Adult education stakeholders from government and civil society held a workshop at the Sogecoa Golden Peacock Hotel in Lilongwe on January 30th to discuss cooperation for enhanced monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the Adult Literacy and Education (ALE) sector in Malawi. The workshop, which was organised in partnership between the National Centre for Literacy and Adult Education (NACLAE) from the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) and DVV International, brought together adult education stakeholders from government and civil society.
The initiative was part of the ongoing development by NACLAE of a new national M&E framework for ALE. Based on a study carried out in 2018 with support from DVV International, national objectives and indicators and new monitoring tools and procedures for the ALE sector were developed, which were piloted in the districts of Ntcheu and Mchinji in 2019.
The workshop was a first opportunity to share the ongoing work with civil society stakeholders for their inputs. The workshop aimed to:
- Share information with NGOs and CSOs on the government’s ongoing work in regard to M&E of the ALE sector;
- Introduce the new M&E framework and national ALE indicators to civil society stakeholders;
- Provide an opportunity for CSOs and NGOs to input into the pilot M&E Framework, and
- Enable the sharing of ideas between all ALE stakeholders for improved coordination and cooperation on M&E.
In line with a holistic and multi-sectoral approach to ALE, the new national framework seeks to go beyond the traditional understanding of ALE as literacy and numeracy to include a broad range of adult education programmes that link to multiple sectors and themes, such as health, agriculture, livelihoods and so on.
Besides providing inputs for the continuous development of the framework, participants worked together to propose mechanisms for improved sharing of data at all levels of the ALE system nationwide.
DVV International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa, Mr. David Harrington, reaffirmed his organisation’s support for this important initiative, encouraging all stakeholders, governmental and non-governmental, to work together to build a strong and sustainable ALE system in Malawi. The National Director for Community Development, Mrs. Clotilda Sawasawa, hailed the participants for their constructive participation and contributions, which yielded concrete proposals for improved M&E at both district and national level, and stated that the government with support from DVV International would follow up on these.
The National M&E Framework for ALE in Malawi is scheduled to be rolled out nationwide in 2020.
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