Strategy

The Mlambe Project will continue to support our pilot project, Mlambe Primary School in Chikolongo, and the two other schools we have supported since 2018. In 2021, we will work with a further two schools, and we will continue to increase the number of communities we support each year in line with our Five-Year Strategy.

What we’re aiming to achieve

Our two to three-year goal is to work with all thirteen primary schools in the Nkonde Zone to target a tight geographic area in the mid-term. Operations are more likely to be successful, and we minimise costs as we work to establish more comprehensive procedures.

Our five-year goal is to work with seven more schools in two Zones that border Nkonde (bringing the total number of schools to twenty).

We will develop a Good School Ecosystem model that leads to good learning outcomes in rural marginalised communities. All twenty schools will be examples of the Good School Ecosystem. They will be government-sanctioned, owned by their communities, and developed hand-in-hand with charity partners.

Another goal is to develop a consortium of partner NGOs in Malawi capable of handling institutional funding–addressing a significant gap. We are supporting the development of national capacity as part of a long-term exit plan.

Our theory of change

Collaborative Partnerships

Well Resourced Schools

Better Learning Environment

Increased Opportunity

We believe we need strong partnerships between the local community, government, and NGOs to create well-built, well-resourced schools that support and enable. Achieving good learning outcomes, including emotional wellbeing and good physical health, is the bedrock of empowering children and their communities. It offers communities a significant opportunity to lead the kinds of lives that they choose and value.

Our exit strategy

We aspire to be a catalyst of change in the rural education landscape in Malawi. We strive to make substantial contributions in the mid-to-long term, but we won’t be around forever.

We will devolve ownership and responsibility for our activities from the UK to Malawi as quickly as is sustainably possible.

What that means is:

  1. We will transition to local management of operations. We have already begun this process with leadership development in Malawi and our plans to recruit a senior role in Malawi in 2021.
  2. We will actively recruit for a Malawi board in 2021. While we will initially work in an equal partnership, we will transition to full Malawi leadership and ownership.
  3. In the long term, we will contribute up to 15 per cent to the annual budget of any team in Malawi. We will eliminate dependency by becoming a contributor to costs rather than a lifeline. The Malawian team will source most of the funding from Malawian and global institutions (such as the World Bank and the UN).

We want to make a long-term contribution to improving education in Malawi, but not have long-term ownership. For us, the best-case scenario is to help stimulate opportunity, vision, and potential in the rural education sector and then take on a supportive role.

Our Strategies in Detail

We’ve worked hard to transparently define our strategies on everything from operational practices to how we work with other NGOs.

Each of these outlines has a goal, key considerations, catalysts, deliverables, and future considerations. In this way, we clarify what we need to do to turn our vision into reality.

Click here to read the detailed strategy documents.


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Portrait of Jim Bokosi (Chief) (Village Headman) sitting in a green chair wearing a blue long sleeve button down

My community has changed now. All kinds of students are going to school because of the school blocks built by The Mlambe Project.

Jim Bokosi (Chief)(Village Headman)

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