One of the goals of the Government of Malawi is to ensure that all primary school learners have equal access to adequate and safe learning spaces. To support this objective, the Institute of Public Opinion and Research (IPOR) partnered with Center for Evaluation and Development (C4ED) and the World Bank, with funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), to conduct an independent school survey called the Malawi Longitudinal Schools Survey (MLSS).

As part of the preparatory activities, IPOR conducted a pretest of the survey tool, trained enumerators, as well as carried out a pilot to ensure that we uncover potential issues in the research design or methodology, such as unclear instructions, logistical challenges, or unforeseen variables.

Field Manager for the Project, Edson Ntodwa, said the team did not experience any huge hiccups during the pretest. He attributed this to the fact that school officials at Sagawa school in Mulanje, where the exercise was carried out, warmly welcomed and assisted the team in collecting data without any challenges.

Ntodwa added: “We are happy to report that we were able to administer almost all of the tools successfully, with the exception of a few students who have dropped out of school and no longer reside in nearby communities.”

Through the study, IPOR will interview respondents from 85 schools in Mzimba, Chikwawa and Kasungu Districts.

IPOR’s Director of Training and Programmes, Dr. Michael Chasukwa, says IPOR believes that providing development grants to rural communities is a powerful catalyst for sustainable improvement in quality of life. Dr. Chasukwa made the remarks at Chikala Primary School in Zomba during a symbolic cheque presentation to best-performing community-based organizations that took part in small community grants competition that IPOR organized.

IPOR, through the Metaketa V project, gave out grants worth MK15 million shared equally among ten community-based organizations. These qualified out of the 2,500 groups that applied for the grants in Zomba and Mzimba districts. The aim of these grants was to help communities to identify pressing needs that require urgent attention thereby fostering a sense of ownership of the interventions and collective action effort.

“Communities, when supported correctly, can contribute significantly to the attainment of the Malawi 2063 agenda (MW2063). The MW2063 agenda aims to transform Malawi into a wealthy, industrialized, and middle-income nation by the year 2063, with a focus on three key pillars: agricultural productivity and commercialization, industrialization, and urbanization. We therefore received proposals that aligned perfectly with the country’s broader goals of sustainable development and social progress,” said Dr. Chasukwa.

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for Zomba District Council, Davi Sato, applauded IPOR for the support though the Metaketa V programme for complementing the Council’s development efforts. He observed that support of this nature lessens the financial burden that the Council faces in fulfilling its development agenda.

He commended IPOR’s competitive approach to providing support to local communities because it ensures that funds are allocated to projects that offer the greatest potential benefits. This maximizes resource utilization, collaboration, and guarantees equal participation, which are essential for transformative and sustainable development.