Southern African Trade and Connectivity Project (Malawi)
Excitement filled the evening of 09 November 2023 as the senior leadership of the Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project handed certificates or recognition to outstanding implementing agencies and individuals under the project at a dinner organised for over 60 individuals involved in the project.
The dinner was part of an orientation and team building meeting the SATCP PIU organised that consisted a series of presentations, team building activities and talks on health and wellness topics. Although the SATC Project is well into its second year of implementation, it was felt that the project implementers do not adequately know each other personally.
To address this challenge, SATCP convened a two-day meeting which included team building activities and presentations on some key project management aspects. The main purpose of this team building was to create a strong team through forming bonds and connections. Creating these bonds through team building is very beneficial to the SATC project as it can increase communication, enhance planning skills, motivation, and improve collaboration among project implementers. The meeting attracted project staff, focal persons in implementing agencies, Ministry of Transport officials and other stakeholders to interact in a more informal setting.
As part of the exercise, SATCP PIUs from Ministry of Transport and Roads Authority recognised some of the notable performers under the project.
Presenting the award of Most Efficient Implementing Agency to Malawi Revenue Authority, Mr. Hastings Ngoma, the Project Manager lauded it for showing an impressive team working spirit and responding quickly when contacted to furnish the PIU with key information.
“It is impressive how resilient and efficient the MRA team is when they are called to rectify or attend to some flaws in their documents. They do not get easily frustrated. It is also encouraging to see how the focal persons share information about the Project with the rest of the team at MRA, we hope this could be replicated in the other agencies,” he said.
Malawi Bureau of Standards was recognised for being the Most Responsive Implementing Agency, commended for its passion and interest to deliver their activities under the project. MBS has also demonstrated good leadership of the Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary cluster.
The Most Improved Implementing Agency award went to the Department of Industry. Speaking at the event, Mr. Sharmey Banda, the SATCP Project Coordinator observed that Department of Industry had showed significant improvement in leadership, ownership and coordination. “When we were just starting, this implementing agency had to be constantly reminded about their tasks. Some tasks had to be done by Consultants, but now the Bank trusts them to handle the tasks on their own, this is commendable,” he added.
Besides the agencies, the entire gathering voted for Mr. Joab Frank Chakhaza the Communications Specialist as the Most Approachable Individual and Mr. John Kaunda the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist as the Most Helpful Individual under the project.
The orientation and team building meeting was the first of its kind since the SATC project started in July 2021.
Picture: Mr. Khonje of MRA (Centre) and other MRA staff receive award from Ngoma (2R) and Banda (R).
