Malawi Development Programme

More than £11 million is being provided to support local projects in Malawi focused on health, education, economic development and renewable energy.

The Scottish Government’s Malawi Development Programme will fund 11 projects over the next four and a half years, to be delivered in partnership between Scottish-based organisations and their Malawian partners.

Projects awarded funding include a partnership with Water Aid to improve the health of mothers and children through better sanitation and access to safe water in healthcare facilities and childhood development centres, and a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and the University of Malawi to establish an undergraduate dental degree programme.

Following a successful pilot at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, NHS Tayside are now also working to develop emergency and trauma units at all central hospitals in Malawi, with the aim of delivering a national emergency trauma network.

Since 2005, hundreds of projects have been supported in Malawi contributing to the Millennium Development Goals and their successor, the United Nations Global Goals.

International Development Minister Ben Macpherson said:

“Scotland and Malawi have a significant shared history, stretching back more than 150 years to the travels of Dr David Livingstone. The Scottish Government aims to harness these links to bring about positive change.

“Working in collaboration with the people of Malawi, our focus is to assist the most vulnerable communities in improving their health and education systems, as well as achieving long-term sustainable economic development.

“This funding will allow partner agencies to deliver tangible benefits to the people of Malawi, and reflects the enduring special relationship between our two nations.”

Kenneth R. Ross OBE, Chair of the Scotland Malawi Partnership, said:

“Scottish organisations working with Malawian counterparts are making a distinctive contribution to countering poverty and meeting the challenge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“The Scottish Government grants announced today will significantly strengthen this effort and are much to be welcomed.”

Information on the 11 projects being funded through the 2018-2023 Malawi Development Programme are below.

Organisation: Chance for Change

Project: Access to Justice

Project description: The overall objective of this project is to support the Malawi Government in enabling access to justice, and humane, child-welfare based treatment for children in conflict with the law in Malawi.

Total funding: £949,333

Organisation: Challenges Worldwide

Project: CROPS

Project description: The overall aim of the project is to strengthen farmer owned crop Value Addition Centres while creating rural sustainable business models and wealth for smallholder farmers.

Total funding: £998,074

Organisation: Global Concerns Trust

Project: Tools and training for livelihood in Malawi

Project description: To contribute to the reduction of poverty, the enhancement of economic sustainability and participation in development processes of disabled men and women in Malawi, while promoting skill development, well-being and engagement in international development of people with disabilities in the UK.

Total funding: £706,407

Organisation: Mary’s Meals

Project: Mary's Meals pre-school and primary feeding programme in Malawi

Project description: This project will provide school feeding to vulnerable children in 27 primary and 79 Early Childhood Development centres (ECDs) in Zomba, southern Malawi, reducing classroom hunger and promoting access, participation and progression through primary education.

Total funding: £1,080,000

Organisation: NHS Tayside

Project: Scottish Emergency Medicine – Malawi Project

Project description: To develop fit for purpose and sustainable Emergency and Trauma Units at all Central Hospitals in Malawi – replicating the significant improvement to delivery of essential Emergency care as experienced at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Blantyre (the pilot for this project), with the aim of delivering in Malawi , for the first time, a National Emergency and Trauma network. 

Total funding: £1,007,504

Organisation: St John Scotland

Project: Community action and service access for maternal, newborn and child health

Project description: The project aims to improve maternal, newborn and child health by increasing health behaviours and the use of critical health services, and by removing barriers to the provision of Malawi’s Essential Health Package (EHP).

Total funding: £457,591

Organisation: Sense Scotland

Project: Promoting equal access to education in Malawi North

Project description: The project will work in Northern Malawi with children, young people, families, schools, communities and all traditional and governmental authorities to address negative attitudes towards disability, improve access to quality and relevant education and to enable all children regardless of disability to reach their full potential.  In everything we do we will use a rights based, social model of disability.

Total funding: £1,239,488

Organisation: University of Edinburgh

Project: Moving towards sustainability: strengthening rural health facilities, upskilling providers and developing mentoring capacity to support roll-out of cervical cancer ‘Screen and treat’ services across Malawi.

Project description: The project will build on the prior collaborative and successful partnership working between Malawi and Scotland in delivery of same day cervical cancer ‘screen and treat’ programmes, and seeks to support rollout of that work in Northern, Central and Southern Regions, based on developing effective mentoring tools, strengthening health professional skills within Malawi, and extending services to rural health facilities.

Total funding: £1,288,378

Organisation: University of Glasgow

Project: Towards a Dental School for Malawi – The Maldent Project

Project description: To establish an undergraduate dental degree (BDS) programme within the Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, which will train Malawian dentists who are ‘globally competent and locally relevant’ and will be able to provide support for the delivery of a national health programme.

Total Funding: £1,312,424

Organisation: University of Strathclyde

Project: Rural energy access through social enterprise and decentralisation (EASE)

Project description: The EASE project works with local and national structures to address energy poverty in marginalised rural communities in Dedza and Balaka Districts through the deployment of appropriate renewable energy infrastructure and service provision under sustainable social business models and decentralised energy strategies.

Total funding: £1,332,533

Organisation: Water Aid

Project: Deliver life to mothers, girls and children in the southern region of Malawi.

Project description: to improve the health of mothers, girls and children in rural and peri-urban low income areas of Machinga and Zomba by facilitating access to safe water, improved sanitation and good hygiene in health care facilities, early childhood development centres and communities.

Total funding: £1,012,500