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| National |
| Nordic MPs visit Malawi |
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by
Bright Sonani, 09 January 2006
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06:01:45
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Eight Members of Parliament from Nordic countries—Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden arrived in the country Sunday for a one-week tour of different development projects that their countries were involved in.
UN Systems Communication Officer Susan Muguro said the visit of the eight parliamentarians has been organised by the Scandinavian UN Liaison Office while the country’s UN Resident Coordinator’s office was facilitating their local schedule.
“The main objective of the visit is to familiarise themselves with the situation in Malawi, the nature of development assistance being provided and the work of the UN family in supporting the government and its partners in helping Malawi achieve the Millennium Development Goals, not least in the context of the new Malawi Growth and Development Strategy,” said Muguro.
She added: “We believe that this is an important opportunity as each of these MPs has a role in determining development policies and funding decisions in their respective countries, which include some of the most generous donors in the world.”
She said the MPs would also visit activities relating to governance, human rights, gender and food security, as well as meeting relevant officials.
The MPs would also meet key media representatives at an “off-the-record” session.
“The purpose would be for them to have an open discussion with select media people on key issues relating to the media in Malawi. I see this as an opportunity to present the working environment of the media in Malawi, the media’s role in information dissemination and the media role as a determinant of development agenda,” said Muguro.
The eight MPs include Marit Nybakk, a member of several Parliamentary Committees, including the Foreign Affairs Committee and Oyvind Vaksda also a member of several Parliamentary Committees, including the Foreign Affairs Committee, both from Norway while from Denmark are Troels Ravn, a member of several Parliamentary Committees, including the Culture, Nutrition and Integration Committees and Gitte Lillelund Bech a member of several Parliamentary Committees, including Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees.
From Sweden are Lotta Hedstroem, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Carina Haegg, member of several Parliamentary Committees, including the Equal Rights and Human Rights Committees, and Gudrun Oegmundsdottir from Iceland who is a member of several Parliamentary Committees, including the General Affairs and Health and Security Committees.
The eight would be accompanied by officials from UN Nordic Office in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Muguro said Norway is one of the countries that have just responded to the government’s appeal for additional support to address the food crisis with US$750,000 for nutrition and an additional US$381,840 in nutrition supplements.
She said Sweden contributed US$1,957,000 towards intervention in nutrition, education, health and protection, human rights and the rule of law while the Unicef National Committee in the same country also contributed US$101,503 towards nutrition inputs.
Mugoro said Iceland Aid was also involved in the development of the Sustainable Economic Empowerment Programme for Poverty Reduction, funded by UNDP and implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services.
She also said Denmark has contributed US$687,270 towards Unicef and NGO activities in addressing the current food crisis.
Denmark was for many years a major donor to Malawi, but withdrew its diplomatic presence during the Bakili Muluzi administration in January 2002.
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