News

On 26 January 2018, the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) in partnership with the Institute for Policy Research and Social Empowerment (IPRSE) held its first consultative meeting with the Malawi Parliament to introduce the “Malawi Parliament Strengthening Project” which is funded by the Norwegian Embassy.

AFIDEP’s Executive Director, Dr. Eliya Zulu, led the AFIDEP-IPRSE technical team in presenting the project and its expected results framework and workplan to the members of the Malawi Parliament. The consultative meeting was chaired by the Clerk of Parliament, Fiona Kalemba, who expressed Parliament’s support and commitment to work with AFIDEP and IPRSE in operationalising the project. She expressed great confidence that the project will strengthen the functions of Parliament and ensure effective delivery of services. Given the diversity of Malawi’s Members of Parliament (MPs), Kalemba noted that solutions to parliamentary challenges need to be strategic.

While addressing the audience, Dr. Zulu expressed his excitement on having a great partnership with Parliament as this has been an ongoing process for the past four years. He thanked Parliament for their cooperation in the implementation of other initiatives such as AFIDEP’s project on Strengthening Capacity for Evidence Use in Health Policymaking and the Parliamentary Caucus on Population and Development.

In her closing remarks, the Clerk of Parliament mentioned that there’s the need to position this new project strategically; mapping it on the different roles of Parliament; and the importance of constant and consistent communication between Parliamentarians and the project team.