New Norms and Forms of Development, Malawi dissemination event, Lilongwe
New Norms and Forms of Development, Malawi dissemination event, Lilongwe
26th of August 2016, 8 am – 2 pm
The final dissemination event of the New Norms and Forms of Development project was held at the Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, Malawi. The Guest of Honor was Dr. Ronald Mangani. The 37 participants included national and international donor agencies and NGOs, academics and Malawian Government officials. Mr Gibson Masache, on behalf of our research partner Kamuzu College of Nursing gave a brief introduction to the day’s programme. He then introduced Ms. Fannie Kachale (Director, Reproductive Health Unit, MoH) who welcomed the Guest of Honour and other participants, including the research team in KCN and University of Edinburgh. Ms Kachale then briefly talked about the Maternal and Child Health situation in Malawi, and her support towards this research and the value of the findings for External Development Partners and also for the Malawian Health system.
Based on his current experience as the Secretary to the Treasury, Government of Malawi, Dr. Ronald Mangani gave a very moving talk on foreign aid in Malawi and the major challenges related to donor coordination. He highlighted aid dependency a major development challenge in the country. He also talked about another major issue of aid sustainability, as there is an increasing trend in donors channeling funds outside of the government system. Prof. Address Malata and Prof. Pam Smith gave a brief introduction to the research project and the nature of collaboration / partnership between the KCN and University of Edinburgh. Then Dr. Jeevan Sharma and Dr. Radha Adhikari presented key research findings, which were:
- Social and political organization plays a key role in international development
- Use of relationships and institutional networks is vital for programmatic success
- Development projects and programmes are based on new norms of ‘value for money, evidence and measurement of results’.
Following the event, participants gathered for a group photograph to celebrate the successful completion of the project.
There was a dedicated time for open discussion. Participants raised very important issues around foreign aid, sustainability and donors’ behavior and current challenges the Malawian government/health system is facing. All participants were very engaged and raised critical questions around the foreign aid channeling mechanism in Malawi. In summary, all participants found our study findings critical to Malawi’s health system and very policy relevant. A number of participants including Dr. Ruth Mwandira from the DFID, Victoria Loiya, GIZ (Technical Advisor) suggested that they would share the key findings with their senior policy staff in their organisations.
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