BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC) has raised concerns in the National COVID 19 Preparedness and Response Plan that was recently launched by Malawi government.
One of the concerns in the preparedness plan that the climate change network has noted is the absence of vulnerabilities in the plan.
CISONECC therefore recommend that Malawi government should rework on the Risk Analysis to ensure that national vulnerabilities are clearly captured.
The climate change network has also noted that actions meant for Emergency Preparedness and Capacity Building in the plan do not guarantee effectiveness and capacity building hence it has requested government to include specific actions that are effective and result-oriented in the plan.
The network therefore commended Malawi government for the efforts that were put forward to combat the Covid-19 pandemic that has affected almost all countries across the globe.
In a press release dated April 10, 2020 signed by CISONECC’ National Coordinator Julius Ng’oma and made available to The Maravi Post observes that despite the efforts by government, there is more that can be done in dealing with the pandemic.
Among others, CISONECC has requested Malawi government to include experts in fields such as health, disaster management from Government Ministries and Departments, Civil Society Organisations, NGOs, Academia and Private Sector in the COVID 19 Ministerial Committee to ensure that the committee benefits from various expertise that will assist the country to better respond better to the pandemic.
CISONECC has also asked government to intensify mass awareness campaigns to rural masses using local languages such as Chichewa, Tumbuka, Yao, Sena and Lomwe to ensure that Malawians have adequate and correct information of the disease and on
their role in curbing the further spread of the virus.
Government has also been argued to empower the Malawi Broadcasting Cooperation (MBC) as a public broadcaster and other private media houses to expand their programming and ensure that they are raising awareness within the citizenry on the virus and how the citizens can be assisted within their localities to manage the pandemic.
CISONECC has requested government to allocate available resources from the plan to CSOs to boosts non-governmental stakeholders’ efforts in counteracting the virus and come up with clear resource mobilization strategy for the plan and indicating the role of various stakeholders in sourcing for funding.
As of April 10, 2020, Malawi had nine COVID-19 cases and one death.
