OF CONFERENCES, MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS IN MALAWI

By Tadala Rambiki

“Us, Malawians have spent a lot of money on workshops, conferences and meetings and I am personally yet to see the outcomes and results from such”. That was the writing of one renowned private sector individual his Facebook page. The writing got me thinking and reflecting on how much I have also been involved in such events. I have had firsthand experience in organizing such gatherings and have attended an enormous number of those (in the agricultural sector). Meetings have been "necessary" for information sharing and mostly “strategizing” on how to develop Malawi and its citizens. I must say I feel sorry for my country because the resources, both financial and human, wasted on these meetings outweigh the results and impact realized at the end of the day.

I used to think this was a trend in the agricultural sector alone, but I was surprised to hear my father lament of the same issue in the education sector and the owner and editor of this page also share experiences of the same in the health sector. This got me reflecting on what is wrong with most of these meetings and how far we have fallen from the initial purposes of conferences which the pioneers of such ideas really intended them to achieve. I have tried to outline some of the key issues that are wrong with such events and while the list is not exhaustive, it brings the problem to the limelight sets the pace as to how we can start to correct some of the wrongs as we (the readers) become leaders of different institutions.

First and foremost, we all know the phrase “Time is money” is well understood and even spoken by the idlest Malawian. It is sad, however, to note that during these meetings the “Guest of honor” who is also mostly a political figure hiding behind the government mask, is almost ALWAYS late. It is sad to notice that this is how much we do not value our time and let alone how the “guest of honor” belittles the value of time to the other.  Mostly, this individual also has his speech written for him…understand me well here…. BY the organizing institution. And I have been one of the people who have written speeches for government officials for events organized by my institution. What baffles me is how most of these literally “read” trough the speech. one would wonder if these people know what they attend are all about and if they believe in the significance of the same. Do we even need these guests of honor at all?

Secondly, a good part of the day is spent on listening to bureaucratic speeches. These serve three purposes only; to commend the current government regime for the support rendered and good job it is doing; to pat the organizing institution on the back for the job it is doing; to thank donors for their financial support and beg for more, Period! Well, sometimes the challenges we are facing in the sector are also outlined. That’s when the well learned start to comment “…we need a holistic approach… we need to look at things from a different angle…development needs to be inclusive”, after which we clap hands and go our different way. The question that keeps bothering me is that of what is the holistic way and of course the inclusive way. We will keep saying these fancy words, but again... nothing will change.

Thirdly, the reason why people attend such conferences…. allowances. I remember, there was an outcry when donors moved a motion to say all government meetings will be held on “full-board” arrangements. It is very impressive with what speed both Government and NGOs moved to squash down this idea. So this is the summary of the arrangement…. “I invite you to the meeting to give you information that will benefit you individually and as an institution…and I have to pay you for it”. This has been so rooted in the minds of policy makers, development practitioners and all those who were supposed to be using these meetings to devise mechanisms to ensure the development of the country, so much that if there are no allowances…you will be lucky to have a fruitful participation or even any participants at all.

Lastly, the last item on the program is “way forward” which signals the strategy that have to be put in place to deal with the challenges or issues that have been noted in the conference or workshop. This is a whole topic all together for another day, because we have over 10 policies and strategies in all key sectors that outline the challenges we are facing in the key sectors so much that we have even moved to introduce the Malawi National Condom Strategy…which I am yet to read. As that is not enough, the “way forward” actually NEVER goes forward. This is evidenced by how much we keep discussing the same issues over and over again in different fora.

Many may wonder what this was all about, well two main issues. Looking at the amount of money, time and energy that is channeled towards most conferences, do we need all these conferences and workshops? Don’t we really know what is wrong and how to address those? Do not get me wrong, not all are actually useless but I would say most conferences out there are being hosted to tick boxes in project documents rather than providing solutions to prevailing challenges. As such, as some of us are in positions or moving towards positions where we would be drivers of change let us reconsider how we can go back and redesign our workshops or meetings to ensure that we do not completely turn these events into fund raising activities.