By Aliko Munde:
Billions of Kwachas have been invested in Chitipa District through various developmental projects.
However, when these projects phase out, issues of sustainability often become a bottleneck, both in the district and the country as a whole.
One such organisation that has invested heavily in the district and Malawi at large since 1982 is World Vision Malawi (WVM).
The organisation has made huge investments in infrastructure and contributed to sectors such as education, livelihoods and resilience, maternal and child health, and water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash).
Despite these investments, WVM still lacks a comprehensive database showing the type, number, location and condition of infrastructures constructed or initiated by the organisation, due to a lack of ownership among community members.
Recently, the child-focused organisation conducted an ‘Evidence Week’ to collect comprehensive data on major assets or inputs developed or provided by WVM and its partners.
At Lufita Trading Centre, in Senior Chief Mwabulambya’s area of the district, however, the story is different.
In 2008, World Vision, under the Namatubi Kanyenjere Area Programme, procured a sunflower processing machine, which was donated to Witimba/Kaseye Cooperative. The 114-member group is still operational today.
“The governance structures in our cooperative have helped us reach where we are today,” its chairperson, Andrew Mtambo, says.
The cooperative, which started as an association in 2003, is involved in agribusiness and has acquired several assets, particularly from its cooking oil processing business.
Mtambo explains that the cooperative has managed to build a business shop at Lufita Trading Centre, a poultry house and has purchased a piece of land at Ilema Trading Centre, where they plan to build a business shop in the near future.
“We built a warehouse and World Vision assisted us by providing iron sheets. We also constructed a structure, which we converted into a sunflower cooking oil processing mini-factory,” he explains.
Chairperson of the cooperative’s Procurement Sub-Committee, Fiskani Bakali, says that in addition to processing cooking oil from sunflowers, the cooperative aims to reduce the vending of farm produce in the area.
“Most farmers in our area have been exploited by vendors who buy from them at prices lower than the farm gate value.
“We are here to reverse that and our vision is to add value to all the farm produce we collect from both our members and non-members,” Bakali explains.
She adds that the cooperative plans to purchase a larger sunflower oil pressing machine because the one they currently use only produces 100 litres of cooking oil a day.
“The demand for our product is overwhelming and non-members also come to process their sunflower. That is why we need a machine with higher capacity,” Bakali explains.
Bakali further states that they also plan to add value to maize by turning it into maize flour, so that maize grown in Chitipa is not exported to other countries.
Additionally, they aim to add value to soybeans and groundnuts.
“We need approximately K500 million to realise our dream of adding value to all our farm produce,” she says.
Hendrix Kalanje, Programmes Manager for WVM in Karonga and Chitipa districts, acknowledges that sustaining projects after donor withdrawal remains a challenge.
Kalanje says that seeing the cooperative still running, 14 years after WVM’s transition, is not only encouraging but also motivating for the organisation.
“It gives us confidence that the community and local partners were actively involved in developing the programme’s vision and priorities, leading to ownership of the interventions implemented by World Vision in the area,” he says.
Kalanje further explains that the sustainability drivers integrated into their programme interventions were effective.
“It is clear that the community members understood their vision and aspirations and were committed to working with World Vision as a partner in addressing developmental challenges that impeded the realisation of their vision.
“Asset-based development is an effective approach because it builds on existing strengths rather than introducing entirely new systems,” he says.
Kalanje further discloses that in many of the area programmes where WVM has worked, sustaining project interventions has been a challenge.
He, however, nots that there are pockets of communities that have been able to sustain interventions.
“At the onset, organisations must engage community partners effectively throughout the programme life, provide asset-based capacity building to community structures for sustainability and invest in mapping potential local partners and enhancing their capacities in preparation for the transition period,” Kalanje advises.
