“The international community needs to listen to the needs of the country because our problems we understand them better, we know them better”, Mary Shawa, secretary for nutrition, HIV and AIDS in the office of the President of Malawi, at the end of the forum on Africa’s development ended last friday the 3rd of October 2008.
How Malawi and Africa can win diseases?
Thank you very much. To begin with the international community needs to listen to the needs of the country because our problems we understand them better, we know them better.
Secondly they should invest within our policies and strategic plans so within that they can implement what we want.
Thirdly they must hold the capacities within the African country rather than to take people to train in Europe or elsewhere, train them within the country to let them implement their own programs.
Lastly there is the need to let people understand their own diseases. For example Malawi government has understood its own malnutrition and HIV/AIDS to the extent that because of the intervention of government and other donors we have been able to reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS from 14.4% in 2004 to 12%, mortality rate because of malnutrition has been reduced from 20% to 5%.
So people needs to listen to what we want to do as country.
Mary Shawa interviewed by Africanews.it
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