SAVE Project mid-term review underway

The Skills for A Vibrant Economy (SAVE) Project Mid-Term Review by the World Bank team has launched with a courtesy call to the Project Steering Committee (PSC) Co-Chairs – Secretary for Education and Secretary for Labour on Monday, October 14, 2024. The PSC is the highest decision-making body in the SAVE Project structure. It provides overall strategic oversight and guidance on the project. The PSC is co-chaired by the Secretary for Education, and by the Secretary for Labour, MoL.

Secretary for Education Dr Mangani Katundu urged the World Bank team to be open and focus the review on strategic and vital issues. He was speaking at the beginning of the 3-week long Mid-Term Review when the team made the courtesy call at Capital Hill in Lilongwe. He asked the review team to focus the review on things that are critical: 

“Let’s look at things that may work or not work” in reference to the calls for fast-tracking the project to catch-up with the project time-frame. 

Dr Katundu said the project comes at the right time when Malawi is pursuing the 2063 agenda because “development of any country is greatly enshrined in vocational education” he said in reference to the participation of Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational,  Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) which oversees implementation of the project through National Technical Colleges (NTCs) and Community Technical Colleges (CTCs).

The Secretary for Labour and co-Chair, M/s Chikondano Musa assured the review team that at the highest level of the project, PSC will provide the necessary support considering that the Task Team Leader (TTL) is now based in Malawi. She requested the review participants to be empathetic saying:

“We should be working as collaborators and not showing power to each other because if we fail, the bank also fails,” she stated.

The World Bank Task Team Leader (TTL) Nobu Tanaka said the Project take off was not easy as it involves hard work. 

Tanaka raised the concerns about the project “low disbursement of funds to pay attention to implementation progress, the importance of completion of key activities considering that the SAVE Project has only used 33% of the 100 million US dollars since it rolled out in 2021. 

He said there 20 months only to go before the project comes to the end.