UNDP Malawi

Millenium Villages Project  Progress Report  Fast Facts  A Solution to Extreme Poverty

Progress Report

Introduction

May 2005 saw the inception of the Millennium Villages Project in Malawi, although actual operations started in October 2005. The ultimate goal was to contribute to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals in rural Malawi. The Millennium Project Country Coordinator, Science Coordinator and the UNDP Focal Person were the main people on the ground coordinating the agriculture intervention and sensitising relevant stakeholders on the concept of the project. It was not until September 2006 that the project had recruited a complete team including the Cluster Manager, Finance & Administration Officer, Agriculture Coordinator, Health Coordinator Community Development Facilitator and Database Manager. Notice also should be given to the technical support that the MDG Centre, in Nairobi and also from UNDP through its current Focal Person (on Millennium Villages Project), the UN Millennium Project Assistant and the Implementation Support Centre’s (ISC) Procurement and Recruitment teams.

During the initial year (2005) the main objective was to increase food production for Mwandama Research Village, communities around the research village in Zomba (Southern Region), Gwengwere village in Dedza (Central Region) and Batoni Nzima village in Mzimba (Northern Region). The project provided maize seed and fertiliser for 12,014 households. In Zomba, 9,014 households in scale up villages received these inputs whereas in Mwandama, the research village, 1,000 households received. In Dedza and Mzimba 1000 households in the respective villages received these inputs. Government’s contribution in 2005 was provision of subsidised topdressing fertiliser to the project’s beneficiaries, thus the project only had to procure basal dressing. After harvest crop assessment by the project’s team shows that the average maize yield in the Millennium Villages was 5.5 tons per hectare. This represents a 500% increase over the average yield of 0.8 tons per hectare which farmers were getting before the project’s intervention.

This year the agriculture intervention will continue and so far the procurement process for the inputs has been completed and distribution already started. Apart from the maize seed and fertilizer, the project will this year provide pigeon peas, beans and groundnuts. Just like in 2005, government will this year contribute top dressing fertilizer through its fertilizer subsidy programme. The beneficiaries will this year increase by 1222 households due to establishment of the new village in Mchinji, Gumulira Village, thus making the total number of beneficiaries 13236 households.

Baseline Surveys

A number of surveys have been conducted in the research village to collect baseline information in every area of intervention, including Nutrition, Malaria, STI and HIV/AIDS, Orphans (<5) and Orphans (5-18), Men’s and Women’s Health, Women and Children Health, Men’s Fertility, Socio-economic, Agriculture and Environment, Water and Sanitation, and Entomology. The health surveys were conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi and Community Health Service Unit which is under Ministry of Health.

Infrastructure, water and sanitation

• One bore hole has already been constructed in the research village. Communities assembled rocks and sand for borehole construction.

• The MVP is currently carrying out a water assessment to assess the hydrology of the Villages and decide on the number of protected shallow wells and boreholes to be constructed. The construction of the water sources is expected to start November 2006.
• Assessment of the existing infrastructure in the MVP such as roads, communication systems, energy sources, public buildings was done using GPS.

Community mobilization and capacity building

The MVP has been conducting community sensitization and empowerment meetings since its inception. Through these meetings the communities are able to understand the goals of the objectives and participate in project activities. Communities have now moulded bricks for construction of the clinic and primary school in the research village.

Agriculture

• Each of the households in the Millennium Villages received farm inputs during the last season that include 10 kg hybrid maize seed, 50kg bag basal fertilizer and 50kg bag topdressing  fertilizer. The farmers were trained on Sasakawa technology through Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of Extension to increase the number of maize population from 37,000 to 55,000 and thus increasing productivity per unit area.
• Towards the harvesting period, farmers were trained by Zomba Rural Development Project in conjunction with extension workers from Sasakawa Global 2000 project on post harvest technologies which included treating of maize grain  with pesticides, construction of drying cribs and modern storage granaries to minimize the losses that are associated with the traditional granaries
• The MVP carried out crop measurements which involved measuring fields of the sampled farmers, placement of quadrants in the fields and recording the weights of the maize from these quadrants. The assessment showed that farmers in the MVP obtained more than 3 times (Table 2) the national yield p/ha. The national average yield in Malawi in 2006 (June 23 estimates) was 1.6 ton/ha
• As a contribution to the project each household has contributed, and will continue to do so for the entire lifecycle of the project, 2 bags of maize (50kgs) to help in the school feeding programme. As a result a need developed to construct grain storage facilities. So far construction is almost complete in Mzimba and Dedza and in Zomba there is significant progress too.
• The fertilizer and hybrid maize seed distribution for this coming cropping season is underway and in addition to the input program the project is also including the agroforestry and compost intervention in order to increase soil productivity.
• Crop diversification: during this coming cropping season the project will include groundnuts, pigeon peas and beans in its input program.

Table 2. Maize Yields in 2006

Health

• A major breakthrough in health interventions is the granting of the Ministry of Health for the project to construct 7 clinics in scale up villages in the Mwandama cluster, thus agreeing to the project’s design of making accessible health facilities at a ratio of 5000 households per clinic.
• Construction of a dispensary in Mwandama Research Village is underway
• Several meetings with Ministry of Health staff both at district and ministry level have been conducted. Some of the activities during these meetings included sharing of work plans, and implementation of the MVP health activities. In addition, the project conducted a facility assessment of the existing health facilities in the Millennium villages and including the referral hospital.
• The nearest clinic to Mwandama Research Village, Thondwe Clinic, is located within a distance of 20kms. The project  and government has reached an agreement to upgrade this clinic to a full Health Centre  
• Malaria prevention: distribution of Long Lasting Insect Treated Nets (LLITNs) to all sleeping sites (every household) has already started and is near completion. Latest arrangements are to distribute any surplus of these LLITNs to surrounding villages within the catchment of the Millennium Villages.

Education

• The MVP managed to convince the District Education team and other key players on construction of 5 Junior Primary Schools in the villages. Government, through the ministry of education, will provide human resource support and teaching materials in these schools once construction is completed.
• Meetings were also held with the District Education team on the school feeding program which is due to start in four schools in the MVP site.

MAJOR PLANNED ACTIVITIES

1. Recruitment of Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) through the Ministry of Health (MoH). The recruits will be based at the villages, but on government scheme. The project will thus enter into an agreement with MoH for remuneration of these HSAs.
2. Recruitment of Community Facilitators for Mwandama Research Villages and the scale up villages
3. Construction of Junior Primary School (JPS) at Mwandama Research Village and Mchinji Gumulira Village. Upon completion of these two JPS, the project will construct 6 more JPS in the scale up villages around Mwandama
4. Construction of boreholes at MV1, using the Yara Sluiskil funds, and scale up villages using MVP funds