National Plan of Action for Vulnerable Children in Malawi.

The overarching goal of the present National Plan of Action (NPA) for Vulnerable Children in Malawi is: To facilitate the care, protection and development of orphans and vulnerable children in a coordinated manner in order to provide them with an environment in which they realize their full rights and potentials”.
The main objective of this NPA, in support of the overarching goal of the National Policy, is: By the end of 2019, the survival, protection and development of 1,440,000 million vulnerable children in Malawi has been improved through strengthened capacity of the families, communities and government and enhanced policy and legislation.
The strategic objectives to achieve this main objective are: 1) By the end of 2019, 80% (1,144,000) of the 1.8 million vulnerable children have access to essential quality services for their survival, protection and development to be able to realize their full rights and potentials. 2) By the end of 2019, the capacity of families and communities has been improved to facilitate vulnerable children in realizing their full rights and potentials. 3) By the end of 2019, the technical, institutional and human resource capacity of government and its social protection system has been improved to ensure that vulnerable children have access to essential quality services. 4) By the end of 2019, policy and legislation, leadership and coordination at all levels have been improved to protect vulnerable children from the consequences of vulnerability. 5) By the end of 2019, vulnerable children live in a supportive environment as the result of advocacy, awareness raising and participation activities. 6) By the end of 2019, the response for vulnerable children is optimized through a well- functioning monitoring and evaluation system that is able to assess the situation, identify gaps, and guide adjustments.
Chapter 8 deals with strategic objectives linked to activities. Amongst these activities the following are listed: 1) Vulnerable children’s access to essential quality services, such as Livelihood, Education, Clean water and improved sanitation. In this connexion in order to reduce the time children have to spend on household chores related to fetching water, as well as to enhancing their access to the basic commodities of clean water and proper sanitation, the following activities are included in the NPA: i) Increasing the number of water clean points in remote communities and schools through the installation of 2,500 additional water points, and the distribution of water treatment chemicals to control outbreaks of water borne diseases; and ii) Promotion of improvement of sanitation facilities in communities and schools through awareness raising activities. Health and Safe Environment and Reducing Violence against Children are other essential quality services which shall be accessible to children. 2) Improved capacity of families and communities; 3) Improved capacity of government and its social protection system; 4) Improved policy and legislation, leadership and coordination; 5) Advocacy, awareness raising and participation; 6) Monitoring and evaluation as well as research.
Chapter 9 concerns coordination and implementation establishing that the coordination and implementation of the present National Plan of Action (NPA) will fall under the Joint Sector Strategic Plan (JSSP). Therefore, the JSSP coordination structure will be applicable to the NPA. With the new JSSP, a new coordination structure with clear responsibilities, organized in Technical Working Groups (TWGs) both at national and district level, has been established. The TWGs have to report to the Gender, Children, Youth and Sports (GCY&S) Sector Working Group (SWG) which is co-chaired by the MoGCDSW and the Ministry of Youth and Sports and supported by a secretariat, both at national and district level. At the national level, the following TWGs will be established : Gender; Integrated Community Development; Child Development; Social Welfare; Youth Development; Sports.
Chapter 10 lays down provisions relating to sources of funding, financing framework. The detailed cost implementation plan of this NPA can be found in Annex 1. The funding structure for this NPA for the first two years draws upon funding already committed by the Government of Malawi, development partners, NGOs and private sector, but also aims to capitalize on the resource mobilization strategy for the JSSP 2013 – 2017. In this resource mobilization strategy, four different approaches are used: 1) To further intensify collaboration with existing donors as these provide core funding for the plan. 2) To bring on board new donors to diversify funding sources. 3) To enhance the capacity for resource mobilization, transparency, accountability and reporting to ensure that new donors can be brought on board, as well as current funders continue to provide support. 4) To ensure the NPA is implemented in an effective, transparent and accountable fashion as this will also contribute to continued and expanded support.
The text consists of 11 chapters as follows: Background and purpose of the NPA (1); Process of developing the NPA (2); Defining vulnerable children (3); Vulnerable children in Malawi (4); The response in place (5); Guiding principles (6); Goal and Strategic Objectives (7); Strategic objectives linked to activities (8); Coordination and implementation (9); sources of funding, financing framework (10); Monitoring and evaluation (11). Two Annexes are enclosed.