LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-DVV International has a new Director for its Regional Office for Southern Africa. With effect from December 2022, Gerhard Quincke has taken over the Regional Office.
The office which is based in Lilongwe Quincke replaces David Harrington who has been assigned a new position within DVV International outside Malawi.
According to the press statement which DVV International released on Tuesday, Quincke has previously worked in various positions within DVV International across the world.
Before joining the Regional Office for Southern Africa, Quincke previously held the position of Desk Officer for several African regions for 4 years at DVV International’s Headquarters at Bonn in Germany.
He also held the position of the Regional Director DVV International for West Africa based in Bamako/Mali for 4,5 years; and 4 years as Regional Director DVV International for East Africa/Horn of Africa based in Addis Ababa/Ethiopia.
He has great prior exposure in areas of non-formal vocational education and training, micro and small enterprise development and a couple of cross cutting fields.
Quincke joins the Regional Office for Southern Africa in Malawi at a time the DVV International rolls out its new three year phase of programme implementation on the whole continent with a new continental platform for information, exchange and learning on adult learning and education (ALE).
“It’s a pleasure to be back in Africa after working in Mali and Ethiopia some years ago. I look forward to working with the Malawi Government as the main partner and all other Non-Governmental Organisations that are pushing hard to promote ALE in Malawi.
“As Malawi implements the Vision 2063, it is important that we join hands and mainstream ALE across all key development interventions such as agriculture, health and environment,” Quincke said.
DVV International officially launched its operations in Malawi in December, 2017. Its work is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Speaking in a separate interview, DVV International communications officer for the Southern Africa office, Dyson Mthawanji, said DVV International is geared to roll out various projects in the next three years.
“The past three years have been exciting for the Adult Learning and Education in Malawi. We have achieved a lot of milestones. For example, DVV International has technically supported Malawi Government to develop the National Adult Literacy and Education policy.
“We have also supported the Malawi Government to develop the National Adult Literacy and Education Strategic Plan,” said Mthawanji.
DVV International has worked closely with the Malawi Government through various interventions. For example, DVV International has been supporting the Malawi Government during the annual International Literacy Day which falls on September 8.
Furthermore, DVV International provided both technical and financial support to the Malawi Government to develop the ALE Management Information System (ALEMIS) which is being used as a pilot in Mchinji, Lilongwe and Ntcheu districts, and there are prospects that it can be extended to other additional districts.
Apart from implementing the ALE in prisons pilot programme at Zomba Central Prison in the Malawi’s old capital city, Zomba, the German organization is also implementing Community Learning Centres in Dowa and Ntchisi districts where communities are taught tailoring and entrepreneurship skills as a tool to fight poverty at micro level.
“We are also implementing Integrated Adult Education in selected districts. These efforts complement well to the Malawi’s development agenda,” said Mthawanji.
