Malawi lauds DVV International’s advocacy for national adult literacy formulation
By Pemphero Nkhalamba
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi Government on Wednesday lauded DVV international’s advocacy for national adult literacy formulation saying it will improve the sector.
Ivy Kamanga Civil Education Ministry’s principal secretary however acknowledged some of the challenges that the sector is facing despite being at the advanced stage for the policy formulation.
She was speaking during the sidelines of DVV international’s workshop on valorisation of evidence on social development in Malawi.
Luhanga conveyed the governments gratitude to UNESCO for choosing Malawi as one of the beneficiaries of this initiative and particularly for targeting the national adult literacy programme.
She said some of the challenges that this policy will address are; low funding, an under developed monitoring and evaluation frame work and poor collaboration with development partners among others.
“I personally perceive that this workshop will contribute to the improvement of service delivery of adult literacy and education in the country”.
The regional director for DVV international southern Africa David Harrington emphasised that it is important that people from all sectors of the society are included in the policy formation so that once implemented they should all benefit.
Harrington said that the workshop would enrich the roll out and implementation of the policy so that it is responsive to the education and learning needs of the adults in Malawi.
He acknowledged that adult literacy education is a fundamental basis for different sectors.
Phinith Chanthalangsy who is the head of the Unit for social and human sciences of UNESCO said that it is important to insist that any social policy should be inclusive based on grassroot knowledge.
There is need to link data research and policy formulation so that it should be accurate and responsive,” he said.
The workshop which aimed at building national capacity to understand the challenges of social inclusion and improve the way that evidence is gathered and used for policy and planning in the adult education and literacy sector
It attracted participants from UNESCO HARARE AND MALAYSIA who are the facilitators of the project.
The workshop is the first step for adult literacy education learning policy to be approved by Malawian government.
The workshop, which is being carried out in partnership between DVV International and the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa, is part of an ongoing project entitled Valorisation of Evidence on Inclusive Social Development in Southern Africa.
This project aims to support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and, in particular, its inclusive social development goals, by building national capacities to understand the challenges of social inclusion, and by improving the availability, accessibility and usage of research and evidence for inclusive policy and planning.
The focus of the project in Malawi is on the National Adult Literacy and Education Policy and the way that evidence is collected and used in all stages of the policy cycle by the government and civil society working in cooperation.
