Introduction
 The Income Generating Public Works Programme just like any other development
initiative in Malawi has been affected by HIV and AIDS during the course of
implementation. In Malawi, the HIV and AIDS epidemic has been the greatest
development threat and challenge facing all sectors of the society resulting
in substantial loss of national productivity and an increase in burden of
individuals, household and communities. As per the Demographic and Health
Survey( 2004), 12 % of Malawian adults aged between 15-49 are infected with
HIV and prevalence is higher among women at 13% than women at 10 %.
As per the IGPWP baseline survey of March 2007, even though the knowledge of
HIV and AIDS is high, only one household member has undergone an HIV test
(23.5%) and only 1.6% of those who have gone for testing were under 18 years
old.
51% of the Malawi population is comprised women of whom 62% are literate
(DHS, 2004). Literacy levels in rural areas are at 57.7% for women compared
to 76% for men. Because of low literacy levels, women are denied a lot of
opportunities. Such opportunities include; access to financial services and
access to agricultural inputs. The low level of literacy is also influenced
by cultural factors which enable boy children to go to school and girl
children to stay at home. This situation results in high dependency of women
on men. As a result of the high death rate due to HIV and AIDS and other
related diseases, there has been high dependence on women to fulfill their
productive, reproductive and community roles as care givers at the same
time.
Due to the situation above, the IGPWP is trying its best to address the
problems by adequately addressing HIV and AIDS awareness, increasing the
role and participation of women and youth in the
Roads, Forestry, Irrigation and PMU component, and
facilitation of linkages to other socio economic initiatives for the benefit
of the rural poor.
Objectives
 The main objective is to ensure that crosscutting issues are adequately
addressed in the programme by increasing the role and representation of
women and youth in the programme; promoting HIV and AIDS awareness; address
environmental issues; ensure enhancement of programme visibility and
facilitating of linkages to other socio-economic initiatives. The expected
output put for the programme is that 79,000people should be made aware of
HIV and AIDS, 30% of the programme beneficiaries should be women and youth,
610 linkages should be facilitated to other socio economic initiatives for
the benefit of the rural poor; the environmental management plan and the programme
visibility strategy should be implemented.
Implementation Modality
Implementation of crosscutting issues is considered to be effective through
the use of existing, well organised clubs in Forestry, Irrigation and
Roads components. The clubs are the best medium to implement
crosscutting issues
and linking them to capable development institutions to introduce other
socio economic initiatives which are beneficial to the communities. The
initiatives include HIV and AIDS, Gender, Human Rights awareness, livestock
production promotion, ceramic tile production and dissemination of
information on health issues.
 Before implementation of crosscutting issues commences, sensitization
meetings on planned activities in crosscutting issues and all components are conducted at district level where the District AIDS
Coordinator, District Youth officers, Community Development Officer, Social
Welfare Officer, HIV and AIDs focal person from the
Ministry of Health, members
from the NGO sector who are implementing similar activities and
representatives from community based organizations and programme staff are
familiarized with the programme implementation methodologies.
Following the district sensitization meeting, a planning meeting is
conducted to properly implement crosscutting issues at a zone level once
the clubs are in operational.
Development initiatives that would like to introduce other initiatives in
the clubs sign implementation agreements or Memoranda of Understanding for
smooth, effective and efficient implementation of activities.
Activities and Targets
The planned activities and targets in Programme Estimate 1 and 2 were:- Sensitizing 52,000 people on HIV and AIDS
-
Conducting a total of 42 awareness
campaigns and 114 community meetings
- Promoting plantation of indigenous
vegetables in all irrigation clubs and fruit trees in Forestry
and Irrigation
- Facilitating linkages to institutions/social economic initiatives (15
District Assemblies, 11 line ministries and national bodies, 80 Community
Based Organizations, 55 NGOs and 15 HIV and AIDS focal persons from
Ministry of Health)
- Increasing the role and representation of women and youth to at least 30% in
household income generation and decision making processes, through 42
awareness campaigns and 75 community meetings
- Implementing
environmental management plan through community training
- Implementing the
IGPWP visibility strategy
Achievements
Progress has been made in achieving the targeted activities in the two
Programme Estimates as follows:
A total of 35,226 adults and 32,577 girls and boys have been sensitized on
HIV and AIDS, gender and human rights issues during 36 awareness campaigns
with a purpose of:- Encouraging communities to go for Voluntary
Counseling and Testing, accessing Anti Retroviral Therapy
- Avoiding
discrimination of those who are HIV and AIDS positive
- Understanding
behaviors and cultural factors that influence the spread of HIV and AIDS
-
Understanding misconceptions of gender and development, gender based
violence
- Understanding rights of those living with HIV and AIDS, other
human and workers rights
- Ensuring that women and youth are part of
programme beneficiaries
The expected output is that communities will be able to understand and
educate others on these issues and make informed decisions about
their lives.
 128,180 Information, Education and Communication materials were provided to
members of the communities so that they serve as reference materials and
57,200 condoms were also made available to the communities. These materials
were printed in vernacular languages and were easy to read since they
contained pictures describing the written information. The IEC materials
comprised HIV and AIDS information booklets on how to live a healthy life
if found to be HIV positive, how to assist a friend who is HIV positive,
forms and understanding gender based violence, posters on youth, women and
men participation in development, T-shirts carrying HIV and AIDS, Human
rights and gender messages.
In the course of programme implementation, a number of linkages were
facilitated to 15 District Assemblies, 4 line ministries, 6 national bodies,
5 NGOs, 138 CBOs and 15 HIV and AIDS focal persons from
Ministry of Health and 7 EU funded programmes. The purpose of the linkages was
to improve on programme corroboration and identify synergies. A total of 7
Memoranda of understanding have been signed so far with Line ministries and
national bodies. At the same time a number of CBOs benefited from the
Forestry and
Irrigation components since inputs and tools were provided to
them to assist the vulnerable members of their communities such as orphans
and vulnerable children, the elderly, persons who are physically challenged
and persons with chronic diseases. In the
Roads component in Dedza and Ntcheu, a
total of 27 man days were worked by individuals who are physically
challanged, 236 man days were worked by individuals that look after orphans,
48 man days were worked by individuals that look after chronically ill
persons.
Indegenous vegetables have been planted in all irrigation clubs and fruit
trees distributed and planted in all forestry and irrigation clubs.
In order to increase the role and participation of women and youth in the
programme, 46% women were recruited under road rehabilitation contracts in
the 19 contacts in Dedza and Ntcheu where a total of K3.5 million was paid
to them, 36% of members in the road maintenance clubs were women 26% of the
women were club committee members. Treadle pump ownership by women moved
from 15% in Programme Estimate 1 to 24% in Programme Estimate 2. 53% of
stream diversion club members were female in the
Irrigation components and
52% were female members in all the village forestry clubs for PE1 and 2.
The programme also ensures that its visibility is enhanced through coverage
of its forestry and irrigation field days and other programme activities by
the media and sourcing promotional materials such as branded pens, pencils
and key rings, Participation in international trade fairs, producing and
distributing calendars, blotters and brochures. At the moment work on
producing a documentary on the programme is in its advanced stage.
The programmes ensures that environmental issues are addressed by all
components through provision of guidelines and activities to be implemented
under the environmental management plan and conducting a training of trainer
courses by trainers from the Department of Environmental Affairs in relation
to the IGPWP Environmental Management Plan
Benefits
to the Communities- HIV and AIDS Awareness
The type of messages and the method of disseminating these messages to the
communities will assist the programme beneficiaries to appreciate and
understand the HIV and AIDS problem and be able to make informed decisions
about their lives in relation to the epidemic
The presence of the HIV and AIDS focal person from the District Hospitals
under the
Ministry of Health give direction to the
beneficiaries of what to expect at the VCT centre, where they can get
specific help and what the benefits of VCT and ART services are
The awareness campaigns and trainings are a medium of informing the
communities about the importance of good nutrition in relation to HIV and
AIDS and HOW THE PROGRAMME assists the vulnerable and those looking after
them in relation to HIV and AIDS
Introduction on plantation and consumption of indigenous vegetables and
fruit trees will enable beneficiaries have an increase in intake of
nutrients in their bodies for better health
- Facilitation of Linkages to other Social Economic Initiatives
Linkages that are facilitated by the programme will enable beneficiaries
derive benefits from a wider audience. Such benefits, such as livestock
production, ceramic tile manufacturing, stove production, can result in
increasing their income and resources so that their livelihoods can be
improved. For example, the use of clay stoves will reduce use of firewood
and there will be a saving on fuel costs
Linkages in areas of health will result in the programme working with
healthy beneficiaries since they will be able to prevent certain diseases
from attacking them thereby increase their productivity and produce
more farm produce for food and sale.
Linkages with line ministries and District assemblies will assist the
beneficiaries to be considered for other development initiatives which can
be available at district level
- Increased Role and Participation of Women and Youth
Increasing the role and participation of women and youth at community level
will give an opportunity to women and youth to benefit from the programme
and assist their households in the process. This will also help them to
develop leadership skills especially if they are given an opportunity to be
in the committees
- Enhancing Programme Visibility
This will enable communities to know more about the programme, what and
how they can benefit from it. Recorded success stories from beneficiaries
will assist other communities to learn from the programme and implement
similar initiatives
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