Budget and Finance Committee of parliament has hailed Mulanje District Council for its outstanding performance in the Governance Enabling Service Delivery (GESD) project.

The committee’s chairperson Gladys Ganda said this during a visit to the district on Saturday to appreciate how the district managed to scoop position one in the last Local Authority Performance Assessment (LAPA).

“We have visited a number of districts but when we were inspecting the projects here, we could see that Mulanje is indeed number one in terms of performance of GESD funds, " said Ganda.

Mulanje District Commissioner Stallichi Mwambiwa attributed the success to teamwork, saying without it, they would not have been celebrating.

He said right now, Mulanje District Council is fighting to beat the 76 percent it got last time.

National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) Executive Director Dr Kondwani Santhe described the implementation of Performance Based Grants in the GESD project as a mixed bag full of lessons especially on issues to do with accountability, quality infrastructure as well as cost element.

He then said moving forward, the committee wants to see councils implementing complete package projects not just school blocks without desks and teacher houses among others.

Reported by Loness Gwazanga [Mana]

Salima senior citizen Mustapha Ulanda who has lived his whole life in Traditional Authority Makanjira's area vividly recalls when his granddaughter gave birth on their way to the hospital, describing the event as daunting till this day.

Women in the area had to travel to Khombedza Health centre which is situated 20 kilometres to access maternal services and most of the times women could deliver on the way before reaching the hospital.

He said when his granddaughter labour progressed and she could not manage to continue the journey, they had no option but to help her deliver the baby in the bush.

"We stopped at a nearby bush I left my wife with our granddaughter and rushed to the nearest house for help, fortunately I found elderly women who rushed to the scene to help my granddaughter, she was assisted and gave birth, but the dehumanising scenes of that day still haunt us," he said.

Another community member, Tabiya Mustapha narrates how she struggled when she was expectant to access maternal services saying she did not attend antenatal clinic.

"I did not attend antenatal clinic for the nine months of the pregnancy, because I needed to have an amount of money not less than MK5000 to hire a bicycle to access maternity services," she says.

Mustapha says as a result of not attending antenatal clinic, she did not know her exact dates of delivering a thing which she describes as dangerous, because when she started having labour signs it was too late to travel to the nearest health facility.

"I ended up giving birth in the village assisted by our elderly ladies, something that is not commendable for the health of the baby and the mother," she narrates.

Mustapha and her fellow women from Senior Chief Makanjira's area and surrounding communities can now sigh with relief after a construction of the MK 170 million health facility in their area under World Bank’s Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project.

With the construction of the health centre, women will be not be travelling long distance to access health services and they will be assisted on time, therefore reducing the number of child and maternal deaths.

Mustafa says the construction of the maternity hospital in her village is a huge milestone because it will save lives, and dignify the pregnancy journey of women.

Chairperson for the project Management Committee, Apatsa Rajab says the project has also helped many productive individuals from the area to find employment.

He says in their records more than 20 people were employed during the construction process, enhancing livelihoods.

"The constructor was very considerate because he took the community members as his partners, in so doing there was a good working relationship between the constructor and the community members."

He adds: "Through the employment people have managed to construct houses, start-up businesses, therefore the socio economic aspect of this project is tangible."

He further commends the project for enhancing their capacity in project monitoring, and having overall knowledge of how they can be part of projects and work with a constructor so that he delivers quality work.

"We have undergone capacity development trainings through this project, the trainings were helpful, because the knowledge will go a long way in shaking up development in our area," he says.

Senior Chief Makanjira says as a custodian of the people he has a sense of fulfilment because lives will be saved, it was disheartening to be receiving news of maternal deaths year in year out, knowing that lives could be saved if a maternity hospital was nearby.

He narrates how he had been proposing to have the facility, until he started giving up on the day he would witness such a development being implemented in his area.

He also holds the plight of how the construction has been within its timeframe, revealing that the health facility will be functional by September 2022.

Makanjira says the communities were taking part in the construction work and there was transparency and accountability, because people had all the information concerning the construction.

"We have had constructors who never sought the services of local communities, they always brought in people from elsewhere something which is not good to the development of the people of this area," he explains.

District Commissioner for Salima Grace Chirwa Kanyimbiri, echoes how they were unable to implement projects of such magnitude due to inadequate resources, even after knowing how life changing such projects would be to the lives of community members.

GESD has gone a long way in terms of assisting Salima District Council's members of start to acquire knowledge through trainings, and facilitating refresher courses.

"GESD has improved capacity at all levels, from community members, Chiefs and members of staff at the council," she says.

She gives an example of how transparent the process of selecting Senior Chief Makanjira's area as a project site for the maternity hospital.

"In this past year improving health services was our main focus, women were traveling 20 kilometres to seek medical help and maternity services. It was a death trap for the women." She says.

With such a background everyone in the full council understood the need to come up with a project that will reduce maternity and infant mortality rate in Senior Chief Makanjira's area.

"It was a unanimous decision to accept the project, therefore GESD has improved our efficiency, equality and accountability of public resources," she explains.

GESD is a five year project which is being financed by the World Bank to the tune of US$100 Million to strengthen council’s institutional performance, responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for services delivery.

GESD is a government of Malawi project implemented by National Local Government Finance Committee in the country’s 28 district councils

For over 3 years, rice farming has been a gamble for farmers in the Limphasa Rice Scheme in Nkhata Bay as the river has fallen culprit to perpetual flooding.

In 2021 to 2022 growing season about 60 hectares of rice fields were submerged or swept away by the raging torrents of a very pregnant and bursting Limphasa River.

Maxwell Kayuni started rice farming at the age of 17 some 15 years ago. This was a dream come true for him as he had managed to buy a Toyota Sienta at the tune of 4 million Kwacha, 16 cows and is currently constructing a 6-bedroomed house, all from the money realized through farming.

“I have already spent about 2.5 million Kwacha on the house project,” he says

Maxwell says the harvest was improving each year until 2021 when part of his field was submerged and good crop was lost.

“I was taken unawares but still hoped things would be different the subsequent year,” he says with obvious nostalgia”

With a dream drawn toward agripreneurship and a dream to create more jobs through rice farming, Maxwell bought more seeds and other inputs for the 2022 growing season. The target was 200 bags of 50 Kg each. After investing in and carrying out all the necessary activities, he was set to harvest more than his target.

“After planting, my crop was envy to many. My fellow farmers said I had made it this year and I was confident I had,” he shakes his head resignedly.

“But fate wouldn’t have it. Rains poured for 5 days nonstop. Warning about a probable flood reached us but we hoped against hope that it would just be a flash flood like the previous rice-growing seasons. Until one morning we woke up to see a “lake” over our fields,” recalls Maxwell with a touch of sadness.

He explains that the floods stayed for more than 3 days.

“At this point I knew the tables had turned. There was no way my crop was going to survive the waterlogging. I had to prepare for the worst. But I didn’t know how as all resources and energies had already been spent on the crop,” he discloses.

When harvest came, Maxwell harvested 150 instead of the targeted 200 bags as five plots had entirely been submerged at a period when the crop was almost ready for harvest.

Another farmer in the scheme Maggie Chisi says the scare was real as the Limphasa River raged on.

“It was unbelievable. Fortunately, unlike some of my friends, my field was a bit far from the protection band,” she says in disbelief.

But all is not lost for the two and their fellows as the government have brought Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP) to facilitate catchment and model catchment projects to restore the environment in hotspot areas Lingw’inya which is the source of Limphasa River.

About 1069 farmers are benefiting from the Limphasa Scheme every year. The scheme is in the area of Traditional Authority Mankhambira to the West and Traditional Authority Mkumbira to the North West of which 436 farmers are women who together with their male counterparts share 17 rice blocks.

The CS-EPWP which is a component of the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project (SSRLP) which the government is implementing, facilitated through the National Local Government Finance Committee and funded by the World Bank, is covering 14 catchments in Nkhata Bay and estimated to target not less than 11,233 people from ultra-poor households that have labour who will be working in the catchments for 12 days per month for a period of 2 years.

According to the director of planning and development for Nkhata Bay, Isaac Mkandawire, the catchments were selected out of many because of the effects they have on such environmental factors as erosion and flooding which causes damage to crops and road infrastructure.

“We considered level of degradation, population, food security and poverty levels. The programme is deliberately designed to achieve the dual objective of strengthening household resilience to shocks and creating durable assets” he explains.

Isaac further explains that preparatory works such as field verification exercises with extension workers, listing of potential projects, appraisals and environmental screening have been done and full council has since approved the micro-safety net plan.

Other catchments include Licheremu, Chikwina, Lifupa, Mpamba, Lufutazi, Kavuzi, Chintheche and Tchesamu

Story Credits : Patrick Botha, District Information Officer, Nkhatabay

People of Tembwe area in Mchinji district have a long lost prestige: Dining like kings after each harvest season.

As opposed to the common conception that eating more is wastage, for the elders of the area this kingly dinning is usually not for fun but a process of rebuilding their bodies in readiness for another farming season because farming has always been their main business.

“Since time immemorial our community has been a home of farmers, and everything that we have today around here can be attributed to agriculture in one way or the other, so we take farming seriously and that is why we are always preparing for it properly in terms of farm inputs but also in the past we used to prepare our bodies by providing them with good diet,” explains Mackson Kalima an elderly farmer of the area.

But as the case is today in the area, this glory is long gone that to most of the younger generation farmers it is nothing more than history. Their land is heavily degraded; the area sparkles of huge gullies across farm fields; and you can barely see vegetation around.

According to Spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture Grecian Lungu, in such a situation farming becomes fruitless because agriculture productivity heavily relies on a lot of input from the environment.

“Nowadays our farming has become very tricky because due to lack of trees rains are so erratic and even when they come they easily destroy our land and create gullies where they are not necessary. This is why we need to step backwards and start all over again: Plant and nurturing more trees to create predictable rains and strengthen our soils, plus employ more techniques to retain moisture,” says Lungu.

In Kasungu, District Commissioner James Kanyangalazi agrees with Lungu, while crying over the glory that was bestowed over the district for many years in history, yet today it only feels like a folk tale.

Kanyangalazi recalls of a time when people built houses and accumulated possessions out of their farms, and yet today the farms are fast becoming white elephants.

Zalira explains Kaigwazanga community maps

“Kasungu used to be the food basket of its own and most parts of the central region, and people made a lot of money here through farming; but today our farming has lost value and people are actually sleeping on empty stomachs a few months after harvesting because they can’t harvest enough anymore,” he says, adding that all this is because of land degradation.

He concurs with Lungu that modern farming needs to be accompanied by land reclamation through climate smart agriculture techniques if it is to yield anything.

He talks of the need to conserve the environment through planting and nurturing trees to bring back the rains, planting agriculture tolerant vegetation in farm fields as well as reclaiming all the land that was washed away by water run offs and make the lands irrigable once more.

Realising the need for a turn around, the dedicated farmers of Tembwe have ganged up to reclaim their land, reverse the environmental upset and set their way clear towards regaining their food glory.

Through a World Bank funded project which is being implemented by district councils and facilitated by the Malawi Government together with the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC), farmers in some parts of the 28 districts of the country were organized into micro-catchments through which they will be implementing Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works to enable them regain their farming capacity.

The CS-EPWP is a component of the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods (SSRLP) implemented through the councils following input from the 10 districts that participated in the pilot Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP)

According to the farmers, the programme which allows them to identify their own problems and sort solutions to them is an opportunity for them to decide the fate of their communities today.

One important exercise involved in preparations for Climate Smart Public Works is the drawing of community maps by farmers; one showing how the community is as of today and another one showing their community as envisioned after implementation of the projects.

“The visionary map is a tool that allows us to visualize what we want our community to look like in years to come. We envisage that when we plant more trees and reclaim gullied land and also practice climate smart agricultural techniques we will start harvesting more and we can be able to sale some of our proceeds in order to acquire advanced needs to suit the modern world,” explains Arnold Zalira, one of the farmers from Kaigwazanga catchment area in the area of T/A Nkanda in Mchinji.

His counterpart, Sofilet Mwase of Chilamphuma Village Traditional Authority Kaluluma in Kasungu district says she is putting a lot of effort into climate smart public works because that’s the best thing she can do for her children.

She says without taking precaution measures on environmental degradation and transforming the farming sector today, the future generation is likely to face more challenges than today, hence the need for everyone to take part in creating a better future for Malawi.

Sofilet Mwase_I am doing it for my children

In Balaka district Climate Smart Public Works are scheduled to solve land degradation problems through implementation of 30 land reclamation sub projects across the district, while in Mchinji at least 70 kilometers of land that was lost to gully and riverside erosion is set to be reclaimed.

Ina Thombozi who is Social Protection Officer for the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) thinks the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works are a way to go if agriculture is to bounce back to being the backbone of the country’s economy.

Thombozi says apart from providing a source of income to beneficiaries during the implementation period, the project will also strengthen citizen participation in development through capacity building.

“Through this project we expect to bring back forests by afforestation and regeneration, and in the end we should have women accessing firewood and water at their door steps; in that way they will be able to engage in other productive activities such as businesses to support their families,” she said.

She concludes by adding that failure to conserve soil and water has a huge bearing on people’s failure to walk of poverty, a thing that continues to cripple the country’s economy.

Malawi is an agro-based economy: The agriculture sector relies so much on the environment for it to thrive: It is therefore imperative that every citizen takes part in replenishing the environment and practicing climate smart agriculture in order for the sector to boom again and be able to resuscitate the nation’s crumbling economy.

The World Bank says social protection programmes have the potential to transform the resilience and economic standing of the poor of poor in the country if well run.

Rob Chase, Practice Manager for Social Protection and Jobs (Africa East) overseeing 14 countries for the Bank including Malawi was Speaking when he met the Executive Director of the National Local Government Finance Committee, Dr Kondwani Santhe at the NLGFC offices, on the sidelines of World Bank Mission to Malawi on the additional financing for Social Support for Resilience Livelihoods Project to Malawi.

“As the country battles to recover from the financial and livelihood impact of the covid-19 pandemic, the economic downturn among others, Malawi is an example of excellence in scaling up social protection in the Climate Smart Enhanced Public Works Programme in the post-Covid era”, said Chase.

Chase said the scaled-up participants, in the CS–EPWP are providing an opportunity for the country through local governments to demonstrate how CS–EPWP can better serve poor communities, creating resilience and livelihoods linked and supported communities.

He further expressed confidence and appreciation for the high standards, levels of commitment, teamwork and project execution being done by NLGFC, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Gender and the Local Authorities on the CS-EPWP.

The Practice Manager also said the global digital revolution is providing innovative and impressive alternatives that are improving the efficacy of such programmes across the world which the project should take advantage of. On Local Authorities - IFIMIS challenges, Chase said the Bank was ready to support interventions which would strengthen and modernise IFIMIS once the business process re-engineering is completed to ultimately enhance the capacity and competencies of Council staff.

“I heard what you said on enhancement plans on Mthandizi MIS which might be important to learn from other countries like Zambia who developed an open smart, free and adaptable software which can make a difference to the system that Malawi is exploring at the moment,” said Chase.

The Practice Manager was accompanied by SSRLP Co-Technical Team Leaders Chipo Msowoya and Ivan Drabek and also Trust Chimaliro - Financial Management Specialist who is on the World Bank Implementation Support Mission on the Project.

In his remarks, Dr Santhe said the NLGFC is committed to enhanced financial efficacy through perfected systems that make all users compliant and effective. He welcomed the Bank’s support commitment on what he called expired LA-IFMIS currently in use by local authorities saying it is a threat to the gains the NLGFC and the councils have achieved in accounting and financial management.

He also assured the Bank of NLGFC’s increased financial management efficiency, capacity building of local governments and enhanced controls as the project’s fiduciary agent.

Santhe said this is an enabler to efficiency in the generation of data, reconciliations, liquidations, increased unqualified audits by councils and contributing to serving the poor of the poor under such social protection programmes and effectively achieving project objectives.

He also assured the Bank that NLGFC is a bridge to the economic transformation of Malawi through the local governments in line with decentralization and fiscal decentralisation in particular with councils as a catalyst for economic development and service delivery since councils work directly with the communities.

The Executive Director said the NLGFC is adaptive to new technologies and system changes and is a team player with a focus on achieving results in set time frames assuring the Bank that the project will meet its objectives. Dr Santhe added that NLGFC’s procurement capacities will be strengthened around the SSRLP portfolio to the unit to ensure that it delivers effectively and is responsive to emerging demands.

He cited as an example that the NLGFC led in making local authorities upscale the CS - EPWP from 35,000 participants to 453,000 participants in one and half months in all 28 district councils as a demonstration of the capacity and ready ability to undertake large and growing programmes,’ said Santhe.

The Executive Director said the visit by the Practice Manager to the NLGFC is a clear confidence boost and the manifestation of how highly the bank considers fiduciary issues and the implementation progress of projects it supports in keeping with Project Implementation Conditions which he said are major pillars for continued and sustained support.

Dr Santhe also said the digital alternatives to analogue or manual systems if well supported with the right investment and orientation, capable of enhancing internal and external controls, ease monitoring of resource use and payment of participants, quickly inform effective data management and decision making and enhance efficient and effective support systems for the project.

The SSRLP components include Climate Smart Public Works Programme, Social Cash Transfer Programme and Livelihood Support among others

Access to quality education is said to be compromised due to lack of adequate classrooms in the country.

Chikweo Primary School head teacher, Bruno Tchaka in the area of traditional authority Chikweo, Machinga District made the sentiments in an interview when he was reacting to the construction of new school block courtesy of Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project.

Tchaka said the school has failed to live to the expectations of the community in terms of performance and retention due to inadequate classrooms for the learners times who most of the times learn under the tree.

“Going by the recommended ratio of one teacher to 60 pupils, we were supposed to have at least a total of 31 classrooms, however we ha 16 classrooms only to cater for 1893 learners. This has been compromising quality service delivery,” said Tchaka.

He said due to congestion in classes, most learners were learning under the tree and some of them opted to drop out of school.

“Education infrastructure like classrooms is crucial element for conducive learning environment in schools. There is strong evidence that high-quality infrastructure facilitates better instruction, improves student outcomes, and reduces dropout rates, among other benefits.

He further said teachers’ morale for teaching becomes very undesirable hence affecting service delivery or performance.

“Teachers become demoralized to always teach the congested classes. This has always being the challenge to the school,” said the head teacher.

 Tchaka noted that the construction of the new classroom block through the GESD funds, will try to ease the classroom challenges and ensure that quality education is delivered at the school.

“We are very much happy and appreciative for the new classroom block which is being constructed by government with funds from GESD. It will ease the pressure on the inadequate classrooms. The new block will motivate both teachers and pupils hence improve service delivery,” he concluded.

Group village head Kanjinga representing senior group village head Chikweo where the school is located, said as community are very satisfied with the construction works and have provided unweaving support.

He said the new school block will make the learners to love their lessons as the environment will be quite different.

One of the learner who is in standard 8 said the new classroom block will motivate them so that they work extra hard.

She said, she is very mindful that come very shortly, they will move to the new block before they sat for their Malawi school leaving certificate.

“As pupils, we are very happy with the construction of the school block. The learning environment will change for the better. We will achieve more,” she said.

Group village head Kanjinga therefore asked government and other stakeholders to consider building other school blocks so that the school should have enough learning classrooms.

“We really appreciate the good work done by government through GESD project. Our children will love to go to school and progress well. Congestion in classrooms has always been a limiting factor for them to attain meaningful education.

“We are asking government and other stakeholders to consider building us another school block as the issue of inadequate blocks still remains a challenge despite the coming in of this block,” he explained.

Chikweo school block construction project management committee chairperson Martha Kambenji echoed the sentiments made by both the head teacher and the group village head saying the construction of the school block will ease the classroom challenges the school has been experiencing.

GESD aims to strengthen core national and local governance institutions to improve efficiency, equity and accountability of the public resources for devolved services.

Story contributor: Martin Chiwanda, District Information Officer, Machinga

When he started receiving money from the Malawi Government through the Social Cash Transfer Programme, Frank Mataka decided to bring a cash point in Mlezi Village Traditional Authority Njewa in Lilongwe.

Mataka could have chosen anything else, but he says he saw a great need in issues of sending and receiving money in the village.

"As you can see, we do not have banks here, and at that time there was no mobile money service provider around here. People would have to go all the way to the tarmac road just to transact," explained Mataka.

He said having seen that, he decided to open a mobile money shop in order to feast on the market that was readily available.

"So when I received the first and second chunks of money I saved K50000 with which I started the business, and when I started I realized that my capital was just too small to handle my customers," he continues.

He continues that most of the times he finds himself with no money to serve the people with, and this gave him a challenge to grow his business in order to serve the community better.

Truth be told, Mataka might have seen an opportunity in the community's need, but for the community, his business came as a savior because it cut down on the cost of transport and time they usually had to use when going to send or redeem money from their phone.

As Meria Maviko, a resident of the community, explained walking the 5 kilometers distance to find Airtel and TNM mobile money Agents was a challenge, considering that sometimes the money received could be a small amount not worthy the walk.

"Sometimes you would find that a relative has sent you K2000 or less and you really want to use it there and then, so you would have to walk all the way to.................for such a small amount," she worried.

Maviko further said the coming of Mataka's Airtel Money cash point relieved her and the rest of the community of the stress.

Currently Mataka’s capital is slightly above a hundred thousand Kwacha, a figure which he has realized through reinvestment of the commissions he receives from Airtel.

To him, this is a great achievement especially considering that the business has been steadily growing in the past few months.

Aside the mobile money shop, the village investor has also bought two pigs and a cow which he is keeping with plans to sale in the future in order to raise a huge capital for a parallel business that he has been dreaming of.

In his vision, Mataka sees a room in the front of his house opened as a hardware shop for bicycle and motorcycle parts and spares.

“As you can see my house is a long a busy road where many bicycles and motorcycles pass by, and so many times people pass here in search for a place where they can buy a part to repair a bike but because we have no hardware selling point around here they are all forced to go all the way to the same trading center they used to go to make money transactions,” he says, casting optimism that such a business is going to set him up for prosperity and sustainable graduation from the Social Cash Transfer Programme.

The Malawi Government introduced the Social Cash Transfer, a Social Safety Net Programme which targets ultra-poor households with no labour capacity as a way of creating a level ground for them to be able to move from poverty to a particular level of economic independence.

Story Credits: Sam Majamanda

"Seeing Sofilet Twaya six years ago you would have shed a tear" claim the neighbors to the 60-year-old mother to one (but a caregiver to five children), who has a touching story to share.

Her story begins 10 years back when she lost her husband and was forced to leave the husband's village which had been home for over 20 years.

"When he died the relatives decided to sale the place we were living at, so I and the children were forced to come back to my home village where I had no place either."

"My relatives offered me a small kitchen with one extra room to be my house, and in the condition, I was it felt like home," explained Twaya.

She said five more years down the line her life was stagnant because there was literally nothing, she could do to make progress.

"I had no money to even start a small business. The only thing we were doing were piece works in order to find food for the day, otherwise even my relatives were not in a position that they could help me out," she further said.

A believer in God, Twaya said she always kept praying for a miracle, until some day it came in the form of enrollment into the Malawi Government’s Social Cash Transfer Programme.

The Government has been running the programme through which it disburses free cash to ultra-poor and labor constrained households with an aim of boosting their capacity to move forward and attain a considerable level of economic independence.

From 2017 when Twaya started receiving K15000 each month, her road to the dreamed mansion house began opening up. 

"I tasked myself to listen and abide by the advice given by our leaders at Social Cash Transfer. So, I joined a Community Savings and Investment Promotion (COMSIP) group through which I started saving part of my money while using the other chunk to buy food," she said.

Contributor: Sam Majamanda

People of group village head Bema under traditional authority Kachere of Dedza district says the completion of Bema Outpatient Dispensary (OPD) and construction of two staff houses at the facility will ease the distance they used to cover to access quality health services.

Construction of Bema OPD begun in 2007 but stalled due to lack of funding untill in 2022 when Dedza District Council, with funding from World Bank under the Governmence to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project, decided to complete the project.

In an interview, Funny Mathola, a community member from Bema village, said they used to travel over 30 kilometres to Mitundu hospital to seek public health services which was a challenge for pregnant women and old people.

"As a result, many [people] were dying because of birth complications and other treatable illinesses like malaria and diarrhea," she said.

She, therefore, commended government for completing the clinic and constructing two staff houses at the health Institution, saying the development will save a lot of lives.

On his part, GVH Bema said people in his area were dying at an early age because of lack of access to trained medical personnel and modern medicine.

"That is why we have been demanding this development for a long time, I'm glad there is now hope that things will turn better for my people," he said.

Dedza District Council Acting Director of Planning and Development, Lottie Makina, said they decided to complete the facility to enhance health service delivery in the district by reaching underserved communities.

"We are also looking at the welfare of our health workers. We believe that for them to deliver good health services, they need better accommodation that is why we have also constructed two modern solar powered staff houses," he said."