PREAMBLE

The Council for NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA);

as an umbrella body of all NGOs in Malawi with the mandate to represent the collective
interests and concerns of NGOs;

is greatly concerned with the global trends on the spread and impact of the corona virus
disease 2019 (Covid-19)

has noted with profound anxiety the state of national preparedness/ national response and
would like to provide its input as below:

I. OUR COMMENDATION

CONGOMA commends;
a) The Government of Malawi through the State President who declared a State of Disaster in
the wake of alarmingly fast and global spreading of Covid-19 which has come to all Malawi’s
neighbouring countries. With shortfalls in our health delivery system and infrastructure, and
an import dependent economy, Covid-19 coming to Malawi indeed becomes a highly
predictable disaster.

b) The Ministry of Health for taking lead in coming up with national response plan that
CONGOMA has seen. It is CONGOMA’s considered view that the plans look solid vis a vis our
level of development and that is good enough to provide a national response as it addresses
issues of Covid-19 scenarios to Malawi; coordination; resource mobilization (with itemised
supplies and budget estimates); training; acquisition of equipment; national awareness
raising; surveillance and testing; and monitoring and devaluation among others.

c) The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and District Councils of Rumphi,
Kasungu, Mchinji, Mangochi, Zomba, Phalombe, Chikwawa and Nsanje for allowing and incorporating NGOs and Civil Society District Networks in their Covid-19 response plans. This
inclusivity should be strengthened and commended.

d) The people of Malawi and their social support institutions including NGOs, churches;
schools and colleges; private companies and many more for a positive response and taking
hid of the precautionary measures announced by Government. This solidarity is what is
required to fight back Covid-19, and is highly commended.

e) The security forces for quickly coming in to enforce precautionary measures put in place by
Government banning public or social gatherings of more than 100 people for now. In
addition, the Immigration Department should be commended for swiftly coming in to assess
in-coming visitors and take corrective measures.

II. OUR CONCERNS

CONGOMA is very concerned that;

a) Only 15% (MK2.5 billion) of the MK 15.3 billion budget for the national response against Covid-
19 has been allocated by Treasury. This puts the whole plan into disarray and is another disaster
for the country, if we do not get support from our development partners and other well
wishers.

b) There is a great deal of the population (rural, elderly, persons with disability, children among
others) that does not have access to formal information about Covid_19 and rely on fake news
unknowingly. This is a great danger to the country.

c) Testing facilities, supplies, equipment and human resource are still in very critical shortage,
which is a danger to diagnosis/ assessment, treatment and knowledge.

d) There are still some faith groups and well knowledgeable people who willingly tend to ignore
Covid-19 and take the issue of observing precautions including washing hands with soap and
observing social distance, lightly. Such faith groups and such people are a danger to society and
should be condemned in strongest terms possible. Those that have travelled from hotspot
countries and are not observing self isolation/quarantine for 14 days need to be penalised.

III. OUR APPEAL

CONGOMA:
a) Strongly calls upon development partners to come in quickly and support the Government
national response budget so that planned tasks are done on time which is not the case as of
now.

b) Strongly call upon Ministry of Health to scale up and proliferate testing centres so that
Malawians can easily test for Covid-19 early enough and take corrective measures but also
settle their fears.

c) Strongly appeal to Government to consider setting up a Covid-19 Command Center with
‘sovereign authority’ and powers to take swift and on-the-spot decisions and actions in the
fight against Covid-19.

d) Appeal to Government to consider setting up a volunteer scheme for mobilizing human
resource that can be trained for specific tasks from all corners of Malawi to fight back
Covid_19 at community level.

e) Strongly calls upon the public broadcaster (MBC) and all media institutions to prioritise and
concentrate messaging on Covid-19 to the general public at no cost.

f) Appeals to Government to draft in more NGOs into the national coordination and
surveillance response for purposes of inclusivity, mutual accountability for results and the
funds, and monitoring and evaluation.

g) Calls upon Malawians, churches and NGOs to remain vigilant, cautious and only rely on
official information about Covid-19 from the Ministry of Health and report suspicious cases
of Covid-19 to health authorities through the following Toll-free line 54747.

h) Specially appeals to the faith community to protect their congregants by strictly observing all
prescribed health precautions but still allowing their faithful to access the spiritual needs and
partake in sacraments.

i) Strongly calls upon all citizens to take to task and report to Police or to health authorities
all individuals that are ignoring self isolation or quarantine rules after they travelled to
high risk countries. In addition, citizens should not allow use of uncharted routes by
travellers to enter Malawi borders as this can bring Covid-19 to Malawi.

j) Calls upon NGOs and well wishers that would like to donate to the Covid-19 cause to contact
CONGOMA for details and modalities.

IV. CONCLUSION

CONGOMA would like to appeal to all Malawians that they should remain calm but vigilant against
Covid-19, taking all precautions given by authorities seriously including observing social distance and
regular washing of hands with soap, reporting any suspected cases of Covid-19 to authorities and
not taking the law in their hands. CONGOMA is of the view that with strong national solidarity,
leadership and right facilities, we can defeat Covid-19.

Signed
Steven Duwa
CHAIRPERSON