Malawi’s Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Mary Navicha, has concluded a week-long working tour of the United Kingdom, where she urged Malawi’s development partners across all sectors to support the strengthening of social services as such investment would help ease the burden on the education and health sectors.
Navicha visited the UK as a guest of the Supporting Social Work in Malawi (SWIM) project, an initiative by Children and Families International that has been running for the past 20 years.
During her tour, the Minister held meetings with the Commonwealth Secretariat, University of Portsmouth, British Association of Social Workers, Nottingham Trent University, Scotland Malawi Partnership and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
“Our message is simple: our President is concerned about the most vulnerable. We want to empower young women, women in general, persons with disabilities, children, children connected to the streets, and the elderly to live productive lives,” Navicha said during a series of meetings held in London, Scotland and Nottingham.
Speaking during a meeting with the British Association of Social Workers, the Minister said she had learned during the tour about the strong linkages between well-developed social services and improved outcomes in the health and education sectors, noting that such investment ultimately saves government resources.
She said her Ministry would spearhead the enactment of a Social Work Bill aimed at introducing accountability in the protection of the most vulnerable and regulating the sector.
“We currently face a huge skills shortage. We have 700 child protection officers in our communities, but out of these only 300 are employed, while 400 serve as volunteers. We need support to invest more in the sector,” she explained.
Anstance Fometu, President of Family and Children’s International, said Malawi had made notable progress over the past two decades, resulting in the strengthening of the Association of Social Workers in Malawi.
“If we strengthen social services by ensuring this important Bill is passed as soon as possible, it will set Malawi on a path toward meeting global standards in social services for the most vulnerable in society,” said Fometu.
Malawi is scheduled to host the Africa region conference of the International Federation of Social Workers in 2027.
By Kondwani Munthali, Contributor
