Malawi COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Project Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP).

This Plan aims to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and strengthen national systems for public health preparedness. The Plan identifies that the outbreak of the virus has the potential for loss of life, significant disruptions in global supply chains, lower commodity prices and economic losses. The Plan comprises the following components; (a.) Emergency COVID-19 Response- this component would provide immediate support to Malawi to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through surveillance and containment strategies; (b.) Supporting National and Sub-national, prevention and Preparedness- this component will support strengthening the capacity of the public health system for preparedness and respond to COVID-19 pandemic and to future pandemics and other threats to health security; and (c.) Implementation Management, Monitoring and Evaluation. The overall objective of this Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) is to define a program for stakeholder engagement, including public information disclosure and consultation, throughout the entire project cycle. The SEP outlines the ways in which the project team will communicate with stakeholders and includes a mechanism by which people can raise concerns, provide feedback, or make complaints about project and any activities related to the project. The involvement of the local population is essential to the success of the project in order to ensure smooth collaboration between project staff and local communities and to minimize and mitigate environmental and social risks related to the proposed project activities.