Unlocking hidden sustainable solutions to address hunger, poverty and climate change among rural Malawi people
Learn more about the Simpson Foundation; an organisation working on the ground to transform farming practices, scale soil health and improve the livelihoods of rural people in Malawi.
From: Francis Kondwani Ngopola (Executive Director, Simpson Foundation) & Joseph Chipimpha Mughogho (Head of Programmes, Simpson Foundation)
Sustainable soil management session with a group of young women
The Simpson Foundation is a locally registered, non-governmental organisation in Malawi. The Foundation is working to raise awareness and empower youth as leaders in supporting poor and vulnerable people to transition to using locally available assets to fight hunger, poverty, and climate change.
The Simpson Foundation is of the opinion that any efforts to combat climate change should also focus on preserving the health of Earth's soils. To put it another way, we think that effective climate change action must begin with responsible management of soil resources. We also believe that communities themselves possess assets that may be leveraged to achieve any significant sustainable development objective they wish; the only barrier is a mentality shift that needs to take place.
When the Simpson Foundation approaches any community, we make it a priority to first gain an understanding of its geopolitical, cultural, and environmental characteristics. This is necessary before any intervention can be implemented, which would only be based on a gap that has been discovered.
Participants engaged in a Mindset Change Session
We are of the opinion that the local asset endowment of vulnerable and impoverished agricultural communities likely holds workable solutions to the issues of hunger, poverty, and climate change that are afflicting those farming communities. They just need support.
Role of the Youth
Young people play an important part in the implementation, monitoring, and review of sustainable development, as well as in holding governments accountable for their actions. Young people have the potential to create the most effective global transformation into a better environment for everyone, provided that political leaders are committed to the cause and appropriate resources are made available.
The Simpson Foundation draws evidence of this from the implementation of the Sustainable Soil Management Capacity Building and Advocacy Project in partnership with Tawoloka Youth Organization, which took place around Nathenje communities in the area of Traditional Authority Chadza in Lilongwe. This area is located approximately forty kilometres from Lilongwe city, which is the capital city of Lilongwe.
Facilitators brainstorming during a Knowledge Gap Analysis Session
In this programme scenario, communities portrayed awareness of and concern over hunger, poverty, and climate change, yet they lack the information essential to appreciate the linkages between soils, food systems, and climate change. Despite farming subsidies proving unsuccessful solutions year after year, the mindset of the community as a whole and the farming practises utilised have become dependent on governmental fertiliser subsidies.
The project is concentrating on sustainable soil management practises through land restoration, sustainable agriculture and forestry, as well as critical mindset and behaviour change issues that can be practised using locally available assets rather than relying on external political solutions that are proving to be unsustainable.
Challenges in attaining sustainable solutions
We are able to categorise these difficulties into three primary categories: knowledge gaps, implementation, and governance.
Malawi is facing various environmental problems, like deforestation, as the country's people are increasingly looking for ways to protect themselves and their families. Unfortunately, natural resources, most notably the forests which act as a source of both energy and income, are the weakest link in the chain. Because of these obstacles, we have decided to carry out our conservation programmes in the manner that was previously outlined.
The Simpson Foundation is implementing programmes on climate-smart agriculture with a special emphasis on soil management as we believe, and research has actually shown, that unless the soil is healthy, all other interventions will not succeed. This will help people who wish to gain a better understanding of some of the complex environmental issues that Malawi is facing. The problem, on the other hand, is that at the moment Malawi possesses either very little or no data on the topic of healthy soil management. All of the other remedies that are being offered by the government of Malawi are temporary and band-aid approaches that will not be able to solve the problem permanently.
Outcomes
The Simpson Foundation is of the opinion that our young people are our best chance at a brighter future since they are able to propel progress over an extended period of time. The size of the population is another factor that should be taken into consideration. Young people in Malawi, defined as those who are between the ages of 16 and 35, make up 65 % of the country's overall population. This presents an opportunity to carve out a specialised area in order to uncover previously undiscovered approaches to sustainable development. The following are some of the results that we have witnessed as a result of our project:
We have witnessed youth participation modify behaviours that are bringing value to the project on sustainable soil management through ecosystem protection as well as replanting as a result of using the mindset transformation strategy.
The capacity of younger men and women to actively seek out and form partnerships, as well as to network and form alliances, both within and between generations has improved. They see themselves as connectors or "mobilisers" and act in that capacity, whether in person, in the public or private realms. In terms of communicating the message of the Sustainable Development Goals, contributing to their monitoring and holding governments accountable, as well as mobilising other people to contribute as active citizens, there is a role that young people may identify with that has not yet been fully exploited, thereby "leaving no one behind."
The youth’s capacity to exert influence over their parents, their communities and both the national and local governments is incredible. Young people are not only capable of being very successful educators, consultants, and administrators within their own generation, but they also desire to be educators to those of older generations.
Natural tree nursery preparation
Conclusion
The Simpson Foundation is offering practical steps that are concerned with changing mindsets and how research, monitoring and evaluation processes might be improved. In our experience, we have discovered that by working with young people who are put in the right mindset the world can achieve more as far as climate change interventions are concerned. The youth are able to command their influence in local decision-making due to their involvement in the intervention strategies, and blend their ideas with the cultural norms of society, thereby being universally accepted by all age groups. We are working to strengthen programs that safeguard civic space and improve institutional good governance and accountability opportunities for young people.
