After a site visit to Chikwawa to appreciate the progress of the Shire Valley Transformation Programme (STVP), the Office of the President & Cabinet, through it Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) confirmed and applauded the project’s coordinating unit for doing a commendable job so far in its phases of construction.
Touted as the government’s flagship development programme, which when completed will be the largest irrigation project in southern Africa, thus is a 14-year programme (2018-2031) which is being implemented in three sequential by partially overlapping phases.
On site tour
The PDU thus brought together all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the site visit and also for a special engagement at Sunbird Mount Soche Hotel to discuss the roles and responsibilities expected from each MDA in the project to “identify gaps to be addressed in order for the project to achieve its intended goals considering its complex nature”.
This was acknowledged by Head of the PDU, Dr. Janet Banda, saying the project will have “a major impact of the people of Malawi — Chikwawa and Nsanje specifically”.
She emphasized that the engagement with STVP management team as the coordinating unit is that “all line Ministries should take their roles and responsibilities with a view to ensuring that all aspects of the Programme are covered”.
Engagement with farmers
And from the site visit and the engagement forum, an agreement was reached with the MDAs on roles and areas of support and accelerating the project implementation in order to achieve its intended impact.
“The country’s transformative agenda of President Lazarus Chakwera has a vision to transform Malawi through such projects where it will see job creation, wealth creation and food security as a result of such high impact project being implemented,” she said.
She also took cognizance that the project is one of the enablers of the MW2063 national vision in Agriculture Productivity & Commercialisation Pillar and that an estimated 223,000 farmers from 48,400 farming households will engage in large scale commercial farming in the Shire Valley districts of Chikwawa and Nsanje.
The STVP is being financed the World Bank, the African Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development and the Global Environment Facility as well as the Government of Malawi.
The STVP Project Coordinator, Dr. Stanley Khaila took the MDAs through a presentation of their roles and responsibilities that is expected from each of them in the project and to identify gaps to be addressed in order for the project to achieve its intended goals considering its complex nature.
Led by the Ministry of Agriculture, the others directly involved are Ministries of Ministries of Finance & Economic Affairs, Lands, Trade & Industry, Local Government, Transport & Public Infrastructure, Tourism, Gender, Youth, Labour, Homeland Security, Energy, Natural Resources, Health, Water & Sanitation and Education.
From the site visit, the PDU identified “a few immediate challenges being faced such as shortage of cement in the country to meet the high demand for the construction of the gravity-fed irrigation facility, land compensation which PDU together with the MDAs resolved to map a way forward to remove such bottlenecks”.
“The PDU has also committed to assisting the project coordinating unit in the smooth importation of irrigation equipment and all other things needed for timely completion of the project so that farmers in the Lower Shire should start benefiting from the investment,” Banda said.
They were also taking to one of the communities which have in place a commercial farming cooperative who appraised the delegation of how prepared they were ahead of the completion of the project.
“It is gratifying to see farmers already organising themselves into vibrant cooperatives in readiness for the launch of this life changing project,” said the Head of the PDU, while urging the farmers “to own the facilities being put in place for which a lot of money has been spent.
She also asked traditional chiefs and community leaders to guard against theft of projects materials and equipment, which Khaila had also highlighted as of serious concern — which is being resolved through engaging the Malawi Police Service.
The PDU also made an appeal to the private sector take advantage of the project and identify possible areas for investiment.
In his presentation, Khaila highlighted that for the SVTP to revolutionalise the economy of Malawi, it is essential that all the relevant sectoral line ministries should take responsibility in developing their sectors within the Programme Impact Area.
It was first conceptualised as Shire Valley Project in the 1940s and is the last of the three development programmes planned on the Shire Valley — namely: the construction of a barrage at Liwonde; the construction of Hydro-Power stations on the Shire River; and the establishment of a vast irrigation programme in the Shire Valley.
It has four developmental components — the provision of a reliable gravity fed irrigation and drainage services; provision of secure land tenure for smallholder farmers and creation of large scale farms; and improving agriculture productivity, commercialization and value chain development.
The STVP is being financed the World Bank, the African Development Bank, OPEC Fund for International Development and the Global Environment Facility as well as the Government of Malawi.