A COMMUNICATION BRIEF FOR AN HIV/AIDS AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ENTER-EDUCATIVE PROGRAM FOR THE YOUTH IN MALAWI

1.0 INTRODUCTION
It is now common knowledge that the HIV/AIDS scourge has decimated the lives of many people in the world more especially in the Sub-Saharan African region where Malawi falls in and the youths being the most hit group. As noted by the United Nations Development Assistance Framework of Malawi, “most of the HIV infections are occurring among the youth aged 15-24 years with the infection rate among young girls being six times higher than that of boys in the same group.” The continuous rise in HIV infection rates among young people and particular among girls is due to several factors among them socio-economic factors which render them unable to negotiate for safe sex, cultural factors such as initiation ceremonies which expose them to HIV, and most importantly, unprotected sex with multiple partners among the youth in general (ibid). These problems have also been exacerbated by the fact that most youths in Malawi, in both urban and rural areas shun Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) services as revealed by the Malawi Demographic and Household Survey of 2004. In order to curtail the further spread of this HIV virus, there is need, therefore, for an effective communication strategy so as to communicate effectively the messages of HIV/AIDS in Malawi.

It is against this background that this organization has developed and designed a communication brief for an enter-educative program for HIV/AIDS and reproductive health for the youth in Malawi. Specifically, this communication brief provides a detailed view of the plan of the program, its objectives and goals, communication vehicles to be used, the core messages, the target audience, the program format and ways of how it is going to be implemented, monitored and evaluated.

1.2 WHAT IS ENTERTAINMENT EDUCATION
Entertainment Education (EE) which is also referred to as enter-educate, edutainment, or infotainment, refers to a way of informing a public about a social issue or concern. The entertainment education (E-E) strategy involves incorporating an educational message into popular entertainment content in order to raise awareness, increase knowledge, create favorable attitudes, and ultimately motivate people to take socially responsible action in their own lives.
E-E uses drama, music, or other communication formats that engage the emotions to inform audiences and change attitudes, behavior, and social norms. Worldwide, several hundred major projects have used E-E to improve health. The strength of EE is that it is audience research-based, theory-driven, and that it requires pre-testing of the message before being presented to the audience.

1.3 IDENTIFICATION OF A COMMUNICATION NEED/ISSUE
At first, it is important to determine the problems that want to be addressed. As outlined in the introduction, most problems that the youth in Malawi face as regards the issue of HIV/AIDS are initiation ceremonies that help the spread of HIV/AIDS among young girls, poor socio-economic status of most youths, the shun of VCT services and the engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple partners. However, after the identification of these problems and needs, there will be a formative research that will be done to find out the particular problems and needs of the youths in Malawi in order to see if they match with the issues identified. Formative-evaluative research is evidence-based type of research that gives you all the demographics information of your audience since E-E products require thorough knowledge of the audience.



1.4 OBJECTIVES AND GOALS OF THE PROGRAM
The objectives and goals of this enter-edutainment program are the following:
• To raise awareness, knowledge and understanding about the dangers of HIV/AIDS among young people aged 15-24. This will be done by December 2011
• Increase knowledge on the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and pregnancy among the youths aged 15-24 by December 2011.
• Improve skills on how to use a condom for STIs, HIV and pregnancy preventions and improve negotiations for safer sex skills among the youths aged 15-24 by December 2011.
• Sustain positive behavior among the youths aged 15-24
• Encourage the youths aged 15-24 in Malawi to be accessing VCT services.
• To halt all initiation ceremonies that put young girls at risk of HIV/AIDS by December 2011.

1.5 CORE MESSAGES
The following will be the core messages:
• Multiple sexual partners increases the risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS and other STIs
• Unprotected sexual intercourse increases the risk of getting infected with HIV/AIDS and other STIs, including unwanted pregnancies.
• Abstinence
• Where abstinence has failed, Condoms should be used
• Youths should not be pressurized by their peers and low socio-economic status youths should not get into unpromiscous behavior that may lead them getting infected.
• Knowing your HIV status makes you plan your life better.
• Initiation ceremonies that put girls at risk of getting infected should be halted.
The messages outlined above will be intertwined with other messages that will address misunderstandings, myths and areas of knowledge deficit on HIV/AIDS and it will also address negative altitudes on HIV/AIDS. It will also state where to access the services that are being promoted like condoms and VCT.


1.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The communication program will use a synergy/combination of human behaviour and behavioural change theories. However, the main ones will be:
• Social Learning Theory—a theory which emphasizes how people learn by observing others. Thus the theory supports the use of dramas with characters who model healthy behavior.
• Diffusion of Innovation—a theory which focuses on how a critical mass of people must adopt a behavior for it to become the new social norm. This will be used for the adoption of condom use as a means of preventing the infection of HIV/AIDS

1.7 TARGET AUDIENCE AND OTHER PERTINENT GROUPS
The target audience for this communication program will be determined through audience segmentation. Audience segmentation is a detailed analysis of the target audience in terms of locality, age, gender, education level and many other attributes that contribute to or are affected by the problem or issue. It also involves the division of your audience into two groups: Primary target audience and secondary target audience. Primary target audience means those people who are most affected by the problem and are likely to benefit from the interventions. In this case the youths aged 15-24. The secondary audience are those people who influence the primary audience. They include people who can help identify ways to influence the primary audience and/or allies such as community leaders, health authorities and parents. This exercise has the following advantages:
(1) It helps the organization to identify other factors from the primary audience, which influence behavior change
(2) It provides additional information on the difference among groups. This is the key to understand which factors influence your audience behavior before adopting new practices. It is possible, for example to find out that youths who have gone for VCT services before are more educated, confident and are prepared to disclose their status than those who have never gone for VCT.
The primary audience, who are the youths, aged 15-24, will be divided into the following:
(1) Youths in high risk-situations—including youths using injecting drugs, sex workers, and youths who are clients of sex workers.
(2) Vulnerable youths—because of their education and employment
(3)Mainstream youth such as youth living with parents who may currently be at low risk, but whose status can be protected and strengthened

1.8 COMMUNICATION CHANNELS TO BE USED
Due to the seriousness of the problem of HIV/AIDS among the youth in the country, the program will explore various channels of communications in order to pass the message to the target group (the youth). Below are the communication channels to be used:
Radio
Television
Facebook
Theatre
1.8 FORMAT OF THE PROGRAMS
Radio Drama soaps: This will be a long-running 30 minute radio drama series that will talk about issues of love and relationships, having multiple sexual partners, and VCT. It will be aired once a week. The radio drama soap will be called Tisanthulilane which will be aired on MBC Radio One and 2 and Zodiac Broadcasting Station (ZBS) and Power 101 FM. ZBS and MBC Radio 1 radio stations have been chosen because they have the widest coverage and they reach the remotest areas of Malawi and therefore they can help in assisting the messages to reach the rural youths. Radio 2 and Power 101 have been selected because they enjoy massive listenership among the urban youths. Radio has been chosen because a majority of many Malawians have an easy access to radio. However, the programs will be aired in Chichewa on all radio stations. The use of Chichewa is important so that the messages reach effectively to the youth.

TV Talk show: A long running 30 minute TV talk show which will be called Straight Youth Talk will also be aired on MBC TV. This talk show will explore the lives of today’s Malawian youths in different settings. The talk show will discuss a variety of social and emotional issues affecting the youths including love, relationships, drug use, sexuality, families, VCT, stigma and discrimination, gender and HIV/AIDS. The talk show has been chosen mainly to cater for the needs of urban youths who like to be glued on television.

Facebook: The rise of new media has led to the advance of several social networking sites such as Facebook, MXIT, Twitter and Hi5. These social networks are largely accessed by urban youths. The most popular social networking site is Facebook which has got millions and millions of users worldwide mainly the youths. Urban Malawian youths have, with both hands, embraced this latest state of the art technological advancement. Cognizant of this, a Facebook page will be established which will highlight the dangers of contracting the deadly virus, the dangers of having multiple partners and the benefits of VCT. Facebook is also advantageous due to its instant connectivity with the person and that this where one gets how the language is used among the youth to get the message through

A web site: A website provides youth with a confidential source of information on HIV/AIDS. A creative, entertaining and interactive site includes a moderated forum, blog, question and answer sections, competitions and real–time chat. Youth can view and download video clips of the TV drama, TV and radio spots and other Project outputs

Theatre: For the rural based youths, they will access the HIV/AIDS messages through theatre. Theatre has been chosen because it a mobile type of communication that can reach many youths even in rural settings. It reaches people without access to radio and television. This form of interaction is likely to provoke discussions on HIV/AIDS and sexual reproductive health issues where issues of HIV/AIDS are likely to be discussed in a more interactive manner unlike the other channels of communication.
1.9 PRE-TESTING OF THE PROGRAMS
The term pre-testing is used to describe the process of systematically gathering target audiences reactions, comprehension, personal relevance, believability and acceptability of the communication program. Pre-testing is one type of formative evaluation research that is conducted in the early formative stages of programme development. It is also one way of involving the target audience in programme development and ensures ownership of the product. Pre-testing on its own does not guarantee success, but it can help reduce some of uncertainties and the risk of producing materials that may be misunderstood or misinterpreted. It is precisely from this background that the communication programs will all be pre-tested before the actual rolling out of the project.

2.0 MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Monitoring and evaluation will be required to establish effectiveness and impact of actions of the strategy. Use of standardized core indicators for monitoring will be closely followed in order to achieve the goal and objectives of the strategy. Ultimately, there shall be participatory communication appraisal and a baseline survey to see what impact the strategy may have made in response to HIV/AIDS.

2.1.1 METHODS OF MONITORING AND EVALUATION
There will be qualitative and quantitative methods:
(a) Qualitative methods will include case studies, stories, opinions and feelings.
(b) quantitative methods will include statistics, baseline surveys and numbers

2.1.2 HOW WILL THEY BE USED?
• Keeping records or stories and conversations with the target audience
• Tracking when the youth or other people are using our arguments or wording in their conversations
• Keeping significant records of the activities that have been implemented
• Documenting and filing the messages that the programs have produced
• Monitoring the media for coverage of our work
• Carrying out surveys and interviews to determine the impact that our actions have made.
• Through other forms of feedback like letters and telephone calls

A DISCUSSION ON THE ASSERTION THAT MARKET THESIS IS A MISPLACED POLICY PRESCRIPTION TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

INTRODUCTION
For over many decades now, many developing nations and countries have passionately pursued different types of policies and programmes in their quest to attain development. Many panaceas to underdevelopment have been suggested and implemented. These panaceas have all inspired hope and enthusiasm to developing countries. However, many of these panaceas have apparently been rendered inadequate, irrelevant and inefficient to the needs of developing countries since many of them have been bulldozed by the developed world on Third World countries without adequately looking at the economic, political, and geographical realities of these Third World nations.

One of the development approaches that have wrongly been bulldozed by the developed countries on developing countries through agents like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the market thesis approach. According to Chilowa (1997:124) “market thesis approach rests on the belief that the unfettered operation of the market,” does the greatest good in spurring a country’s economic growth and development. The market thesis approach, sometimes known as the “free market economy” is mainly of the view that the state is not supposed to interfere or play a leading role in development but the market should because the market can achieve allocative efficiency.

The purpose of this paper is to explain, using clear case studies of Malawi and Zimbabwe, how the pursuance of market thesis approaches to development can be inappropriate, detrimental and a misplaced policy prescription to developing countries. In what follows, I argue that for a country striving for economic development and a better position in the international economy in the long run, the state-led approach or the mixed economy approach seems more advisable than the market thesis approach. Admittedly, the state-led approach does also present risks in many ways, but the prudent implementation of state-led policies presents a rapid, more stable, and effective way to qualitatively change the economic position of a country, marking the transition from a “developing” to a “middle-income” or to a “newly industrialized” state than the market thesis. The argument is built upon three observations. First, developing countries face many challenges which cannot be settled through voluntary transactions. Second, even in mature market economies, state interventions are indispensable for remedying market irrationalities and for organizing efficient markets. Third, market institutions cannot be properly installed without the support of the state. As for the justification of case studies selection, Malawi and Zimbabwe have been chosen because, for one thing, they are both significant developing countries and for another, they have both been involved in the implementation of the market based policy prescriptions in the form the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) that were highly advocated by IMF and the World Bank as a prerequisite of getting aid from these institutions.

THE MARKET THESIS APPROACH
At the outset, it is important to look at the elements of the free-market economy before analyzing how it is a misplaced policy prescription for developing countries. According to Harrigan (2001:28), “the market oriented strategy to development is characterized by greater reliance on markets…in providing signals for allocation…with industrial and manufacturing growth determined by undistorted market forces...” Market thesis proponents argue that by “permitting free markets to flourish, privatizing State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), promoting free trade and export expansion, welcoming investors from developed countries, and eliminating the plethora of government regulations and price distortions…,both economic efficiency and growth will be stimulated” (Todaro, 1994:85). Essentially, their argument is that the markets are supposed to be turned by the forces of demand and supply. These free market proponents further take a swipe at various government subsidies on goods and services in the sense that they bring market inefficiencies. Furthermore, according to them, the state is not supposed to be involved in development because of capital flights. They say the state can frustrate the operations of the market if it is heavily involved in it. In their own words, they say the state can create a “rent seeking” society. These rent seeking societies influence the state policies in order to benefit themselves at the expense of public goals. Market thesis advocates, therefore, claim that the free-market economy, “leads to higher export and GDP growth rates, a healthy balance of payments, more rapid expansion of labour-intensive industrial sector resulting from forward and backward linkages with the agricultural sector” (Harrigan, 2001:28)

ASSESSING APPLICABILITY
However, while the free market economy, in curricula development literature looks good on paper, in practice and more especially to developing countries like Malawi and Zimbabwe, the problems of economic conversion to private markets are serious and very often intractable. In fact, Todaro (1994:586) notes that “although some economists may blithely assume an easy transition to fully fledged market economies, the fact remains that a well functioning market system requires special social, institutional, legal and cultural preconditions often absent in Third World nations.” Developing countries are characterized by fraud, corruption and monopoly which do not disappear by the wave of a magic neoclassical wand (ibid). Furthermore, for an economy to be market based, and to grow successfully to that effect, it needs perfect market economic conditions such as law and order, free flow of information, security of persons and property, separation of powers, rule of law, accountability and transparency and numerous others. Many developing countries, to say the least, are devoid of these conditions and therefore, market-thesis approaches cannot be the best policy prescription. In Zimbabwe, for example, the legal and political environments are in shambles (BBC News, 2009). The country is suffering from a serious political instability coupled with the continuous suppression of democracy and human rights, corruption, the muzzling of the press and the media, and the gagging of the civil society—the providers of checks and balances to government. Economically, macroeconomic instability has reached a critical point, with the country having the highest inflation rate in the world. Zimbabwe has also high interest rates, serious foreign exchange shortages, increasing government debt, an overvalued and unstable national currency and higher levels of unemployment (Lee, 2003:64). There can surely never be economic development in a country where there is this political and economic instability even when this country can be forced to liberalize its economy.

Furthermore, it should be noted that “markets in developing countries are permeated by imperfections of structure and operation” (Todaro, 1994:568). Commodity and factor markets are often badly organized, and the existence of distorted prices often means that producers and consumers are responding to economic signals and incentives that are a poor reflection of the real cost to society of these goods, services and resources. Governments, therefore, have an important role to play integrating markets and modifying prices (ibid). Todaro (1994:568) also notes that “the failure of the market to price factors of production correctly sometimes leads to gross disparities between social and private valuations of alternative investment projects. Therefore, in the absence of governmental interference, the market is said to lead to a misallocation of present and future resources or to an allocation that may not be in the best long-run social interests. This is sometimes known as market failure. Market failures here refer to situations in which voluntary transactions do not result in allocative efficiency (Shaoguang, 1994: 3).

Perhaps the most common failure of the market that exists in developing countries is the information failure and uncertainty that most producers and consumers face. It should perhaps be noted here that market efficiency requires that information be made accessible to all who want it. However, private producers of information have interest in keeping the information for their own exclusive consumption. For this reason, the private market is unlikely to provide an adequate supply of information (Shaoguang, 1994: 3 quoting Stiglitz, 1986). This is especially true in most developing countries where a majority of people do not know how to read and write and there is lack of equal access to education, credit, land, positions of decision making and economic opportunities due to information failure. Thus in many developing countries, producers are often unsure about the size of local markets, the presence of other producers, the availability of inputs, both domestic and imported (Todaro, 1994:588). Under such circumstances, which obviously are prevalent in developing countries, profit and utility maximizing behavior may be based on wrong assumption and hence not lead to an efficient allocation of resources (ibid).

In Malawi, for example, in 2008 it was estimated that 58 per cent of females and 28 per cent of males are illiterate (CIDA, 2008:7). This low educational standard not only makes Malawians ill-suited for manufacturing employment but also put them at a disadvantage for agriculture. Surveys have found that the little educated poor are not well-equipped to grow crops needing intensive education like tobacco. These intensive education barriers prevent rural poorer farmers, largely women, from accessing economic opportunities which might be brought by liberalizations in the agriculture sector. The government intervention is therefore needed in remedying these information failures. Given the asymmetric distribution of information between the producers and consumers, for instance, the state may use regulations to protect farmers’ interests. In addition, the state may offset externalities in the area of information by collecting, processing and disseminating crucial information (e. g information about foreign markets) to those who need it in the national economies of developing countries (Shaoguang, 1994: 3).

A second imperfection in the market is the lack of effective competition. Todaro (1994:589) observes that “in most developing countries, the existence of imperfect competition is widespread, particularly in the industrial sector, where heavy concentrations of monopoly power are usually found.” He further notes that “this situation results from the economies of scale that often characterize modern industries coupled with the relatively small market for manufactured goods that limits the number of films that can compete” (ibid). The result is an inefficient allocation of resources, with output lower and prices higher than under perfect competition. The government must therefore often intervene to limit monopoly power by regulating the size of firms or controlling prices. In Malawi, for example, the industrial sector is only dominated by a few firms more evidently in the telecommunication sector where ZAIN MALAWI (now Bharti Airtel) and TNM Malawi have enjoyed monopolistic markets which has resulted into these companies changing and charging their tariffs at will. Such a structure, like this one, hides inefficiency and limits the ability to compete both locally and globally.

Another major imperfection in Third World markets is the presence of substantial externalities. Many goods may have a high social value that is not reflected in their market price (Todaro, 1994589). Because such goods, such as education and health services, may be provided at a price below their cost or even free, the private sector has no incentive to produce them. Thus the government must often be responsible for providing these goods in order to ensure a minimum of welfare. Government also has a role in developing countries to provide infrastructure for rapid economic maneuvers. An economy is unlikely to take off unless its infrastructure is sound. However, in most developing countries, the level of infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. It is therefore detrimental for this responsibility of building infrastructure to be left in the hands of the private sector, for they may find the provision of infrastructure not profitable. The government must also assist in the creation of human capital through education and training of labour force so that labour productivity will increase.

The calling for the abolition of subsidies in developing countries—where many people die of hunger every year— is to say the least, ridiculous and at worst “suicidal” and it defeats the whole purpose of development. Development should not be defined in economic terms only, but should encompass all human needs and increase human choices. Generally speaking, a successful program of development has to aim at strengthening a country’s agriculture, alleviating poverty, improving income distribution and building capabilities that enable individuals and groups to live meaningful and happy lives. In Malawi, for example, high fertilizer prices are mainly due to high transportation costs and frequent exchange rate adjustments, hence the argument for government subsidy. Lessons can be drawn from the 1987 case where Malawi was forced to abolish its fertilizer subsidy program by IMF/WB and this resulted in the maize price ratio to skyrocket rapidly and made the country to suffer from food insecurity and eventually the government revamped the program two years later after noting the withdraw ramifications (Chilowa, 1997, quoting Lele, 1990).

STRUCURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMMES: LESSONS LEARNT
As it was said in the introduction, Malawi and Zimbabwe are among a group of developing countries that implemented the IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in an attempt to revamp their ailing economies. SAPs, broadly speaking, were a group of market thesis prescriptions as they demanded developing countries to remove governmental subsidies, privatize public entities, opening up to foreign investment, devaluation of currencies, liberalization of trade, elimination of price controls and many other prescriptions. All these were done with an aim of resolving balance of payments problems of developing countries and eventually spurring economic growth and development.

However, lessons learnt from many developing countries, especially these countries in question is that, far from helping to resolve the balance of payments problems, SAPs have actually worsened the debt problems and have had little impact in accelerating economic growth and development. In Malawi, for example, a major failure of SAPs is that to date Malawi’s export base has not diversified as the country is still dependent on tobacco for its foreign exchange earnings (Chilowa, 1997:59). Notably, the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 3.3 %, 7.9% and 12.4% in 1988, 1991 and 1994 respectively (Chilowa, 1997:43). Zimbabwe’s experience under SAP between the same periods as above conforms to the above pattern. As noted by Mlambo (1997:53), “during this period, Zimbabwe’s external debt increased from $2 billion in 1991 to $4 billion in 1992.” By beginning of 1995, the debt had risen to over $5 billion and amounted to 94% of the country’s GDP as compared to only 45% in 1989 (ibid). The above examples show quite clearly that SAPS do not help resolve borrowing countries balance of payments on debt problems but actually worsen them.

SAPS, in the name of privatization, also led many people to lose their jobs thereby raising the cost of living in these countries in question. In Malawi, for example, the privatization of Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) led to the massive job losses of about 300 workers in 2002 (Bamusi, 2002:4). Mafumu Textiles and David Whitehead and Sons nullified over 10, 000 jobs between them in 2001 (ibid). However, it should be noted that employment plays a vital role in social and human development as it empowers people economically by giving them the purchasing power over goods and services, and socially by offering a productive role that enhances people’s dignity and self-esteem.

The problems that SAPS brought could be summarized as follows: They brought price instability, they led to macro-economic instability, decline in manufacturing sectors, food insecurity, unemployment, increased economic hardships and increased poverty and inequality (Chilowa, 1997; Mlambo, 1997; Harrigan, 2001, Kohli, 2007).

The poor performance of Malawi and Zimbabwe and other developing countries’ economies under SAPs casts serious doubts on the efficacy of market based reforms and reinforces 1989 findings of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) which showed that, between 1980 and 1987, non-adjusting sub-Saharan Africa countries grew, while those of strong adjusters actually declined (Mlambo, 1997:4).

FINAL REMARKS
Finally, it should be noted that a market economy cannot take place in a vacuum. Market transactions take place within the framework of rules and require some authority to enforce them. This authority is to say without fear of contradiction, the government. Furthermore, this essay has shown, as demonstrated by the cited examples, that the market is not a panacea for all socio-economic problems that developing countries are facing neither is it an immediate turn on for economic development. Developing countries face numerous challenges which cannot be settled through voluntary market transactions. Moreover, the market is not an end in itself. Rather, it is just a means to promote social and individual welfare. For this reason, the potential role of non-market means, including state intervention, should neither be dismissed nor underestimated. Finally, the take home proposition that this essay puts forward is that the state and market mechanism should be in tandem in developing countries and should play complementary roles to development.




BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bamusi, M (2002). A Sober Look at Privatization. Opinion, Malawi News. Feb23-1 March 2002, p4
BBC News (2009). IMF Projects Zimbabwe Economy’s Growth. The Daily Times, Friday,
October2,2009.
BBC News (2009). ZIM’s Unity Government Stalls. The Daily Times, Tuesday, October 6, 2009.
Chilowa, W (1997). Sustainable Social and Human Development in Malawi: Towards Poverty Alleviation in Bwalo: A Forum for Social Development, Issue 1
CIDA (2008). Country Program Delivery Strategy 1998-2008 Malawi.
Harrigan, J. (2001). From Dictatorship to Democracy: Economic Policy in Malawi 1964-2000 (TheMakingofAfrica).London:Abdicate
Kohli, A (2007). State-Directed Development. Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery. New York: CUP
Lee, M (2003). The Political Economy of Regionalism in Southern Africa. UCT Press
Mlambo, As (1997). The Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes. The Case of Zimbabwe 1990-1995. Harare: University of Zimbabwe
Shaoguang, W (1994). The State, Market Economy and Transition. Hong Kong: YUP
Todaro, MP (1994). Economic Development. (5th Ed). New York: Longman

Ngongole ya YEDF Yithandizadi Koma?

Nkhani yomwe yamveka kuti pali mpungwepungwe ndi chinyengo pakayendetsedwe ka ngongole yomwe boma linakhazikitsa, ya Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF), yomwe cholinga chake ndikutukula achinyamata m’dziko lino powapatsa ngongole yoyambira mabizinesi osiyanasiyana, ndiyomvetsa chisoni kwambiri.
Poyamba, tidamva mtsogoleri wa dziko lino pomwe ankakhazikitsa ngongoleyi kuti omwe alandire ngongoleyi ndi achinyamata okhaokhawo omwe ndi a chipani chawo, chomwe ndicholamula boma, cha Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Kenako, tikumva kuti Mafumu akumauza achinyamata omwe akufuna kupindula nawo ndi ngongoleyi kuti aziwapatsa ndalama kuti awasayinire mapepala ofunsira ngongoleyi.
Pano, tikumva kuti nduna ya achinyamata ndi zamasewero, a Lucius Kanyumba, akumanka nayendayenda m’maboma a dziko lino kukumana ndi aphungu a kunyumba ya malamulo omwe ndi a DPP okhaokha, nkumawafotokozera momwe achinyamata a m’madera mwawo angapindule ndi ngongoleyi. Izi n’zokhumudwitsa kwambiri kwa wina aliyense amene amalifunira dziko lino zabwino.
Kwa nthawi yayitali achinyamata a m’dziko lino, omwe ndi atsogoleri amawa, akhala akulira kuti boma ndi makampani osiyanasiyana sakukhazikitsa mwayi woti achinyamata azipeza nchito akamaliza sukulu. Mwachitsanzo, boma ndi makampaniwa pamodzi ndi mabungwe omwe siaboma, amapempha kuti munthu amene akufuna kumulemba nchito akhale atagwirapo nchito yangati yomweyo kwa zaka zina zambiri. Izi zikupangitsa kuti achinyamata ambiri akhale paulova wa dzaoneni m’dziko lino chifukwa choti achinyamatawa amakhala kuti angochoka kusukulu kumene ndipo amakhala alibe mbiri yina yiri yonse yanchito. Pamapeto pake, achinyamata ambiri sakupeza mwayi wa nchito m’dziko lino. Izi n’zochita kuonekeratu.
Kotero, anthu ambiri m’dziko lino amaona kuti m’mene boma lakhazikitsa ngongole ya achinyamatayi, yithandiza achinyamata omwe ali paulova wadzaoneniyu kuti ayambe timabizinesi tosiyanasiyana ndi kumapeza zofuna zamoyo wawo watsikunditsiku.
Koma chokhumudwitsa n’chakuti pali anthu ena monga mafumu ena adyera ndi anthu andale makamaka achipani cholamula m’dziko lino cha DPP, akufuna kupondereza achinyamata ena kuti asakhale ndi mwayi olandila nawo ngongoleyi. Zachisoni ndithu.
Kodi mafumuwa popempha kuti achinyamatawa azipereka ndalama kwa iwowa akuona ngati achinyamatawa aziyipeza kuti ndalamayo? Kodi m’chitidweyu sichinyengo chomwe boma limaletsa m’dziko lino? Mesa iwowo mafumuwa ndi nchito yawo ndipo amalandira malipiro anchitoyi kuchokera kuboma? Ndiye chowapatsira kangachepe ndi chiyani? M’chitidwe onyasawu utha kupangitsa kuti achinyamata amene alibe ndalama yomwe mafumuwa amafuna, asalandile nawo ngongoleyi.
Zomwenso boma likuchita pomakumana ndi aphungu a DPP okhaokha kumawauza m’mene achinyanyamata am’madera mwawo angapezere mwayi olandila nawo ngongoleyi, zikuyenera kudzudzulidwa kwambiri.
Angangakhale izi sizikubwera ngati zodabwitsa, pokumbukira mawu omwe mtsogoleri wa dziko lino adanena tsiku limene ankakhazikitsa ngongoleyi, kuti achinyamata okhaokhawo omwe ndi otsatira awo ndiamene alandire ngongoleyi, tiyenera kukambapo kuti izi zikutsutsana ndi mfundo za demokalase zomwe chipani cha DPP chimalalika kuti ndingodya zake.
Chomwe boma liyenera kudziwa ndichakuti siachinyamata okhawo omwe ndi otsatira achipani cha DPP, amene ali paumphawi wadzaoneni.
Komanso, kukondera anthu achipani cholamula boma chokhachokha ndikosayenera chifukwa ngongoleyi ndi ya boma ndipo ndalama yake yinachokera kumsonkho omwe anthu amapereka m’dziko lino. Siotsatira chipani cha DPP okha omwe amapereka msonkho kuboma. Boma liyenera kugawa ngongoleyi mwachilungamo ndimosakondera kuti yipindulire achinyamata ovutikadi m’dziko lino. Komanso mafumu omwe akufuna kumadyera achinyamata ovutikawa pomawapempha ndalama ayenera kunjatidwa kuti aone polekera ndi m’chitidwe waumvewu.

Let's Restore the Reading Culture

Late last year, when National Library Service (NLS) boss, Gray Nyali, graced Parliament deliberations to avail himself to the MPs on information regarding his institution’s drive to distribute books throughout the country using the MPs constituencies, he bemoaned the downward trend in the country’s reading culture.
Admittedly, reading habits are indeed changing in Malawi. Nowadays, many Malawians are not reading for the simple reason that they do not care enough to take time to concentrate on reading. By reading here, I mean reading any kind of literature whether books, newspapers, novels, magazines or anything of this sort. Gone are the days when people could go into a bookshop and order for a book or a novel. Indeed, the number of people visiting the national libraries for the of reading has plummeted over the years. Those who read spend a smaller part of their leisure time doing so as compared to many years ago.
And for the younger generation? They are even reading less. More laughable to note is also the fact that many of them are reading for the purposes of passing examinations and not for leisure. Many of them even abandon books after they have succeeded in their studies.
The advent and proliferation of the new media such as the internet, cell phones, I-pods and I-phones, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MXit, has even exacerbated the problem.
Nowadays, the younger generations are busy toying with their phones for whatever purposes among them listening to music, playing games and interacting with their peers.
The dwindling reading culture can also be attributed to the fact that nowadays people lead a busy life combining work with social and cultural interests like music, television, games and other entertainments.
But, one can also safely argue that the downward trend in reading culture is also because of the fact that several institutions which are key role players in the promotion of reading such as the National Library Service (NLS) and school libraries, are nowadays swimming in financial hiccups. For example, several books available in these institutions are old and in poor conditions and therefore not inviting enough to stimulate additional reading.
However, it’s a shame that all these observations point to the fact that the downward trend in reading culture, is not because of illiteracy problems in Malawi.
The paradox is that although many people are attaining a considerable higher level of education nowadays, it hasn’t brought about an upsurge in the time spent on reading by majority of people. Very unfortunate indeed!
However, there are many benefits people can reap from mere reading. For one thing, reading adds quality to life as it makes one know a number of things. Reading also develops creative thinking by ensuring that people think and make good decisions for themselves. Unlike in movies, where everything is determined by the producer, writer and director, books allows one to create on their minds, how a particular character looks like or imagine how a scene plays out.
But this is not all.
Reading also helps one improve fluency in language and communication skills—it increases vocabulary, spelling and writing skills. Reading also emancipates citizens and brings people together. Moreover, reading provides access to culture and cultural heritage. And to clinch it all, reading is a reliable source of information. Sure!
In fact, one can safely fear that the negative trend in reading culture can eventually lead to a split in the population between those who do have access to information and those who do not. This could seriously affect participation in cultural issues and society and might eventually pose a threat to democracy and national culture. For example, how can people make carefully informed political decisions if they do not have free access to information?
It is precisely against this background that I strongly feel that there is a need to restore the reading culture in Malawi. But, how can we do this?
Firstly, reading should be part of cultural and educational policy. The government needs to encourage and sensitize people and the youth in particular on the importance of reading. This is why we applaud the government for the re-introduction of literature subjects and making them compulsory in secondary education. Perhaps, this has to extend to primary level of education. Furthermore, parents and teachers should also instill in students a real love for reading and groom them into becoming lifelong readers. Children should also have access to books, newspapers and magazines so that they may be turned into readers for life.
More resources also need to be drawn for the support of institutions which promote reading such as the National Library Service (NLS) and school libraries as it is undeniable that these institutions are in dire straits.
There is also need for public and private partnership for the promotion of reading in the country. This should be between the government, which is the major player, and booksellers, librarians, writers including publishers.
Finally, it should be noted that reading can not only be fun but that it is also a great way to spend ones leisure time apart from being valuable and enriching. Books are the key to the world. So, let’s love reading.

A DISCUSSION OF TERRY EAGLETON’S CONCEPTUALIZATION OF CULTURE

INTRODUCTION
The history of the concept of culture is complex and tantalizingly ambiguous. Intellectuals from various fields have attempted to disentangle the manifold meanings which have become implicit in the term. These scholars have sought to find a basis for one unambiguous concept of culture that either resolves the differences between the existing meanings or replaces these with an entirely new definition of the term. Yet no satisfactory solution has evolved. In his well-known book called The Idea of Culture (2000), Terry Eagleton offered various important insights into the understanding of the concept of culture. He introduced several notions that are related and have very slight differences namely; culture, nature and civilization and highlighted the contrasts between them, more especially, between culture and nature but offered an important relationship between the two. More importantly, he linked the idea of culture to liberation. Eagleton’s work therefore, forms a rich set of reflections about culture, and its methods, and the ethics of liberation.

This essay critically discusses and responds to Terry Eagleton’s conceptualization of culture as presented in his book called “The Idea of Culture (2000).” It also outlines, some of the critical problems in the foundations of Eagleton’s view on culture, and suggests ways, in which some of his conclusions can better be improved, better supported or better applied. It is to the interest of this essay to start by defining what culture is, and then discussion shall follow before drawing the conclusion.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Eagleton (2000) starts by providing different versions of culture while setting the background. He suggests that “culture” as a word has evolved and keeps on changing its meaning with time. He then agrees with many scholars by saying culture is the way of life of a particular group of people. Culture, according to Barker (2004:7) refers to “the actual grounded terrain of practices, representations, languages and customs of any specific society and the contradictory forms of common sense which have taken root in and shape popular life.” Culture therefore is concerned with questions of shared social meanings, that is, the various ways we make sense of the world.

Looking at Eagleton’s arguments on the conceptualization of culture as presented in the aforementioned book, his arguments could be summarized into four key philosophical issues: Culture and nature, culture and liberation, culture and identity, and finally culture and civilization. On culture and nature, Eagleton gives the view that culture is both which is natural and that which is socially constructed. According to him, culture “suggests both regulation and spontaneous growth” (Eagleton, 2000:4). He further notes that it contains a tension between the making and being made (ibid). Eagleton also sees culture as a tool for liberation and autonomy. He says in the post colonial era, culture emphasizes the issue of liberation than oppression thus it refers to what is inside and outside a person rendering it difficulties in defining (Eagleton, 2000). He also says in the contemporary world, culture is seen as identity, a tool for socialization, a populist and tradition way of life characterized by quality that pervades everything and makes a person feel rooted or at home(Eagleton,2000:26). In other words, it gives people their identity.

DISCUSSION
Reaching this far, this paper finds it that it is ripe time to embark on a critical but precise discussion by providing some examples. At the outset, the biggest challenge of Eagleton’s writing has been to separate the two terms: culture and nature. According to Eagleton (2000:3), “nature produces culture which changes nature.” This is an important point of departure since it shows how the two terms are related and it also shows their inseparability. By asserting that nature produces culture which changes nature, it means that culture has got two dimensions. Culture is that which is naturally given and that which is humanly constructed.

That nature produces culture which changes nature does not need to be overemphasized here. There are several points to buttress this argument. For example, MacCormarck (1980:1) notes that “to exist as a species we must eat, copulate and meet other basic animal needs.” These things are natural in that they are necessary for all animals to live. In other words natural things are the ones people cannot do without them for example drinking, eating, elimination and sleeping. MacCormarck (1980:6) further notes that “the natural is that which is innate on our primate heritage and the cultural is that which is arbitrary and artificial.” For example, nature produces children; both male and female who procreate, eat, defecate and satisfy other survival needs (ibid). All these things come naturally from nature and form our different cultures.

On the other hand, this paper also supports the idea that culture is also socially constructed. This is so because much as there are certain things like eating, copulating and defecating which are natural, the society formulates rules and regulations which define how individuals ought to do these things in a society. For example, “societies create etiquettes of eating, the time, place and position for ejaculation”, what is moral or immoral, and all these things are cultural (MacCormarck, 1980:2). Culture therefore “is not programmed into the individual’s genetic structure but it is learned and most intensively in the early years of life” (Mead, 1994:11). It is precisely from this reason that Eagleton notes that culture is not separated from institutions which are mitochondria or powerhouses for “production, dissemination and regulation” (2000:21).

These institutions can imply political structures in society, media, educational institutions, religious institutions, family as nucleus of the society so on and so forth. For example, Ngugi wa Thiong’o argues that African schools or education teach western cultures to the Black people (Ngugi, 1986:14-15). By doing so, children acquire new meanings and values through especially language. Therefore, language is regarded as the machinery for constructing culture since language is a symbol and it is through language that people perceive and articulate their self awareness (Ngugi, 1986:13). Religious institutions also assist in constructing culture in many societies. For example, religious institutions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or African traditional religion, have certain values or practices that their followers follow to the letter. Each and every religion, for example, has got its dressing code, symbols and meanings. All these things are not natural but agreed upon in these religions.

The media are also not an exception as far as construction of culture is concerned. Television, for example, gives people a certain “symbolic environment—an environment that cultivates a specific world view” (Mc quail, 2002:100). For instance, some people after watching a certain western film, they try to be identified with certain actors or actresses in areas of articulation of language especially English, walking style, dressing and many more. In this case, such people acquire new ways of life that they did not have before. Eagleton (2000:6) also notes that the state “inculcate in its citizens the proper sorts of spiritual disposition.” This means that the state is another institution that helps to construct culture.

But they are not only these institutions that create culture. Society also helps in constructing culture. For example, in some Malawian tribes, they practice initiation ceremonies which are actually based on agreed premises in the society. According to them that is their culture and they cannot live without it. It is also interesting to note that even marriages are culturally constructed. It is the society which counts what should be regarded as marriage. In some areas of the world cohabitation is not regarded as marriage whilst others affirm it. One is also to find out that even some countries, Malawi for example, have created new culture of minority such as homosexuality which calls for members of the same sex to be marrying each other. This was not there in the past but it has been socially constructed.


Terry Eagleton has also linked the idea of culture to liberation and identity. On this, he says culture is a “kind of ethical pedagogy which fit us for political citizenship by liberating the ideal of collective self buried within each of us” (Eagleton, 2000:7). He also says culture embodies our common humanity and it plucks unity from diversity (ibid). This point deserves more attention. Indeed, one cannot agree more. For example, Ngugi (1986:13) notes that “language—any language has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture.” It is not only language that gives people an identity but also cultural expressions such as food, music, paintings, poems, dressing and so forth. Moreover, culture also acts as a valuation concept which has a sense of approving or disapproving what is the best and what is not (Hebdige, 1993:361).In this sense, culture carries a differentiation factor between us and them which is a source of identity. It precisely from this reason that Terry Eagleton views culture as located in particular places and specific boundaries (2000:3).

However, what should be noted here, and perhaps what Eagleton losses sight of, is the fact that with the coming in of modernization which has been reinforced through globalization, the idea of culture as that which is located in particular places and boundaries, is to a large extent problematic. As Barker (2004:40) has observed, “nowadays place is socially constructed site or location in space marked by identification or emotional investment.” It is now forged globally by virtue of the movement of cultural elements from one location to another. This therefore requires the redefinition of the meaning of place. In particular, it involves the dislodging of long standing authenticity claims whereby a place is considered to be solely local, natural, true and pure (ibid). Gone are the days when cultural practices could be claimed as authentic, pure and locally bounded because culture has been contaminated by globalization. There is need to escape from a model of culture as a locally bounded ‘whole of life.’ Therefore, the processes of globalization suggest that we need to rethink our concept of culture. Culture is not best understood in terms of locations and roots but more as hybrid and creolized cultural routes in global space (ibid).

CONCLUSION
This essay has discussed Terry Eagleton’s conceptualization of culture as expressed in his book called The Idea of Culture (2000). The essay has thrown weight behind Eagleton’s idea that culture is both what is humanly constructed and naturally given. The paper has also showed how people construct what is moral and immoral according to their society’s agreed values and through various institutions such as the media, religions, education and society. Finally, it has looked at how culture gives people identity and liberation and the contemporary challenges that globalization is posing on culture. In summary, although a broad chorus of praise echoes a wide range of criticisms on Eagleton’s conceptualization of culture, it should be borne in mind that his ideas have a particular significance and provide thought-stimulating insights into the understanding and conceptualization of culture.


































REFERENCES
Barker, C. (2004). Cultural studies: Theory and Practice. 2nd Ed. New Delhi. Sage Publications Inc.
Eagleton. T. (2000). The idea of Culture. Oxford: Blackwell

Hebdige, D. (1993). “From Culture to Hegemony”. In During, S. (Ed). The Cultural Studies: Reader. New York. Routledge. Pp 357-367.

MacCormarck C. and Strathern M. (1980). Nature, Culture and Gender. Cambridge University Press.
Mc Quail, D (2002). McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Mead, R (1994). International Management: Cross Cultural Dimensions. Cambridge: Blackwell

Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1986). Decolonizing the Mind: Politics of Language in African
Literature. London: James Currey.

RESPONDING TO MARC RABOY’S DISCUSSION OF PROSPECTIVES OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING (PSB)

Marc Raboy, in his book called “Public Service Broadcasting for the 21st Century,” offered an important exploration on the prospectives of public service broadcasting (PSB). He presented several enlightening arguments about the challenges that have dogged public service broadcasting since time immemorial, some which are still the cause of much debate in and around the world. More importantly, he provided several suggestions that could help redefine the concept of PSB in many countries including Malawi.

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to respond, in a critical way, to Raboy’s arguments on the prospectives of public service broadcasting. In its analysis, this paper shall use the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Television Malawi (TVM) as case studies. Of particular interest to note, for the purposes of this discussion, is that this paper shall accomplish this discussion by responding to Raboy’s arguments from a political economy perspective. It is to the interest of this essay to start by defining what public service broadcasting is, and then a discussion shall follow before drawing the conclusion.

Mpofu (1996:6) notes that “different definitions of PSB exits and the definition of PSB lacks precision, marked by a certain absence of clarity.” However, public service broadcasting has been defined as any broadcasting system whose first duty is to a public within a democracy, serving to inform, educate and entertain, and not serving to fulfill the requirements of commercial interests (Watson and Hill, 1989:142 quoted in Fourie 2001:119). In other words, this broadcasting is supposed to be impartial in serving the welfare of the people without discriminating any group in the country. According to Fourie (2001:119) it is asserted that British broadcasting served as a model for the establishment and functioning of public broadcasting in almost all the rest of world in general and Malawi in particular. Furthermore, there are a number of principles of this broadcasting and some are: universality, provision of minorities especially for the disadvantaged by physical or social circumstances, encourages competition in good programming rather competition for audience numbers and liberates rather than restricts programme-makers (Tracey, 1998:26-27 cited in Fourie, 2001:120). It has been agreed that public broadcasters can enhance governance and development by achieving national reach, providing quality programs and journalism, articulating diversity views and promoting broad public debates (Buckeley, et al 2007:38 cited in Fourie, 2001:121).

However, it is important to note that PSB is undergoing major metamorphoses, which is as a result of a number of factors mainly those concerning the political and economic trends such as concentration, legitimacy, commercialization, liberalization, privatization amongst the others (Fourie, 2001:119). There is also a great concern that these economic trends are leading to decline of PSB. It is precisely from this reason that Raboy was prompted to make a discussion on the prospectives of PSB.

The first argument that Raboy makes is that PSB should be de-linked from both political authority of the state and the economic arbitrage of the market since PSB are linked to the notion of citizenship (Raboy, 2000:4). This is a very good proposition. Indeed any definition of a public service broadcaster should be underscored by the need for independence from the paymaster—whoever is it. However this is very difficult in practice. In fact, it is a far-fetched idea in many counties where democracy is in embryonic stage and even in countries where democracy has taken deep roots. The history of public broadcasting since time immemorial is one of constant political interference from ruling parties and media owners (Mpofu, 1996:12). This is so because politicians, from a political economic perspective, have got vested interests in the public broadcasters since they use them to advance their different ideologies. In Malawi, for example, the public broadcasters are in the hands of the ruling government of day and they try as much as possible to use it for their survival since they have that financial muscle to control them. Furthermore, to propose that PSBs should be de-linked from economic arbitrage of the market since they are linked to the notion of citizenship is also somewhat confusing. Conceptualization of a public as a citizen also requires a view that the same citizens are consumers. This means that the content of any media is sold as a commodity to the consumers who are also citizens (Mc Quail, 2002:10).

Perhaps it is because of this reason that Raboy makes another proposition that “public broadcasters should be allowed to engage in commercially lucrative activities--without being obliged to compete with their own programmes in order to make ends meet” (Raboy). He says due to multi channel environment, PSB should encompass both consumer choice and citizenship programmes. This is very true because in this day and age, no broadcasting unit can function without the power of commercials. In Malawi, for example, when parliament gave the two public broadcasters K1 each, they relied heavily on commercial advertising for their survival.

Raboy also says for public broadcasters to function effectively, there is need for a clear broadcasting policy. He says this can be done “by placing responsibility for the regulation and supervision of broadcasting in the hands of an independent public body.” Indeed, without a clear broadcasting policy, public broadcasting is always in shambles—a case in point being Malawi. The broadcasting policy in Malawi leaves much room to be desired and this has led the two public broadcasters to be used as political pawns. For example, both the Communication Sector Policy Statement and the Communications Act of 1998 are not clear and have so many loopholes to be abused by the state (Manda, 2007:259). In addition, MACRA has failed in its responsibilities because it has not enforced the law against the MBC when the latter has failed to provide impartial broadcasting as required by its public service broadcasting obligations. This may be because MACRA itself is as vulnerable to political interference as is the MBC, since its board of directors and director general are appointed by the executive branch of Government thanks to the loopholes that are in the Communications Act.

Another argument that Raboy puts forward is that of decentralization of public service broadcasting. He says PSB should be decentralized at community, regional other that at centrally national level. This, he says, is important because PSBs tend to abandon local and regional needs as they concentrate around high-profile prestigious services. One cannot agree more. In fact, this is in practice in many countries in the world except Malawi. According to Manyozo and Mwale (2009:3), “decentralization of PSBs into regional broadcasters helps the broadcasters to know and understand cultural, linguistic, economic and political background of the areas. This is important for broadcasting since it allows the audience to share the meanings of broadcasting with the broadcasters.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in Raboy’s writing is to separate public service broadcasting and private broadcasting nowadays since, as he says, private broadcasting, today, also fulfill public service goals. And more interestingly, he says, nowadays, PSBs have integrated objectives of private broadcasting. To this, he proposes that all broadcasting, regardless of being public or private should be considered in a public service framework comprising of different elements each with specific structural arrangements and purposes. However, what Raboy looses sight of is the fact that much as PSB looks to have integrated much with the objectives of private broadcasting, a private broadcaster cannot fulfill to a greater extent the goals of a PSB but they can complement each other. It is a crude fact that PSB is policy driven whilst private broadcasting is profit oriented—and these are two different motives altogether, period. When a PSB has been faced with the dilemma of identity crisis, it may begin to loose touch with the mass of the population to whom it is accountable for funding. (Mpofu, 1996:9).

In conclusion, this essay has looked at and responded to some of Marc Raboy’s arguments on the prospectives of public service broadcasting as presented in the book he edited called Public Broadcasting for the 21st Century. The assertion that this essay makes here is that Marc Raboy’s arguments on the prospectives of public service broadcasting are relevant to the understanding and application of public service broadcasting around the world.

REFERENCES
Fourie, P. (2001). “Characteristics, Trends and the Political Economy of the media,” in P. Fourie, (Ed.). Media Studies: institutions, Theories and issues, Lansdowne, Juta Education.
Fourie, P. (2001). Media Studies: institutions, Theories and issues, Lansdowne, Juta Education
Malawi Communications Act, 1998.
Malawi Communications Sector Policy Statement, 1998
Manda, L.Z (2007). Media in Patel, N and Lsvasand, B, Government and Politics in Malawi. Zomba: Kachere Book Series
Manyozo, L.P and Mwale, P. (2009). Reforming Malawi’s Public Service Broadcasters. Retrieved on Nyasa Times.
McQuail, D. (2002). McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Mpofu, A, (1996). The Role of the Public Broadcaster in a future South Africa Broadcasting Policy Research; The Framework Project in Mpofu, A, Manhando, S and Tomaselli, K, Public Service Broadcasting: Policy Directions Towards 2000.Johannesburg: Anthropos Publishers
Raboy, M. Public Broadcasting for the 21st Century. John Dibbey Publishers

Bail Out Nursing Students!

Events that have surrounded the admission of students into their respective Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) nursing colleges and Malawi College of Health Sciences are deplorable, disheartening, and at worst bloodcurdling.
As a background, it all started when the media broke the news that the government was no longer interested in funding the training of these students in Malawi. No sooner did these reports fly, than we heard that these institutions had hiked their fees from K210, 000 to K310, 000 per year. What this meant was that each student was mandated to dig deeper into their pockets for one to be admitted into these institutions. Then the directive was extended to those studying various health courses at the state-run Malawi College of Health Sciences. The result? We gather, only 15 per cent of these students have managed to pay the minimum installment for the first term. But this is not all, for this decision has far-reaching ramifications for this country.
For a country like Malawi, grappling amidst many development challenges, many of them in the health sector, one cannot help but offer a clarion call for the reversal of this back peddling decision by government. For instance, diseases such as Tuberculosis, Malaria, and HIV/AIDS are still decimating a lot of Malawian lives. The HIV prevalence rate, we are told, is hovering somewhere around 12 per cent, Malaria claims many a Malawian child life a day and maternal mortality rate is still in skyscraping percentage. Surely, these nurses are much needed in our hospitals and the training of one nurse can go a long way in reducing some of these challenges that have dogged the health statuses of many Malawians.
Of even more laughable to note is the fact that Malawi has already an acute shortage of health personnel. Doctors, we hear, time and again migrate to western countries for greener pastures after they have graduated from our single training institution for doctors—the University of Malawi’s College of Medicine which has a single campus in Blantyre. Nurses, as far as migration to foreign countries is concerned, have not been spared either.
I surely find the argument that government does not have monies in its coffers to fund these students not to be plausible. One might be tempted to wonder: why of all cost-cutting measures could government decide to cease the training of nurses from these institutions?
One Godfrey Kamanya, Member of Parliament for Lilongwe Msozi North, sent me in stitches when he reasoned with government to find monies of funding these students by putting levies on fuel, beer and cigarettes. Surely, Kamanya wanted to sympathize with these students—and it is in order. But, I strongly feel that putting more levies on products like beer and cigarettes let alone on fuel might not be the best solution. One does not need to be an economist to know that by putting a levy on fuel, it will obviously lead to the escalation of prices for many products and services. Furthermore, as already argued by a certain writer that Malawians are already overtaxed and putting more levies on Malawians will be like straining their pockets.
The government needs to find other means of sourcing money for the training of these students other than putting more taxes on Malawians. For instance, the government might source the monies by asking for donors to intervene in this predicament. I think it is not in order to execute desperate measures of sourcing money when as a country; we haven’t even exhausted all the means of solving this problem.
Malawians who also evade the already existing taxes that the government put in place should also know that the taxes that they run away from go a long way in helping government execute various functions and responsibilities. This, being a case in point. The government has for a long time bemoaned the tendency of some people who evade tax by thinking that the government is overburdening them. This surely has to stop.
However, when all is said and done, impoverished CHAM and MCHS students need to go back to school and the government needs to play a leading role in ensuring that they are back to their respective school premises.

The Role of Malawian Media in Fighting Climate Change

The role of the media in society cannot be overstated. Apart from their role in examining government actions and holding policy makers to account, the media are the main source of information on critical issues for the general public and climate change is one of them. Given the immense importance of the issues at stake for people and planet, this is the role that carries great responsibility. It is against this background that I am writing a thesis on the role of media in Malawi in fighting climate change.

Since many of these issues that concern the environment in general and climate change in particular are enormously complex and scientifically difficult to communicate, this study, therefore, seeks to provide perhaps one of the first analyses of media coverage of climate change in Malawi. In general terms, the study focuses on the framing of climate change and the sources of such frames in the Malawian media, specifically in newspapers. Specifically, it aims at assessing critically the extent to which the print media in Malawi have covered and framed the issue of climate change and how have they (the print media) assisted people understand this bloodcurdling issue.

From an analytical perspective, Malawi– as a developing country – is an ideal scenario to study climate change policy. This is because of the paradoxical context in which the country is situated, being one of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, but also a country with an economy highly dependent on its natural resources and agriculture. Since the study will take a qualitative and analytical approach, it will draw heavily on desk research which involves a review of articles from the Malawi’s major newspapers namely The Nation, Daily Times, Weekend Nation, Malawi News, Sunday Times and Nation on Sunday of between January and June 2009.

SPECIFIC OBECTIVES
Specifically, the study aims at achieving the following objectives:
• Finding out if Malawians have been properly conscientized about the environment in general and climate change issues, problems and solutions in particular by the print media in Malawi.
• To analyze the content, style, language, pictures/illustrations used by the print media in Malawi.
• To make recommendations on how best information on climate change can be communicated to people in Malawi through the print media.
So I need different kinds of views from the general public. To what extent do you think and feel the Malawian media have assisted people understand the issue of climate change? Where do you think they have fallen short of and where do they need to polish up and focus on? Please forward the feedback to madise07@yahoo.com or marshalmadise@gmail.com or call me on +265995361882.

Chanco Students Plan to Oust Registrar

University of Malawi’s Chancellor College students are planning to remove their Registrar for Social Welfare, Mr. Elius G. Chizimba, citing failure by him to handle students’ welfare properly as a major reason behind the plot.
According to a memo, sourced by this reporter, which circulated on Monday around Chirunga campus, as it is popularly known, and signed by some very concerned students, Mr. Chizimba is being accused of mishandling of transport, accommodation, and sports issues for the students. The highly-emotively charged memo further says the registrar has failed to consult students on critical issues as he has made unilateral decisions on many important issues that have affected the student’s body.
President-elect for Students Union of Chancellor College (SUCC), Lonjezo Sithole, confirmed this development in an exclusive interview with this reporter.
“It’s indeed true that some students are planning to remove Mr. Chizimba, from the office of Registrar for Social Welfare following the memo that circulated on Monday around the campus,” he said.
“But this issue hasn’t come to my office yet for the practice here is that if students have got grievances, they have to call for a general assembly so that the whole student body should agree on the course of action to take,” he added.
Quizzed on whether he supports this motion or not, Sithole said as a union’s president, he will follow what the students will agree in the general assembly.
Dean of Students for Chancellor College, Ms Jubilee Tizifa, was not immediately available for comment.
But a fourth year student, who spoke on strict condition of anonymity, observed that it was indeed high time that the registrar was booted out of office.
“Mr. Chizimba has taken us for granted for quite some time. Imagine, he has banned the Sports Complex Bar from showing football matches while other students televisions are down and have not been repaired,” he lamented.
“He hasn’t given us our Chancellor Trophy medals that we won last year up to now. An encounter with him in office is a nightmare, he shouts for no apparent reason. And recently he has started walking around with a camera photographing students without permission for whatever use. In fact, the list goes on and on,” he added.
“Mr. Chizimba has been tried and found wanting. We cannot continue watching him, fellow intellectuals, corrupting our intellectualism. There is but one thing that ought to be done to him if we are to regain our pride…we all know that thing: Mr. Chizimba must be shown the exit door through any means imaginable and possible” reads part of the memo.

Give Us a break, Government

Recent media reports that government would like to introduce many bills among them the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Bill and the HIV and AIDS Bill need to be welcomed with caution tinged with critical thoughts.
The highlight of the former bill, we gather, is to criminalize polygamy in this country whilst that of the later proposes that there should be mandatory HIV tests for expectant women and their spouses, sex workers, recruits for the army, police and immigration, and polygamous unions among others. According to this bill, those who fail to take these mandatory tests will face the wrath of the law—which is a five-year jail term or a fine.
While the government intention is to reduce the spread of HIV in the country, which is an innocent ambition, a sober look at these bills will greatly help and government has to tread carefully.
For one thing, if government introduces these mandatory HIV tests, it will be like trampling on people’s rights and furthermore, it will be like a contradiction to some of the government laws such as labour laws. For example, forcing army officers, the police and immigration workers, for crying out loud, will be discrimination at work place. And what benefit will the test on these officers bring if one may ask?
Furthermore, the HIV and AIDS Bill will bring a lot of confusion in this country. As per proposed in this bill, people will be required to disclose their statuses before they engage in sex and if someone has infected another person deliberately with the virus, he/she will be incarcerated. Well, well, well, how will a person exactly pinpoint that this or that person infected me with the virus? And how will the courts prove this beyond reasonable doubt? This will just make the country’s judiciary to be flooded with too many cases that will delay judicial dispensation in this country. And does this bill intend to make people who have the virus not to enjoy their conjugal rights? Isn’t this stigma and discrimination of people living the virus?
And on banning polygamy? I think the government has now gone too far. What the government should know is that Malawi is a multi cultural multi-lingual and a multi-religious country. Therefore, formulating laws that are in favour of one group of people makes others feel out of place. Already, those religions that support polygamy like the Muslim community and those cultures that tolerate it like the Ngoni people, see that this bill is targeting them.
Furthermore, this bill will be in total contradiction with the freedom of association and worship that are enshrined in the country’s constitution.
The last time I also checked the country’s statistics, they registered that women make up 52 per cent of Malawi’s total population against 48 per cent of men. This means that women are in large numbers than men. And where will other women go if government criminalizes polygamy? Ask these women, every woman would like to be loved by a man. Will this not make the other women start prostitution? Or does the government want women to be marrying their fellow women? Won’t this promote homosexuality that government, our culture and religious bodies loathe? And, if truth be told, women enter into polygamy on their will and no one forces them to do so.
So what am I saying? Formulating policies and changing laws for the fun of it will just put this country into division and disturbance. Already, the government has introduced the quota system as procedure of selecting students into the country’s public universities, under the guise of equitable sharing of resources, which some quarters of the society like the northerners have expressed misgivings.
Then we hear government would like to change the innocent national flag. As this is not pleasing enough, last year we saw the passing of the Police Bill which gives powers to the police service to conduct a search without warrant and the Local Government Bill which saw the president acquiring powers to decide the date for the local government polls which up to now we don’t know whether they will be conducted or not. We also gather that the government intends to come up with the Sex Workers Bill that will allow commercial sex workers do their business in their homes. We are also hearing, from the media, that the government would also like to formulate a policy to regulate child bearing in Malawian families. We wonder now, what is next?
Much as some of these measures are intended to bring sanity in this country, I think they are being fast-tracked and being implemented without wider consultations with people. Let the government consult with all stakeholders and engage people in a debate first before formulating some of these bills.

A DISCUSSION OF HOW LEADERSHIP DETERMINES THE SUCCESS OF ANY PROJECT

In this day and age, many organizations and various governmental departments are becoming increasingly aware that the success of any project lies in leadership skills of project managers in addition to the tradition managerial skills that they learn. Even though these two notions “leadership” and “management” have often times been confused and used interchangeably, it is important, at the outset, that the two be clearly distinguished. There are in fact, many authors who have made a distinction between leading and managing. Beach and Reinhartz [(2000:75,) quoting Kotter 1990] say that “leaders create the essence or mission of an organization—its reason for being—while managers are responsible for helping achieve the mission or vision.” Bennis (1989: 18) actually say that “leaders…do the right thing while managers…do things right. Covey (1989: 101) adds that, “leadership is not management.” Before one can manage, one has to lead because leadership comes first. ASCD (1988:6) describes management as handling tasks, analyzing data, weighing alternatives and making decisions by applying established principles or doing it by the book.” Leadership, on the other hand, “involves reaching the emotions of people through effective communication and making one’s presence felt through example” (ibid). It is a process that involves obtaining cooperation from others to achieve shared goals and objectives.

Bennis and Nanus (1997) also view managers differently from leaders. Managers are in charge of things, solve problems, use procedures for finding solutions, and make sure that things are done properly. They know how to get the job done using a process orientation and tend to continue or maintain what is already in place. Leaders, on the other hand, have a vision of what can be, and what the organization can become. They have the ability to analyze and synthesize information, to see the whole rather than the parts, and to build commitment to the shared vision or mission. Dzimbiri (2009:169) succinctly puts it that “leading involves providing vision, direction, coordination, control, motivation, energizing and inspiring. On the other hand, managing is about planning for the achievement of per-set goals.”
Despite all these given distinctions, it is, however, important to appreciate the fact that leadership is inextricably linked to management. As noted by Dzimbiri (2009:169), “there is a strong relationship between leadership and managerial functions.” Admittedly, leading and managing are two sides of the same coin. In fact, many of the roles associated with a manager are similar to those expected of a leader. Cohen et al (1995:288) admits that the two roles are hard to separate, “since most managers have some responsibility for setting direction, and few get to just carry routine work”. It means therefore that leadership is part of management and management is one part of leadership (ibid).

With this introductory observation at the back of our minds, this paper sets off to discuss the crucial role of leadership for the success of any project. The argument presented in this paper is that for projects and project managers to be effective and successful, they must not only demonstrate administrative skills and technical know how, but must also practice an appropriate style of leadership and must also contain an aura of leadership qualities. The crux of project management or any management job lies in the job-holder’s capacity to obtain the commitment of people to the objectives of the organization, which is another way of saying to exercise appropriate leadership (Cole, 1996:50). This forms the basis of this paper’s discussion.

But what is leadership? Leadership as observed by Beach and Reinhartz (2000:73) “has many definitions based on historical circumstances and the views of theorists and researchers.” Cohen et al (1995:288) say that, “the purpose of a universal definition of effective leadership is still intriguing but elusive.” However, Dzimbiri (2009:170) notes that “for many theorists, leadership is the art of influencing individual and group efforts towards the optimum achievement of organizational goals.” For Greenberg and Baron (1997:433).” Leadership resembles love: It is something most people believe they can recognize but often find difficult to define.” Jewell (1998), however, suggests that leadership involves the art of inducing compliance through the use of influence or persuasion. Leadership has also been viewed in terms of personal traits and behaviour, influence and interaction patterns, roles and positions, and the perceptions of others (Yukl, 1994:59). Bennis and Nanus (1997:19) have written that leadership is “the most studied and least understood topic.” Wiles and Bondi (1986) have noted that there are over 130 definitions of leadership found in educational literature. Terry (1993: 14-15) cautions that leadership is not “techniques, quick fixes, or heroics” but rather a “mode of engagement with life, requiring a lifelong commitment to growing toward human fulfillment.” Lambert (1998: 5-6) says that leadership involves:

Learning together and constructing meaning and knowledge collectively and collaboratively— to reflect on and make sense of work in the light of shared beliefs and create actions that grow out of these new understandings.

Cole (1996:51) defines leadership as a “dynamic process in a group whereby one individual influences the others to contribute voluntarily to the achievement of group tasks in a given situation.”

As all of the above definitions demonstrate, leadership is a complex, multifaceted concept with many nuances involved in the application of the process (Rudnistski, 1996). A comprehensive, people-oriented definition of leadership is provided by Knezevich (1994:60), who says:

Leadership is a process of stimulating, developing, and working with people within an organization.
It is a human-oriented process and focuses upon personnel motivation, human relationships or social
Interactions, interpersonal communications, organizational climate, interpersonal conflicts, personal
growth and development, and enhancement of the productivity of human factors in general.

Putting all of these definitions together, a common thread that suggests action emerges from these definitions. Leaders, therefore, are individuals who inspire other people to do things, to take action, or to respond in some way. The role of a leader therefore is to direct the group towards group goals (Cole, 1996:51). But the question still begged is: How and why is leadership the major determining factor of a project success?

The answers to this mind-boggling question still lie in the roles that leaders do in project. For the purposes of this discussion, the terms ‘leader’ and ‘manager’ will be used interchangeably, even though customarily there is a distinction. As already alluded to, all managers and supervisors are leaders, because they need to motivate their team to achieve agreed objectives. Obviously, there are other factors that determine the success of a project like concept, objectives, time and available resources. Keeling (2000:54) says that “occasionally a project might fail or be abandoned because of external circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen like changes in government policy or sometimes physical security.” However, what is being contended in this paper is that of all these factors, leadership is the major determining factor of a project success since most of these other factors that can choke the success of a project can be ironed out through effective leadership. Here are the answers how and why this is so.

Firstly, it should be noted that any project requires human resource. According to the Association of Business Executive Handbook (2000: 78), “people are an organization’s most valuable and expensive resource, but they are the most difficult element of an organization to manage.” As already pointed out in this discussion, management could be defined as “getting things done through people.” However, this is more easily said than done. People possess a variety of talents and they will react differently in different circumstances. In fact, in many ways people are unpredictable (ibid). This means that unlike machines, they are not interchangeable, which creates problems for organizations. For example, a person may work well one day but not the next, or may cope well with pressures one day but fail to cope another day. Workers therefore need to be constantly motivated to do the work. This is where the importance of effective leadership comes in.

According to Burke (2003:312), “motivation is an inner force that causes someone to be inspired to do something.” However, an important point to note is that what inspires one person may not inspire another. And what inspires an individual in one set of circumstances may not inspire him in another (ibid). The leader’s task is to influence the work situation in such a way as to encourage the individuals to inspire and motivate themselves to achieve the project’s goal. Motivation is concerned with why people do or refrain from doing things. According to ABE (2000: 78) a motive “is a need or a driving force within a person.” For a project to be successful, the project leader needs to be prepared to be the motivator and the cheerleader, so as to generate enthusiasm for the project and continually obtain, buy-in support, commitment and participation from individual project team members and various stakeholders. According to NYS Project Management Handbook, “a project leader’s role is to try to determine what motivates individual project team members” (32). This may include the desire for challenging work, professional development recognition, possibility for promotion or collaboration with other team members (ibid). All these require effective leadership skills in projects.

Related to the issue of motivation is commitment. According to Burke (2003:309), “the performance of an individual also depends on their willingness and drive to complete the tasks, in other words their commitment.” Commitment is not a fixed commodity. It may change in response to conditions and situations the individual encounters. To this extent, the leader’s role is to use an appropriate style of leadership to control the working environment in such a manner that the workforce will be committed to the task and so inspire and motivate themselves to achieve the objectives of the project (ibid).It is therefore disingenuous to say that workers can be committed to work, in projects where its leadership is lifeless.

Furthermore, for projects to be conducted effectively project stakeholders must trust project leaders and this essentially requires effective leadership. According to NYS Project Management Handbook, trust is developed overtime and is “most easily inspired when the project leader exhibits a willingness and ability to share information, discuss personal feelings, listen to and understand others’ perspective, admit mistakes, encourage others, confront others, keep promises, be credible and sincere and be responsible and accountable for actions”(P.33). Dzimbiri (2009:170) says that “managing trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together.” The role of leaders therefore is to build trust among project stakeholders.

Equally important in any project is the ability of leaders to be creative. According to Robbins (2003:35) “creativity means finding new or better ways of doing old things or finding new things that are useful and profitable to do.” Surely, this is an essential and indispensable ingredient in a competitive organization or in any project. The leader’s function calls for initiating and designing changes in the way the project operates (Cohen et al, 1995:319). In carrying out this task, the leader diagnoses trends, envisions possibilities, plans improvements, invents programs and other solutions and in general promotes innovation (ibid). It is mainly from such innovation that material progress towards better living.

Another important leadership skill that has an overwhelming contribution to the success of a project is organizing. According to David (2009:145), “organizing means determining who does what and who reports to whom.” The purpose of organizing is to achieve coordinated effort by defining task and authority relationships. A well-organized project generally has motivated managers and employees who are committed to seeing the project succeed. Resources are allocated more effectively and used more efficiently in a well-organized project than in a disorganized project (ibid).

Further to organizing is another significant job of a leader in a project, which is proper planning. According to David (2009:143), “planning is the essential bridge between the present and the future that increases the likelihood of achieving desired results.” Planning is the process by which one determines whether to attempt a task, works out the effective way of reaching desired objectives, and prepares to overcome unexpected difficulties with adequate resources. Planning enables one to avoid the trap of working extremely hard but achieve little in a project. It helps a project achieve maximum effect from a given effort. David (2009:144) has given several advantages of planning to a project. He says planning “enables a project to take into account relevant factors and focus on the critical ones.” He also says planning “helps ensure that the project can be prepared for all reasonable eventualities and for all changes that will be needed.” Planning enables an organization to gather all resources needed and carry out tasks in the most efficient way possible. Planning enables a project to “conserve its own resources, avoid wasting ecological resources, make a fair profit, and be seen as an effective, useful” project (ibid). Planning enables a project “to identify precisely what is to be achieved and to detail precisely the who, what, when, where, why, and how to achieve the desired objectives” (ibid). If truth be told, planning is the cornerstone of every effective strategy formulation. This is so largely because organizing, motivating, controlling and other managerial activities depend upon good planning.

Perhaps mention must also be made here that communication in a project is also very crucial in effective project leadership. According to the NYS Project Management Handbook, “communication is a very critical component of every project management process” so it is required that the project leader or manager develop skills that ensure that messages are appropriately transmitted and correctly received (23). The role of a project leader is to build and nurture all relationships with all identified key project stakeholders. These include the project sponsor(s), project team members, customer representatives, beneficiaries and other stakeholders that may influence the project’s progress and success (ibid). It is up to the project leader to provide appropriate communication opportunities for each stakeholder. The project manager should ensure that there are mechanisms—formal or informal—for obtaining stakeholders’ feedback. The project manager should also be cognizant of the role played by informal communications. A conversation in the hallway, a chance meeting outside the office with the stakeholder, even overhead conversations, may have a potential impact on the project. Since the project manager is responsible for setting and managing the “mood” of the project, he/she must pay attention to communication undercurrents, and be prepared to bring relevant issues to more formal communication venues when appropriate.

It would be also very inappropriate if this essay is blind to the fact that in projects there can be some forms of skirmishes. Robbins (2003:29) notes that “conflict comes to expression in its various forms such as illogical disagreement, win-lose arguments, or even open-fighting.” He further says, “in one way or another, all constitute evidences of emotional tension and disturbance between individuals or groups” (ibid). Furthermore, conflict smacks of lack of authority in an organization. Therefore conflict cannot be allowed to permeate the work situation. In any case, it has to be brought under control before it becomes unmanageable. Since a project is by definition temporary, the project manager cannot afford the luxury of waiting until a conflict ‘blows over’ but must work to create a setting where the conflict can be resolved quickly and with as little damage as possible. The role of a leader therefore is to develop an effective negotiating style.

The last role of a leader in a project that this essay puts forward is that of good decision making. According to Dzimbiri (2009:154), “decision making is the process of locating and defining the problem, weighing the various alternative solutions in terms of their possible consequences, choosing the best solution from among them and ensuring that the decision has been implemented effectively.” Good decision-making is an essential skill of a leader that is needed in any project. If one makes timely and well-considered decisions, then one can lead ones project team to spectacular and well-deserved success (ibid). If one makes poor decisions, the project team risks failure and one’s time as a leader will most likely be short. A decision situation involves either the presence of a problem or an opportunity which can be exploited. As a matter of fact, one can safely say that decision-making is at the heart of management as every managerial function requires making a decision.

In conclusion, this paper has looked at how leadership determines the success of any project. The assertion that this essay makes, in a summary, is that leadership plays a vital role in a project since it helps in such issues as motivation of project team members, commitment, building trust, being creative, planning, organizing, communication, solving conflicts and good decision making.
























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