Project News

The 4th MA-SHEP Technical Committee (TC) Meeting and the 2nd MA-SHEP Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) Meeting were held in Lilongwe on 20th and 23rd March 2018, respectively. First, at the 4th TC Meeting, we reported the progress of the project activities in the current quarter (from January to March 2018) and reviewed the plan of operation (PO) for smooth implementation of the project activities. After that, at the 2nd JCC Meeting, we reported the progress of the project activities in the second half of 2017/2018 fiscal year (from October 2017 to March 2018), and the joint coordinating committee members approved the revision of PO.

In this JCC, the following active discussions were held with representatives of all the related departments invited.

The representative of Department of Agricultural Planning Services:
"MA-SHEP is just one of the projects, but it is better to apply this concept to other projects of our ministry. Every district that implement other projects complains that farmers can't access to markets. This project shows how to solve it."

The representative of Department of Crops Development:
"That's a good idea. Yesterday, we had a management meeting and discussed about the marketing issue, that is, "Why we fail?". I think this approach is very good. We need to learn the MA-SHEP Approach and use it for capacity building of our staff."

The representative of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development:
"About the issues of the market that farmers face, we need to discuss among the departments. Otherwise, each project goes to different direction."

The head of Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp) Secretariat:
"Every year, we use massive amount of budget for projects. However, when we look at farmers, there are small achievements. This Approach can be a good solution for that."

The Project Manager of MA-SHEP:
"If we want to mainstream MA-SHEP concept to other projects as the Ministry, the ASWAp secretariat should first convene the managers of all projects and set up a forum for consultation."

Through this JCC, it was wonderful that we had a concrete discussion to make MA-SHEP's approach mainstream to other projects of the ministry. For the farmers of Malawi, and for the improvement of the agriculture extension projects of the ministry, MA-SHEP would like to make efforts to produce results of the project at the field level and to share those experiences/lessons with other departments.

The 4th MA-SHEP Technical Committee (TC) Meeting

Dr. Changaya, the Controller of Agricultural Extension & Technical Services who served as Chair of the 2nd MA-SHEP JCC Meeting (right) and Mr. Wada, the Deputy Resident Representative of JICA Malawi Office (left)

The 2nd MA-SHEP Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) Meeting

Representatives of the other departments participating in the 2nd MA-SHEP JCC Meeting