Project News

GENERAL
Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meetings are meetings that are held periodically between stakeholders of a sector that a particular project is involved in. They are aimed at making policy directions for the project and analyse progress made over a given period of time. In the case of Malawi Rural Electrification Promotion (MAREP) Technical Cooperation project being jointly implemented by JICA and the Government of Malawi, such meetings are supposed to be held at least once a year or more if there is a pressing need to do so.

The first JCC meeting for Malawi Rural Electrification Promotion (MAREP) Technical Cooperation project was held on 24th January 2007, just one month after the launch of the project on December 31st 2006.

SECOND JCC MEETING
The second JCC meeting for MAREP Technical Cooperation project was held on 12th November 2007 at the Ministry of Energy and Mines headquarters. Chaired by the Project Director, who is also Principal Secretary for the Ministry, Mr. Charles P. Msosa, the meeting was attended by representatives from the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), who are the sole electricity supply company in Malawi and owned by the Government of Malawi, (GoM), the National Electricity Council of Malawi (NECO), who regulate the electricity sector in the country, the Department of Energy Affairs of the Ministry of Energy and Mines and Japan International Cooperation Agency.

MALAWI RURAL ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAMME (MAREP)

PROGRESS OF MAREP
The meeting was delighted to hear that Phase IV of the Rural Electrification program, which had targeted over about 97 Trading Centres, (TCs), was successfully completed in May 2007. This was three years behind the original schedule, (the original target was 40 TCs)

Having completed Phase IV, the GoM embarked on another one year program to electrify 27 Trading Centres; one in each district. This is Phase V. This phase has benefited from financial assistance form the Government of Japan to the tune of K196m. This money, which was being held as Counter Value Funds by the GoM, will be used for the purchase of materials. The contsruction work of the phase is expected to cost K215m and the GoM will contribute the remaining amount. According to the contract negotiated between ESCOM, the main contractor of the project, and the GoM, the project is expected to end in June 2008, although indications are that it may go up to December 2008.

The Department of Energy reported that procurement of materials had already started with Nishizawa Ltd of Japan supplying transformers, Rousant Ltd of South Africa supplying Line materials while local companies; Wood Industries Ltd and Raiply Ltd supplying poles. Delivery of poles to strategic ESCOM sites had already commenced while materials from outside were expected to start arriving in two weeks time.

PROGRESS OF THE TECHNICAL COOPERATION PROJECT
From December 2006 to November 2007 the project has benefited from expertise of the following Japanese Experts who came to support the project as follows: Mr. Yasuhiro KAWAKAMI (Project Manager also responsible for Organisational Management/ Distribution Planning); Dr. Akio SHIOTA responsible for Rural Electrification/Solar PV System Technology; Ms Yuki KOBAYASHI-SANGALA who is Financial Advisor; and Mr. Toshiaki KIMURA who is Micro Hydro Advisor. During their attachments to the project, these Experts worked hand in with their Malawian counterparts in their respective areas of specialization.

Worthy mentioning among their activities was the Photo Voltaic inspection training that was organized by Dr. Shiota and attracted participants from Malawi and Rwanda. It was held from 15th to 26th October 2007 in Lilongwe. Equally important was the exchange visit that was carried out by three Zambian officers to the Department of Energy Affairs whose aim was to learn how Malawians have implemented Rural Electrification Project.

THE CHALLENGE SHEET
Since the project aims at transferring skills and knowledge from Japanese Experts to Malawians working in the DOE, there is need to assess the level of such transfer at any given time. After realizing this need, the project team members decided to come up with a form that would assist both parties to assess progress being made. They called this Form “the Challenge Sheet”. On this form, the Malawian sets targets of what and to what extent he wants to learn from the project activities with the Japanese Experts over a given period of time. At the expiry of the set period the Malawian and Japanese Expert sit down to assess how much of the concept has been grasped by the Malawian and if there any problems in any areas, discuss how they can be surmounted. This approach is viewed as a more positive and amicable way of assessing acquisition of techniques as opposed to the so-called Evaluation method.

CONCLUSION
The first year of the Technical Cooperation project has been characterized by a lot of successes both on the JICA project aspect as well as the MAREP implementation side. The completion of Phase IV, which had been dogged by a lot of technical problems due to lack of practical experience by the Malawian side in implementing such project, is something worthy celebrating. The successful commencement, and so far systematic approach to the implementation of Phase V, gives us hope that the Technical Cooperation project is bearing fruits and that in future, Malawians will be able to carry out similar activities on their own. It is hoped that the GoM will maintain in the DOE the same members of staff who are working with the Japanese Expert for future sustainability of the project outputs.