Dear Readers,
The 11th International Consultations concluded in Livingstone, Zambia with a call to government stakeholders to strengthen the protection of children from abuse and violence and continued commitment of the helplines to provide mental health support to children worldwide. This comes shortly after the Day of the African Child and was a good moment for reflecting on budgeting processes.
As a country, Malawi was represented by a delegation led by the Honorable Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare who also made a commitment through the Ministers Forum for the event.
Malawi will be 61 years old on July 6, 2025. This milestone comes with a MK17 trillion debt, and Malawi remains one of the poorest countries while also chairing the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). We are, however, boasting as chair of the least developed countries, and one wonders if we are serious at all. Poverty remains a persistent issue, and we are slowly drifting backwards with very little hope. Politics of poverty continues to reign in this country where our politicians capitalize on the poverty of the people through small handouts. Laws banning the handouts seem to be ineffective and politicians are moving with impunity.
Malawi’s economy remains a consuming economy with little or no production. Our small-scale minerals are dominated by foreigners with the aid of Malawians harboring them in our communities. Is Malawi going to progress with such development? Our agriculture sector continues to be a major challenge with very poor or no effective extension services. The Agriculture Input Programme (AIP) has been heavily criticized for not effectively delivering but is being heavily supported as a political tool at the expense of mega farms. We are yet to see the results of the green belt initiative. These are initiatives that could raise the economy of this country, but we are turning a blind eye to them.
With Malawi Vision 2063, one is inclined to think industrialization would be the way to go. But does our system allow for such development? Is our youth sector being motivated enough to promote industrialization? How is this sector being moved to respond to this challenge? We cannot move much if we do not engage with our education system 62 years after independence.
What has been the quality of our education? Have education standards improved or deteriorated? What type of graduates are we producing? Innovators or followers? Do we have educated people or not? Is our curriculum meeting the needs of the country? Has AI taken over our education when exams are answered by Chat GPT? What does this mean for our nation?
In its formative years, the Civil Society Education Coalition used to have “QUALITY” in the name, and one wonders if the change in name was a result of deteriorating standards in the sector. Perhaps we should either ask Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) to revisit the name or strategically position itself in quality education at all levels. Sixty-one years of education with the current education system and standards leaves a lot to be desired.
Perhaps it’s high time our leadership (the president) borrowed a leaf from the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, and gave a directive on Education for the Social and Economic Development of Malawi. When Donald Trump declared that the department of education needs to be restructured to look at education for America, the feeling was that possibly this would have no bearing on other countries. Country leadership has to seriously revisit education systems to ensure that they meet the needs of the people.
We conclude these July 2025 thoughts with news that our children are being systematically trafficked or sold through care institutions according to the Malawi Human Rights Commission, using the laws we have. The news comes at a time when we have a Trafficking in Persons Act (TIP) Act in place and are about to commemorate the International Day Against Trafficking under the theme “Human Trafficking is Organised Crime: End Exploitation.”
Malawi faces both internal trafficking for sexual exploitation of children and child labor, and external trafficking as a route and destination for trafficked persons. We need to seriously revisit the inspection rules for care institutions so that they provide quality care for our children. We need to create massive awareness about the Trafficking in Persons Act and also address the challenges and level of trafficking in persons in Malawi and internationally. We need a blog on trafficking in persons.
Happy Independence Day!
