign-funded NGOs puts the country in a vulnerable position. The only way to step away from that is community engagement that goes beyond lip service to genuine involvement.
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter.
After working in the Mulanje district for 15 years, World Vision stopped facilitating a project that provided vulnerable children with school materials and basic healthcare, and the local community with low-cost maize. The people entrusted with maintaining the project failed to pay the rent and the landlord evicted them. Now only an empty building signifies the project ever existed. World Vision relocated to another area of the country.
Fred Movete, Mulanje district commissioner, says that organisations must prioritise what the community wants if sustainability is to be achieved. “NGOs must follow the district’s development agenda so that we can carry on once they leave. But it is also a problem that the NGOs don’t implement what the community needs,” says Movete. “In the past, a lot of money [from NGOs] has been channeled to HIV/Aids. Even if we tell them our priority its water and sanitation because a lot of children are dying from waterborne diseases, they will never buy it.”
Not involving the local community from the start of a project is a common problem. “When we sat down at our organisation we realised that we are lacking community participation,” says Andiyesa Mhango, project manager for Enhanced Livelihood through Gender Empowerment, an Adventist Relief Agency (Adra) project. She adds: “When you involve people right from the beginning, they own it and when it comes to rolling out the project, the community knows everything, including where they can source money.”
Mhango cites a community that has managed to build a school costing 8m Malawian kwacha (around £9,500) without the assistance of any organisation. According to her, the members mobilised themselves and wrote a proposal to the government, which was later accepted, through a local area development fund.
Another organisation that is doing things differently is European Coalition of Positive People, an NGO that pays school fees for orphans and runs after-school centres where children can learn carpentry, tailoring and music and have a hot meal. It has worked in Malawi for 13 years and supported more than 2,500 orphaned children.
ECPP is now scaling down some of its operations and handing over its maize mills, transformers and other electrical equipments to traditional leaders, who will act as patrons of the centres. “The ECPP has been working with these communities for a long time and through the years has trained and empowered communities, including some orphans who are now graduates in different fields, in understanding their roles and how to manage these projects,” says Joan D’Souza, director of operations for ECPP.
Senior chief Chikumbu, who was entrusted with running one of the ECPP orphan centres, says hopes the project will continue. “We’ve been trained in how to take care of the place, and the nursery, tailoring and carpentry schools will help us generate funds for the project,” she says.
“By keeping people at the centre of the design process, you’re far more likely to arrive at solutions that they’ll adopt and embrace,” says D’Souza. “This will enable the success of the projects.”
One organisation that has experienced a heavy blow is the National Association of People Living with HIV and Aids in Malawi (Napham), one of the earliest organisations to address HIV/Aids issues in the country. Established in 1993, the organisation ran support groups across the country and projects to support people with HIV, including community gardens.
Lack of funding led to many support groups closing down and it’s not clear how the NGO will sustain its activities.
Malawi’s dependence on foreign-funded NGOs puts the country in a vulnerable position. The only way to step away from that is community engagement that goes beyond lip service to genuine involvement.
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter.
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