Covid-19 in Scotland and Malawi (Zoom Meeting 5)

On the 3rd of June, around 80 organisations and key individuals across Scotland and Malawi joined this, the fifth in our series of Zoom meetings looking at the impact and response to the Covid-19 crisis in the Scotland-Malawi bilateral relationship.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE MEETING

There are time stamps to help you quickly find the area you are interested in, just click ‘Show More’ at the bottom of the page and then click the agenda item of interest.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NOTES FROM THIS MEETING

The meeting provided a space to:

• listen to our members in Scotland and partners in Malawi,
• give a clear sense of the impact of the virus in Malawi,
• share information and updates about who is doing what,
• support shared learning and future collaborative working,
• support, promote and connect the various fund-raising appeals,
• share information about what the SMP is doing so far and explore what more we can do.

The agenda was designed around requests and submissions made by members when signing-up for the meeting. The meeting was split into five main sections:

Section 1: Malawi updates:

The aim of this section was to brief members on the situation in Malawi by listening to and asking questions of: Dr Charles Mwansambo (Chair of the Health Cluster of the Government of Malawi’s COVID-19 Response & Chief of Health Services), representatives of the College of Medicine, and other key stakeholders actively involved in the Malawian Covid-19 response.

Section 2: Topics suggested by Members:

This section identified the seven main agenda items proposed by members in booking places: understanding the political context; PPE availability and production; testing; public messaging; how faith links can/are supporting; how those with disabilities, the marginalised or vulnerable are affected; and youth and schools, and safeguarding. We noted that some of these items had been discussed extensively in section one, so moved between these two sections. We are pleased to also have an update from DFID Malawi.

Section 3: Partnership and Practicalities:

Here we discussed the implementation and promotion of the agreed Principles of Good Practice, for both practitioners/NGOs and funders. We discussed practical challenges and heard questions from members, including how to pivot/adapt existing work, what was appropriate to continue, and what support there is for those with funding challenges.

Section 4: Open Sharing:

This was an open space for organisations who have registered a wish to, to share information about their response to Covid-19, and for those managing fundraising appeals to give the group updates. We also held a q and a.

Section 5: Next steps:

This final section looked to agree three key recommendations the SMP has for its members. It will update members on what the SMP and MaSP have done to date, and asked what else our networks could/should be doing, and agreed next steps.