EU, Save the Children Partner to Strengthen Malawi's Parliament

LILONGWE - 28 February 2024: Today marked a significant milestone as Save the Children and the European Union (EU) sealed an agreement for the "Phungu Wanga" (MY MP) Project, aimed at bolstering the capacity of Malawi's Parliament. The agreement was signed by His Excellency Rune Skinnebach, EU Ambassador to Malawi and Andrew Nyirongo, Save the Children Human Resource, Safeguarding & Administration Director.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ambassador Skinnebach emphasized the importance of enhancing Parliament's capacity to improve legislative, oversight, and representation processes.

He Said: "In working with Parliament and enhancing Parliament’s capacity, we seek to together improve on the legislative, oversight, and representation process. In particular, we hope to make Parliament more inclusive and participatory, and to ensure that where laws and policies are made, they translate into tangible outputs on the ground and deliver on development outcomes for the regular Malawian."

Providing a summary of the project, Donnex Bengo, the Senior Technical Advisor for Child Rights Governance at Save the Children, expressed gratitude to the EU for collaborating with Save the Children in Malawi for more than 14 years.

He underscored the project's alignment with Parliament's strategic plan, which aims to enhance its performance in representative, legislative, and oversight functions.

"We believe this project will contribute to bringing parliamentarians closer to the citizenry,” he said.

The "Phungu Wanga" project targets two main challenges: low citizen participation in parliamentary proceedings and that not many MPs and Parliamentary staff have enough capacity to effectively provide their oversight, legislative and representative functions.

To address these challenges, the project will focus on empowering citizens to engage with their MPs and enhancing the capabilities of Parliament across three districts of Rumphi, Mchinji, Balaka and at Malawi Parliament.

Specifically, the project seeks to improve citizen awareness and participation in parliamentary proceedings, empower citizens to advocate for change, and strengthen the capacity of MPs and parliamentary staff in oversight, legislative, and representative functions.

The initiative aligns with Save the Children's broader work on Child Rights Governance, aiming to promote open, inclusive, and accountable governance while addressing underlying causes of inequality and discrimination.

The project will contribute to strengthening parliamentary work, particularly in women's political leadership.

With a duration of 30 months (1st January 2024 to June 31, 2026) and funding of 600,000 euros, the "Phungu Wanga" project is poised to make a meaningful impact on governance and representation in Malawi.

Save the Children is working in partnership with Centre for Civil Society Strengthening (CCSS) in this project.

The signing of this agreement marks a significant step forward in advancing democratic governance and ensuring that the voices of Malawians are heard and represented effectively in Parliament.