Nkhotakota District Council has called on the district`s Extension Workers to show seriousness in the implementation of the Enhanced Public Works Program (EPWP) about to roll out in the district.

The Council`s Director of Planning and Development (DPD) Ben Tohno made the call, Tuesday when he opened a four-day workshop for the Extension Workers on Nursery Establishment and Soil and Water Conservation taking place in the district.

Tohno observed that the Extension Worker`s dedication and seriousness is key to the success of the program in the district.

“You need to exploit your potential, work hard and be creative in the implementation phase of the program. As a district we are relying on you and have confidence in your capabilities” said Tohno.

Chief Agriculture Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CAENRO) for Nkhotakota, Precious Chautsi advised the training participants to strive to stand out among the group in the program implementation.

“Always try to do your best because you will be putting yourself on the spotlight and help your area. This is a pilot phase and the outcome from here will determine the next course of the program.

“We don’t want to see that your catchment area and our district failed to perform to the expected standard, and you are the ones entrusted with the task of representing the district” he said.

Speaking in an interview, Nkhotakota Land Resource Conservation Officer, Arthur Mazengela Chiwayula who is also EPWP Desk Officer for Nkhotakota, said five catchment areas had been selected for the EPWP pilot phase in the district.

He said the micro catchment areas are Thanga and Kasangadzi in the area of traditional authority (T/A) Mwansambo, Dema and Msenjere in T/A Kanyenda and Lupachi in T/A Kafuzira, adding these have been divided into sub-projects.

Chiwayula said the current training was important because it will impart knowledge and skills to the extension workers on various topics, covering both theory and practical sessions.

“We are sure that once the project rolls out in the next two weeks or so, our colleagues will be able to train their communities in these technologies without any problems” he said.

The Desk Officer said the communities in the EPWP pilot areas have among others identified, gully reclamation, soil and water conservation, fish pond, a forestation and irrigation projects.

EPWP is an 8 months community driven pilot project being implemented in 10 districts of Chitipa, Karonga, Nkhotakota, Kasungu, Dowa, Lilongwe, Balaka, Chiladzulu, Phalombe and Blantyre aimed at addressing the challenges faced during the implementation of the Malawi Social  Action Fund (MASAF IV) Productive Public Works Program.

It is designed to achieve the dual objective of strengthening household resilience to shocks and creating durable community assets.

The National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) is supporting the project by setting and regularly reviewing standards operating procedures for payment processes and providing funds for administration, operations and wages among others.

Karonga District Council Forestry Department has described extension workers as instrumental in bringing mindset change among the rural masses on the importance of conserving the environment in their catchment area.

KDC Forestry Officer Christopher Chirwa made the remarks Tuesday in Karonga district during the opening of a four-day training of frontline staff on tree nursery establishment, soil and water management.

He said with the new approach that the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) has taken through the Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) that the community should take ownership in managing the environment, extension workers are therefore supposed to be in the forefront in the project.

“These people have now been empowered to manage their catchment areas. They will have their own bank account, they will procure everything that they will require for this programe and we are optimistic that this will be achievable,” he said

However, Chirwa warned the extension workers and the community at large to use the resources that will be given to them for the intended purpose saying any corrupt practices involved will not be entertained.

He said through this project the council is expecting that the people from the chosen five pilot micro catchment areas of Thawilo, Wiliro, Lufilya Chikutu and Iponga in the district will plant more trees hence reduce runoff and disasters.

In his remarks, one of the participants Daniel Soko a Community Development Assistant for Chikutu catchment area said the training will go a long way on improving the failures that have been there before on catchment management.

“In the past everything was done at council level. Evening having a capacity building like this one was a challenge, but with this new approach by NLGFC through the EPWP I hope many areas will be covered with trees thereby reducing cases of disasters,” he said

Soko then assured the council and NLGFC that they will use the knowledge gained and the resources that will be channeled to them for the intended purpose.

EPWP is being implemented in 10 district councils on pilot phase namely Chitipa and Karonga in the North, Nkhota-kota, Kasungu, Dowa and Lilongwe in the center while in the South the programme is in Balaka, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and Blantyre.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Honourable Ben Malunga Phiri M.P says local councils can excel and offer better service to their residents if their leadership takes on problem solving as a call to duty.

Honourable Phiri made the observation when he opened a technical consultation session for Chief Executive Officers and District Commissioners from the Southern Region at Mount Soche Hotel recently.

The Minister bemoaned the rampant excuses for under performances in local councils saying it is mostly due to a fear to fail by the controlling officers. Hon Phiri said being innovative means facing failure and refusing to give up and until one is successful.

‘I have never failed in my life means you have never tried anything new in your life’, said Phiri.

He also asked the controlling officers that they would do well to exude positive energy as managers. Honourable Phiri also said time has come for the DC’s to eliminate the corrupt image against the councils and work to promote interventions that transform their authorities and earn them the trust of the people in their districts.

The Minister said he would personally lobby with government to plough back to the councils revenue collected by central government from seed funding as well as look at other challenges and bottlenecks as identified by the controlling officers. Other challenges raised were capacity in resource mobilisation, financial management and development planning.

He then asked all leadership in the councils to do an honest search on their days’ worth of work, ‘get into the lab, break every bone and marrow’, to achieve financial stability in the councils, and effectively mobilise resources.

The meeting was the first of three regional meetings for the local authority controlling officers with others done in Salima and Mzuzu.

Group Village Head (GVH) Malangano, from Traditional Authority Mwase in Kasungu District speaks highly of social safety net programmes in the country.

GVH Malangano notes that there have been several problems in her area and people are suffering.

She believes that with social support programs people are cushioned from several shocks that affect them individual and at households level.

She says in her area there is usually hunger as not all the people yield enough for their families.

“With social support systems in place there is usually solace as lives are improved and eventually people are saved from hunger,” says GVH Malangano.

The traditional leader is one of those who will benefit from a pilot social support program called Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) which is being implemented in 10 districts including Kasungu.

This is a new approach to the well known PWP implemented under MASAF IV which the Malawi government and partners with support from the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC)have been implementing all along.

Previous approaches to the program revealed too many problems leading to the EPWP as a pilot program which if successful it may be a basis for scaling up to other districts.

According to NLGFC Community Driven Development Specialist who is also the programme’s coordinator Stanley Chuthi says the initial approach to public works proved to be too problematic.

“In the past PWP there was among others prevalence with ghost beneficiaries and Sub – Projects, low compliance to sector technical norms and standards, creation of large unmanageable catchments of over 3000 hectares, limited technical capacity of frontline staff (Extension Workers) and limited monitoring and supervision by the District Environmental Sub Committee (DESC),” he told media practitioners in March in Blantyre during a media training on EPWP.

In Kasungu the preparatory activities have gone on well making headway in the programme according to the program’s district coordinator Chikumbutso Liwonde.

Liwonde says the activities followed all measures that are to be followed in as far as Covid-19 prevention is concerned.

Village Level Action Plan (VLAP) process-which is a plan developed by villagers to address specific issues or concerns of that particular village- has been done and the district is now ready to go into the next stage.

“In the VLAP process sub projects for all five catchment areas in the district have been identified, what remains is for sectors to go and verify the feasibility of the projects,

“The next activity after the sectors have verified the sub projects will be safety nets consolidation,” Liwonde says.

The VLAP process has many benefits as it brings together community members to share ideas and work together on issues that are important to everyone, builds partnerships both within and outside the village, helps communities to identify their strengths and evaluate their own resources and also encourages creative thinking amongst community members.

The process also helps turn community concerns into actions, enables others to become more informed and responsive about what needs to be accomplished and creates sense of commitment, ownership and belonging in the community.

According to Liwonde the district has identified sub-projects such as irrigation, land resources, fisheries, roads and forestry.

With linkages to other programmes like Community Savings and Investment Promotion (COMSIP) the selected beneficiaries in the EPWP will be organized to form village based micro credit and community savings institutions.

For GVH Malangano it will not only be participation but learning and progressive change for positive impact in the area.

Story Credits: Vincent Khonje

Lilongwe district council agriculture office says the new enhanced public works program (EPWP) will no longer overburden extension workers from a single entity because the programme emphasizes on team work.

Land resources conservation officer for Lilongwe East, Oswald Mulenga said this in Mponela, Dowa where extension workers were trained in integrated catchment management (ICM) under EPW programme funded by World Bank.

“In this programme, an extension worker will not carry all the burden alone as we used to do in the past going into communities as single entities. Within the district council, all extension workers will be working as a team, those from fisheries, land resource, forestry, irrigation and community development among others,” explains Mulenga.

He says all players together with communities in their locations will identify priority problems and bring out solutions to address them whether related to land resource, forestry, fisheries or road network.   

During a community mapping, problem and solution identification in Senior Group Village Headman Chikhutu in Traditional Authority M’bang’ombe, with extension workers guidance, over 200 villagers that participated prioritised  issues such as soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, deforestation, gullies, poor road network .

Chikhutu said, community members under Chivundi catchment resolved to rehabilitate the area by planting trees, making and applying compost manure in their gardens, rehabilitate roads and fill the gullies with gravel and improve the drainage system of the roads.

“The project (climate smart PWP) and government should help us with tree seedlings and manure making skills to restore our environment,” says GVH Chikhutu.

Chifundo Chikolokoto, a community development officer in TA M’bang’ombe says,”There were appraisals that were made to identify the EPWP catchments. Communities and the council found that Kavunde catchment area especially in Chiweza 1 and Chikhutu are highly degraded, there is deforestation in the areas, there are low crop yields and lots of galleys.

On the support she will provide as extension worker Chikolokoto says, “We will help the community to properly plan, implement, monitor and report on the activities of the progamme. As extension workers we supervise implementation of all activities.

This programme will be guided by different sectors and extension workers who will provide technical expertise in the EPWP catchments.”

In this pilot phase of nine months (April to December, 2020), the progarmme is implemented in ten districts of Chitipa, Karonga, Kasungu, Dowa, Nkhota kota, Lilongwe, Balaka, Chiradzulu, Blantyre and Phalombe. If the pilot phase is successful, the programme will be rolled out to all 35 district councils in the country.

District councils are now free from receiving community complaints that councils procure them sub-standard project materials because matters of procurement will be done by communities themselves.

Kasungu senior procurement officer Chikondi Zidekha disclosed this in an interview at Mponela in Dowa after a presentation he made on procurement processes during an integrated catchment management (ICM) training for extension workers and district environmental sub-committee (DESC) members.   

“This time, communities will be running the project (climate smart enhanced public works programme), doing acquisition of goods and services, identifying artisans, suppliers  of tree seedlings in case of forestry, banana suckers and vetiver in case of land resources and hardware materials like cement,” said Zidekha.

Adding: “The approach will ease pressure at the council. Previously, when procurement was being done by councils, most communities were complaining that councils bought them substandard materials.”

However, he stressed that that would be a thing of the past because communities, instead of managing the project only after phasing out, they will take it up right from the start.

“Procurement of goods was a challenge because during acquisition of tree seedlings, we could buy for the whole Kasungu and the way communities were offering prices was a challenge. Now catchment management procurement committees will determine right prices for goods on their own.”  

Complex projects, regardless of amount, would be managed by the council regardless of amount to ensure quality. For projects above MK10 million, communities will have to utilize standard bidding documents, that is; use of the local competitive bidding process.

Nevertheless, director of planning and development for Kasungu Annie Salama said the council has the role to coordinate and provide supportive supervision to all stakeholders and communities implementing the project.

This implies that the councils would not completely detach themselves from the communities on matters of facilitating sensitizations on the project, promoting community participation in problem identification, planning, procurement and implementation to ensure project success.  

“So far, we have sensitized different stakeholders like district environmental sub-committee (DESC) members, communities, politicians, traditional leaders among others. Together with communities, we have selected five project catchments,” she explained.

She listed the five as follows: Katcherekhwawa in Sub-Traditional Authority (STA) Chisikwa, Mpherere in TA Simlemba, Chankhanga in TA Mwase, Chatalala in TA Njombwa and Mphazi in TA Chidzuma.

The DPD said most of the areas selected have bare lands and mountains, don’t have trees, no replanting is done. They lost soil fertility and farmers do not harvest enough crops.

Communities must be made clear that climate smart enhanced public works program (EPWP) mainly focuses on environmental restoration rather than only on road and bridge construction says Dowa district acting director of planning and development (DPD) Yusuf Lacki.

The DPD was speaking in Salima in February during an integrated catchment management (ICM) training for extension workers and district environmental sub-committee (DESC) members.  

ICM calls for collaboration of several topics such as forestry, agriculture, hydrology, ecology, soils, climatology and other sciences.

Lacki recalls, “In the previous PWP, communities could undertake some programmes that were outside environmental management activities, for example, they were able to do some road shaping, irrigation activities which were not environmental activities per se.”

The focus of EPWP is basically on land resources management and nature conservation. So, we want to make sure the message is properly carried to the communities about the difference between these two projects to avoid conflict of understanding.

He said after the training, the extension workers from selected EPWP catchments would train communities who will form catchment management committees (CMCs) that will fulfill a number functions.

 According to acting DPD, the committee shall also be responsible for procurement of own project materials depending on focus of their prioritized activities which could be afforestation, fish ponds, compost manure making, bee keeping among others.

Making a presentation on composition and functions of the committees, Nkhota kota district irrigation engineer Brains Kalambo said the CMCs will also be responsible for identification of watershed problems and opportunities, coach colleague farmers in all steps of planning, and implementation, coordinate and mobilize community members and resources required from the community (labour and local materials).

Kalambo added the committee will also undertake supervision and monitoring of watershed activities and reporting of interventions including serving as permanent contacts with the extension workers.

The committee shall comprise both men and women, all three wealth categories, that is; better off, medium and poor, representatives from villages in upstream, middle and downstream parts.

Watershed management is the process of creating and implementing plans, programs and projects and enhance wetland functions that affect plant, animal and human communities within a wetland/watershed boundary.

Lilongwe district council says it will ensure climate smart enhanced public works program (EPWP) which emphasizes on environmental or nature rehabilitation is linked to Community Savings and Investment Promotion (COMSIP) activities which aim at empowering the communities economically.

District community development officer (DCDO) Annie Kamwendo said this at Kavunde EPWP catchment in Traditional Authority (TA) M’bang’ombe where communities identified and prioritized environmental problems and solutions to address them.

Among the problems identified were deforestation, deep gullies, siltation, soil fertility loss, soil erosion, shifting cultivation and low crop yields.

“Communities that will be doing environmental activities like afforestation, beekeeping and irrigation farming, horticulture, woodlot creation can turn them into businesses. As they embark on addressing environmental issues, they should also consider economic activities for sustainability of the programme.

In our case, we will manage both environmental and economic activities. We will focus on changing communities’ mindset that a poor person cannot save cash and lend others,” says Kamwendo.

She said through COMSIP, community members will save in groups. “If they put their resources together, they can surprise their villages and the country at large with huge benefits they get from running small scale businesses which can also help them sustain nature including alleviating their hunger and poverty.

However, the DCDO was quick to warn men and women against getting business loans before they identify, plan and implement realistic businesses.

“They should borrow money for a purpose. Any small business makes a difference. As an office, we are going to conduct intensive monitoring of community activities both environmental and economic related,” she promises.

In her comment, an extension worker in TA M’bang’ombe, Chifundo Chikolokoto said communities will be given technical expertise on how to save what they realize from their work or business.

“Beneficiaries to this project will work for a cycle of 12 days and will be paid something and we will encourage them to save to sustain themselves without necessarily waiting for another public works activity to find another extra money,” explains Chikolokoto.

Through COMSIP, groups or individual rural poor are encouraged to operate small scale businesses and develop a culture of saving and lending to make their businesses grow.

People in Fulatira Village, Traditional Authority M’bang’ombe in Lilongwe say they are ready to work with climate smart enhanced public works program (EPWP) and Government to cover fatal gullied landscapes which killed their two relations in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

One of the villagers Dalitso Kapika said the first man accidently fell in the gully with a bicycle he rode and died on spot. The second one fell in and died as he tried to pick his way over the gully.

 “There is need for us and government to join hands to cover this deep gully. Some have been filling the gully with sacks of soil but it has never worked,” says Kapika.

Some villagers reported that the gulley, which is about 800 metres long, is also posing a threat to lives of children including livestock that use the road which is side by side with the gully.

“We find it very difficult to control our children who look at gullies as source of fun yet it is a danger to their lives,” states Kapika.  

Some villagers reported that once cows fall in such heavy and deep gullies, they cannot be rescued but just slaughtered inside and sell the beef even if the owner did not plan for that.    

According to an extension worker in TA M’bang’ombe, Lilongwe, Chifundo Chikolokoto, apart from heavy and deep gullies, the area has lost soil fertility, realise low crop yields and is heavily deforested.

The area needs collaboration of all sectors namely forestry, agriculture, land resources to habilitate the catchment as well as improve the food security and other livelihoods like fish farming, woodlots, bee keeping, poultry farming, horticulture among others.

Selection criteria of EPWP catchments were based on results of mini surveys conducted in all TAs. The gravity of the environmental problems in the TAs were compared and the worse TAs were chosen.

The land in Wiliro in Paramount Chief Kyungu in Karonga District may not have lost much of its vegetative cover and top soil, but is under threat of losing the same due to human habitation.

The land, located is in Group Village Head Mwenechilanga, is hilly with stony soils and steep slopes covered with grass and some trees.

Some community members are settling and cultivating on the sloppy land without making recommended contour structures to control run-off, which is against agricultural principles.

“Prevention is better than cure” is the adage communities in Mwenechilanga want to go by, that is why they do not want to wait till the area is completely degraded before taking action.

No wonder the area is candidate for the pilot project dubbed ‘Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP)’ which will run for nine months in 10 districts across the country.

National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) will implement the project with multi-sectoral stakeholders at district and community levels.

The project, which targets 1,000 people in each of the 10 pilot districts, aims to strengthen household resilience to shocks and create durable community assets.

It also focuses on integrated watershed management through sub projects purposed for land resource conservation, afforestation, environment, sanitation as well as sustainable livelihood activities among other areas.

To kick-start the project, NLGFC recently organised trainings for district officers and extension workers from various sectors in all the districts involved in the pilot phase, including Karonga and Chitipa.

The training ran from Tuesday, February 18 to Friday, February 21, 2020. Conducting a transect walk was a practical part of the training for the Chitipa group which trained in Karonga.

The exercise involved walking across the proposed project catchment with members of the village development committee (VDC).

During the walk, technical officers took note of the nature of soil, vegetation cover, terrain as well as human activities currently taking place on the area.

The officers also agreed to identify threats of the proposed project site which are likely to lead to land degradation, deforestation or any other environmental damage to the land.

Those were the factors to determine whether the area should be passed for the EPWP pilot project so that it is protected from those environmental threats.

District Environmental Sub Committee (DESC), district officers and extension workers conducted the transect walk as participants to the training. They were led by the area’s VDC members.

The area in question has not completely lost its trees, but observation showed it would soon lose them, including top soils.

This is due to the unsustainable cutting down of trees induced by both cultivation and human habitation or settlement which has noticeably started taking place on this sloppy land.

“If we leave the situation like this, we will one day wake up only to see the hills are bare,” said Group Village Head Mwenechilanga as he assisted fellow villagers to draw the map for the proposed project catchment area.

The Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) succeeds the MASAF 4 Public Works Program (PWP), and targets the ultra-poor communities but those with capacity to work.

The project is expected to fill the gaps that were, in some cases, left by the predecessor MASAF 4 PWP.

“In the PWP, we had 16 catchments in Chitipa and activities were scattered all over, so it was difficult for the project to have impact.

“This time we will have only five catchments, which means the impact will be there and easy to see,” Chitipa District Land Resources Officer, Baldwin Kitamula said during the training.

The training for the Chitipa team attracted 11 DESC members and 25 extension workers from five proposed NLGFC project catchments.

Extension workers were drawn from Agriculture, Forestry and Community Development among other sectors.

The training session tackled topics such Planning, Project Management, Financial Management and procurement among others.

“We are touching all levels with training, including community members.

“VDCs are also supposed to be trained in planning, Financial Management, Project Management and Procurement of goods and services,” Karonga NLGFC Project Officer, Edward Ngwemba who facilitated the training in Chitipa said.

The idea behind training communities will be to empower them, and instill a spirit of responsibility and ownership as they are the ones to take a bigger role in implementing the project.

In this way, it is expected that communities themselves will be able to sustain the EPWP projects such as those aimed at protecting land resources from destructive activities in areas like the hilly and sloppy land in Wiliro of Paramount Chief Kyungu in Karonga.