Chilima challenges Malawians to rethink the future of the nation

State Vice President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima has challenged Malawians to turn the social and economic hardships Malawi is currently going through as opportunities for rethinking the new direction of the nation.

Chilima emphasized that it is not only money that matters to develop a nation; hence, Malawians need to see inadequacies in their current thought processes and believe that there are better solutions to their problems.

The Vice President made the remarks at the results celebration of the World Connect Malawi’s locally led development programme. The celebration took place at the Bingu International Convention Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe.

Chilima observed that many Malawians limit their own scope for ingenuity by the mistaken belief that to achieve personal and collective progress, having a lot of money is all that matters.

“As Malawians we need to be dissatisfied with the status quo and move away away from the ndimomwe zimakhalira or sizingatheke mind set. Nothing is impossible! We need to change the way we think and conduct business in order to achieve new results,” he said.

Chilima said it was pleasing to note that World Connect Malawi’s activities, programmes and approaches have been aligned with Malawi’s visions as well as the country’s approach to development as guided by the Malawi 2063 (MW2063) document.

He said World Connect has demonstrated to be a true champion of the local development philosophy and their results demonstrate the power and capacity of what communities can achieve if they take charge of their own development.

“I am impressed to note that World Connect Malawi’s projects are inclusive such that 95% of the projects that were implemented achieved all community agreed goals. These initiatives contribute significantly to closing the gender and empowerment divide because 83 percent of the projects are being led by women. These undertakings are also benefiting the girl-child. Under some projects we have seen increased access to clean and safe drinking water not only reducing recurrence of water borne diseases but also time spent by the girl child in fetching water,” he said.

Chilima further said the government was impressed because World Connect does not call itself a donor, but rather a partner who co-invests directly in the ideas of local communities and organizations to drive self-sustaining development in their communities.

He said the World Connect’s achievement ably demonstrates that strategy and tactics are just as important as resources.

“World Connect Malawi has registered less than 1% of grant funds loss to theft or fraud even though 70 percent of projects are led by first-time grant recipients. Additionally, World Connect interventions have largely contributed to self-reliant communities by encouraging co-investment in community-driven initiatives using locally available resources. These achievements bring high honour and pride to this country and strengthen the partnership we have with the United States of America,” he said.

World Connect Malawi board chairperson Tamara Chirwa thank the government for creating a conducive environment for the growth of the private sector.