History in Malawi

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Mon 16 Oct 2006, over 19 years ago

The application is laid out very well (who did you get to post it? :) ) and i have no questions on that. What is the history of your org in Malawi? And the office structure there now?

RE:History in Malawi >

By Water for People Posted on Tue 17 Oct 2006, over 19 years ago

Water For People started work in Malawi in 1997 through personal contacts between some potential partners and the staff from the headquarters in the USA. The first Country Coordinator, Alfred Mhone, lived in Blantyre, so he established Water For People—Malawi’s office there. He himself started work as a contractor to Water For People rather than as a staff member, and he set up the relationships with the partners in a similar way as individual contracts rather than as ongoing partnerships. As the years passed, Water For People—Malawi remained very small, consisting of the Country Coordinator and no other staff. The Country Coordinator fell ill in 2004 and was on sick leave for most of 2005, so Water For People—Malawi’s work came to a virtual standstill. He left Water For People—Malawi in late 2005, and sadly died in early 2006. His successor, Kate Harawa, started work in December 2005, revived contacts with the existing partners, recruited support staff and initiated this strategic planning process.

During the period 1997-2005, Water For People—Malawi supported an assortment of projects proposed and implemented mainly by its existing partners. Most of the projects were successful and have served tens of thousands of Malawians with water, sanitation and hygiene education , but Water For People—Malawi lacked a strategically coherent work programme. Water For People—Malawi’s relationships with its partners were essentially reactive, dependent on them to suggest and generate the Water For People—Malawi workload, rather than strategic. It did not use objective criteria to select partners, geographical areas, or types of projects. It concentrated on field projects and did little capacity building of the partner organisations, nor advocacy and policy work within the Malawian water sector. So it worked more as a low-profile project manager than a development agency. This method of working developed mainly because Water For People—Malawi started informally and continued as a one-person organisation.

As to governance, Water For People—Malawi has an unusual history. First, the Government of Malawi’s Ministry of Gender registered Water For People as an international NGO in November 2000. Then, after the NGO Act of 2001 was passed, this registration was confirmed by the NGO Board. But then, for reasons that are not now clear but may have been based on a misunderstanding of the NGO Act, Water For People—Malawi also registered separately with the Ministry of Justice as a Malawian Association with a Board of Trustees. So Water For People and Water For People—Malawi had a dual existence. Consequently the lines of governance responsibility were not clear, which made it difficult to establish strategic policy control over the work of the Country Coordinator. Now in 2006, Water For People headquarters in the USA and the Board of Trustees in Malawi are resolving the ambiguous governance status by dissolving the Malawian Association and transforming its Board of Trustees into an Advisory Committee for Water For People—Malawi as an international NGO.

In terms of staffing we are still pretty light - a Country Coordinator who is excellent, and some financial staff. We are starting a new country strategy which will include more technical support to partners, and likely one staff member within District Government to build their capacity to manage, plan, supervise and coordinate more effectively.

Cost per person

By El Porvenir Posted on Wed 18 Oct 2006, over 19 years ago

The cost per person for this project is very high, well above the BPR standard of $25 per person. Is there some way to lower this cost? The cost for hydrological study, drilling, etc is all merged into one --- how much for each component? This is the largest item in the budget. Is there no tradition in Malawi of dowsers or diviners to locate water? El Porvenir has completed over 200 wells in Nicaragua, 100% of them located by a local dowser, total 7 dry holes in 15 years. It costs about $5. Or is there some other part of your budget that could be reduced to get closer to the $25 per person figure?

RE:Cost per person >

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Wed 18 Oct 2006, over 19 years ago

Good catch! I did not do all the calculations, as this was the last project of 2005 we looked at in April 2006!

But its really our goal that we can get the average of our projects to around $25 as that is the marketing campaign for the Blue Planet Run 2007 - $25 = water for life for one person.

RE:Cost per person >

By Water for People Posted on Wed 18 Oct 2006, over 19 years ago

Thanks for the comment. As I have discussed with BPR, it is unreasonable to have a global figure of US$25 and not understand that there are some countries in teh world that are considerably more expensive than others. For instance, many organisations around the world who work in India really beef up their programs in India because the costs are so low. They can then say "it costs US$25/person for water" when in fact it is very misleading. I know, I have been part of some organisations that do this all the time (ironically Water For People is not one of them).

Malaiw is an expensive country. It is by far the most expensive country that Water For People works in. The cost of drilling, the cost of petrol, the cost of cement, the cost of handpumps ( a rope pump in Nicaragua costs a fraction of an Afridev in Malawi).

So, I am hoping that we can have a real discussion on costs per beneficiary with some understanding of regional variations. If we stick to this US$25 limit you can effectively write off southern Africa - where the need is far greater in fact that South and Central America.

US$25/person across the board is PR, not development finance.

Thanks

Ned

RE:Cost per person >

By Water for People Posted on Wed 18 Oct 2006, over 19 years ago

See response below