The 71st meeting of the Malawi HIV and AIDS Partnership Forum (MPF) was held on August 20th, 2024, in the Malawi Capital city Lilongwe. The meeting ended on a high note with the incoming MPF members pledging a commitment to work collaboratively to generate domestic funding. The MPF is an advisory body to the National AIDS Commission. It primarily fosters a well-coordinated national HIV and AIDS response that strives to meet national and global targets through a strengthened national and sub-national HIV and AIDS programme. The MPF also harnesses multisectoral collaboration and mutual accountability. It was established in 2005 to ensure there is no wastage of resources and less duplication of efforts in planning, management and monitoring of the HIV and AIDS response, while bolstering clear leadership and coordination of the Commission. The National AIDS Commission Chief Executive Officer Dr. Beatrice Matanje officially opened the orientation meeting of the new MPF members that preceded the 71st MPF meeting. In her remarks, Dr. Matanje appealed to the MPF executive members to with all stakeholders in both public and private sectors and lobby for more domestic funding. She indicated that domestic funding is key to sustaining the remarkable gains the country has made over the years. “Let’s join hands to mobilize domestic funding towards national response to HIV and AIDS programming amidst global dwindling of resources”, she said. Turning to the incoming MPF members, Dr. Matanje said,
You’ve joined the MPF at a critical time, we are expecting some innovations from you on how the domestic funding could be mobilized and your active support on the design and implementation of high impact and cost-effective interventions”
One exciting moment during the MPF meeting was the election of a Civil Society representative to Co-chair of MPF. Mrs. Triza Hara was elected as a new co-chairperson for the MPF. She will be working hand in hand with Dr. Samson Mndolo the Secretary for Health who is the MPF chairperson. Mrs. Hara defeated two other members who were nominated for the same position. In her acceptance speech, Mrs. Hara described the position as challenging but said she’s more willing to dedicate her time and energy to the national response to HIV and AIDS programming. She is the Country Program manager for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and she’s representing the International Organizations-INGO in the MPF committee. Mrs. Hara took the mantle from Ms. Mara Kubweza Banda who reiterated the need for the incoming MPF team to work with one accord.
“There’s a lot of potential to generate enough resources within this country, we have banks, companies and individuals that can be able to channel resources towards integrated HIV and AIDS programming”, elaborated Kum’bweza Banda.
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