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As contractors are being recruited to support Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP) and Malawi Resilience and Disaster Risk Management Project (MRDRMP), the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation team has embarked on putting in place the system that will be providing real time data from the construction sites to the projects’ central server.

The system, known as the Geo-Enabling initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS) is a low-cost and open source technology for digital real-time data collection and analysis.

As a way of raising awareness of the contractors on the GEMS, the project has embarked on orientation of the contractors on the GEMS so that they should be able to send real time data from the construction site to the central server.

“Using the GEMS tools and methods allows operations to create customized digital M&E systems to enhance the transparency and accountability of implementation across the project cycle. At the same time, GEMS provides platforms for remote supervision, real-time risk & safeguards monitoring, and portfolio mapping for coordination across projects and partners,” Eng. Pacharo Kuntembwe recently said during one of the orientation sessions of the contractors.

MWASIP and MRDRMP are the World Bank funded multi-sectoral projects currently being implemented under the leadership of Ministry of Forestry and Natural Resources.

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BY Chipiliro Khamula

One fateful dawn in March 2019, 50 year-old Annie James of GVH Mfunde, T/A Makhwira in Chikwawa District, woke up to a dreadful sound. Sensing danger, she peeped through the window. She had to take heed. Her house was covered in flooding waters which emanated from the swelling Livunzu River. She alerted her husband and children. They all rushed to a nearby house.

“Our house collapsed some hours later. Stored foodstuffs and clothes were all washed away. We lost all of our goats. Crops that were at an advanced stage in our gardens were all lost. Since that time, we have been finding it so hard to recover,” said the mother of seven.

She said the floods, which she described as devastating, brought the family to a standstill, a stand her 13-year-old daughter Rose Magaba, who dreams of becoming a police officer, shares.
“I couldn’t go to school on an empty stomach, that would have been suicidal, there was no food in the house and the best option was to stay home and hope for the better,” said Rose, a Standard 8 learner at Bodza Primary School.

As the saying goes, there is always light at the end of the tunnel, James is excited, having learnt that the Malawi Recovery Disaster Risk Management Project (MRDRMP) is, among other avenues, earmarked to build resilience of communities to disasters.

“The Project gives us a ray of hope for a better tomorrow. We are geared to engage in works that will bring about significant change in as far as building resilience of communities to disasters and food insecurity is concerned,” said James.

Youthful Group Village Headman Mfunde said his subjects have been longing for initiatives of MRDRMP’s nature.

“The communities of GVH Mfunde have been at a loss since March 2019, having lost their livestock and crops to Cyclone Idai-induced floods. We are prepared to instill a sense of ownership for the project, we cannot mess up with what we have been longing for.” Said the 36-year-old Group Village Headman.