NEWS:

8 Jul, 2016


Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare; Dr Jean Kalilani speaking during the official opening of the training
Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) from Monday 4th July to Friday 8th July 2016 hosted a regional Leadership Program for Agricultural Research and Development (LEPARD) organized by African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) in conjunction with Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM).

Speaking during the official opening of the training at Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) , AWARD Deputy Director, Fellowships and Institutional Partnerships, Dr. Dorothy Mukhebi, said that the main objective of the training was to strengthen agricultural research and development (ARD) institutions based on core values of inclusiveness, performance, transparency, integrity and efficiency.

“LEPARD supports participants, to enhance their leadership skills and also strengthen their ability to lead a team with diverse groups effectively,” she said.

Dr Mukhebi said true transformation will only come if partners across the ARD ecosystem share in and contribute to AWARD’s mission and vision of gender responsive agricultural research and development saying smart partnerships will reinforce synergy, utilization of comparative advantages, complementarity and coordination thus ensuring long term sustainability.

“We are therefore very excited to be able to partner with RUFORUM and LUANAR as AWARD endeavors to institutionalize our training modules. And I would like to express my appreciation to both RUFORUM and LUANAR for making this possible,” said Dr Mukhebi.

She further said that since the inception of AWARD, LUANAR has been one of the most active and biggest beneficiaries of the fellowship saying to date, out of 42 fellows and 34 mentors from Malawi who have benefitted from AWARD; nine fellows and nine mentors (unique) are from LUANAR and five fellows’ mentees have also benefited from the fellowship which brings the total number of beneficiaries from LUANAR to 22.

In her speech, the Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Dr Jean Kalilani emphasized on the importance of the training and urged participants to capitalize on the opportunity in order to contribute to the transformation of Africa Region.

“We need both innovators that have adequate leadership capabilities and Leaders that create an innovative culture at all the levels. I would like therefore, to urge you to create more awareness in your respective work areas about transformative leadership principles which you will have learned here to make it possible for all household members, including women, to be empowered to fight poverty and malnutrition,” said Dr Kalilani.

The Minister further commended AWARD, RUFORUM and LUANAR for their commitment to support critical development of integrating gender programmes in the Africa’s development for its accelerated and sustainable growth and development especially in the agriculture sector.

“I am also deeply indebted to you for organizing the Regional Leadership Training Programme and for entrusting the Government of Malawi through LUANAR to host this very important programme,” she said.

Apart from LUANAR, some AWARD fellows in the country are from the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, University of Malawi (UNIMA), Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Environment, Ministry of Irrigation & Water Development, Mzuzu University and Farm Radio Trust.