PROJECT IDENTIFICATION

TITLE CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME IN HUMAN

RIGHTS, GOOD GOVERNANCE MONITORING AND
HIV/AIDS & GENDER MAINSTREAMING

Background and previous experience

The Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) is an independent, democratic,

and sustainable organization which is committed towards unifying all
teachers, promotion of quality education, enhancing teacher
professional development, improving Teachers Conditions of Service,
ensuring gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS Pandemic, Promoting of
Human, women’s, and Children’s Rights and securing a better and
conducive learning environment for children in Malawi.

In the past, TUM has been involved in a number of projects in areas of

HIV/AIDS, Elimination of Child Labour, Disaster Risk Reduction and with
the generous funding from Education International, ILO-IPEC, Action
Aid, just to mention few. However, the Union has never implemented a
comprehensive program in Good Governance and Human Rights hence
this proposal responds to that need.

DEFINITION AND CONTEXT

Governance is the exercise of power or authority, be it political,

economic, administrative or otherwise- to manage a country’s
resources and affairs. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and
institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests,
exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and their differences.
Good governance on the other hand means competent management of
a country’s resources and affairs in a manner that is open, transparent,
accountable, equitable and responsive to people’s needs.

Good governance is based on the establishment of a representative

and accountable form of government. It requires a strong and
pluralistic civil society, where there is freedom of expression and
association. It requires good institutions; sets of rules governing the
actions of individuals and organizations, the primacy of the rule of law,
maintained through an impartial and effective legal system as well as a
high degree of transparency and accountability in public and corporate
processes.

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Since the foremost test of good governance is the respect for the rule
of law, every lawfully established government must govern according
to the laws of the land. As such, its actions must uphold the rule of law.
Not only that, focus must also be directed towards the administration
of justice as well as its commitment on the welfare of the economically
and socially weaker sections of the society in terms of the provision of
safety net for them

Following the Presidential and Parliamentary elections which were held

on May 19, 2009, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won
with a landslide victory, hence have the out right majority in
parliament. Thus the opposition’s role of providing checks and
balances to the government has been severely weakened.

PROBLEM DEFINITION AND ANALYSIS (JUSTIFICATION)

The recent landslide victory by the DPP has greatly weakened the
opposition’s role in checking government’s business. This has just been
vindicated by the recent sitting of parliament in which, for the first
time in 5 years, a total of 16 bills, including the 2009/10 national
budget have been passed within 6 weeks. Already the opposition is
complaining that the DPP is using its numerical strength in parliament
to bulldoze its agenda. This has gone to the extent that the
government is influencing the election of the leader of the opposition
in parliament, a thing that was automatic before (ie leader of the party
with the majority MPs in the opposition side automatically became the
leader of the opposition).

In addition, the DPP has dominated the parliamentary committees

which casts doubts as to how objective will the parliament perform its
functions, including checking some policy decisions of the executive.
Just imagine, the Parliamentary Development Committee (PDC), which
is a grouping of chairpersons of all parliamentary committees and
headed by the speaker is all DPP, without a voice from the opposition.

With the weakened opposition, there is need for a vibrant civil society
to be a watch dog, to ensure that the majority DPP government
governs in tandem with the rule of law, without grossly violating
human rights in general and specifically teachers rights in particular.
Thus, TUM, a Trade Union, founded on the principles of solidarity and
determined to promote social justice is rightly positioned to undertake
capacity building in human rights, and good governance amongst its
constituents (working population) and the general population. With
acquired knowledge in human rights and good governance issues,
workers in particular and the citizenry will be able to hold the

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government accountable for their actions, as well as demand their
rights, including promises made during the campaign period.

TUM realises that there are other institutions and organizations

currently involved in capacity building for the citizenry in human rights
and good governance issues. However, most of them do not pay
attention to the pleas and needs of the worker. Thus this concept is
aimed at sourcing funds to enable the Union effectively contribute
towards capacity building in human rights and good governance issues
amongst its constituents.

On the other hand, HIV and AIDS continue to drastically affect the
working population. While TUM has been implementing awareness
programs on the preventive measures, management as well as
treatment of HIV and AIDS at a work place, not much has been
achieved in the past 3 years. As of August 2009, only 3 of the 22 MCTU
affiliates have operational HIV/AIDS workplace policies, while 8 still
have their policies in draft form. Take note that some of these policies
have been in a draft form for over 3 years. The remainder, do not have
and have never attempted to develop an HIV/AIDS work place policy.
This therefore compels MCTU to continue carrying out HIV/AIDS
training activities within its affiliates so that all of them must develop
and implement their own policies. Thus HIV/AIDS messages and
trainings will be part and parcel of all activities that will be
implemented during this project.

Gender analysis
Although the primary focus of the project is to build capacity in human
rights and good governance monitoring among the working population
in Malawi, the project makes special effort to ensure that all trainings,
advocacy and awareness campaigns have a gender focus. Efforts will
be made to analyse the different levels of understanding in human
rights and good governance concepts on men and women. In addition,
conscious efforts will be made by the implementing agent (MCTU) to
build the capacity of women by directly involving female officers during
project implementation.

Target Groups
• Members of the trade union organisations (men and women
workers)
• Trade union leaders, negotiators and representatives at the
national level
• Focal points and coordinators
• Members of women and gender committees
• Young men and women workers

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• Employers
• Civil Society Organisations
• Members of Parliament
• Government Officials

PROJECT GOAL
• Improved political and economic governance demonstrated through
the responsiveness and accountability of the local and national
governance structures to its citizens.

Purpose
• To build capacity of local/working communities and MCTU affiliates
to demand government accountability through promotion of
workers/citizen participation in governance.
Objectives
• Strengthen capacity of MCTU and its affiliates in monitoring and
enforcing good governance
• Promote social mobilization by bringing workers together to engage
in human rights and good governance issues
• Build capacity of workers to enable them carry out evidence based
advocacy
• Lobby for the formulation of sound policies that promote gender
equality good governance

Outputs
By the end of the three years, the project will be able to accomplish
the following;
1.1 MCTU’s 22 affiliates empowered to continuously participate
in monitoring and evaluating workers/human rights
violations
Activities:
• Train workers and affiliates capacity in human rights issues
• Training workers in labour laws and other legal instruments that
promote and defend worker’s rights and remedies for violations of
the same
• Conduct stakeholders meetings for discussing national policies and
programs which has impact on governance

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• Conduct awareness raising campaigns on good governance and
human rights
Expected outcomes
• Workers capacity in human rights issues enhanced
• Workers trained in national labour laws and other legal instruments
that promote and defend their rights
• Workers skills in detecting violations of their rights strengthened
• Awareness raised on good governance and human rights
• Trade Union’s ability to monitor and track good governance
strategies enhanced

1.2 MCTU’s 22 affiliates and its membership capable of

demanding government political accountability
Activities:
• Conducting workshops on good governance and accountability
• Formation of good governance monitoring committees in MCTU
affiliates
• Creation of a desk office to lobby on policy issues and labour
friendly bills
• Developing good governance monitoring framework
• Hold quarterly meetings between politicians and trade unionists on
governance issues
Expected outcomes:
• Work shops on good governance and accountability conducted
• Good governance monitoring committees established in MCTU
affiliates
• Good governance monitoring frame work developed
• Increased political will on labour rights and employment relations

1.3 MCTU’s 22 affiliates and its membership will be able to

influence change in human rights and governance
Activities:
• Training for capacity building in good governance and human rights
in MCTU affiliates

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• Advocacy trainings for the leadership of MCTU and its affiliates
• Recruitment of new members and organizing while disseminating
messages
Expected outcomes
• Capacity building work shops conducted in MCTU affiliates
• Leadership of MCTU and its affiliates trained in advocacy
• New members recruited and organized

Sources of Verification
• Reports on activities
• Record of members trained
• List of participants at training activities

Assumptions
• Political will of the trade union leaders to play an advocacy role
• Renewed commitment of employers’ organizations to partnerships
with trade unions
• Commitment of the politicians/government to apply/adopt
suggestions from trade unions

TECHNICAL APPROACH
The programme will be coordinated by competent Trade Unionists in
the Project, Education and Training departments of MCTU and shall
seek other input from the Employers Consultative Association of
Malawi and the Ministry of labour.

The HIVOS Regional Office shall continue to offer advice and guidance
to the implementing team on matters to do with project
implementation so as to ensure compliance with the HIVOS standards.
In addition, technical advice will also be sought from other civil society
organizations which are currently operating in areas similar to those of
our proposed project.

Generally Learner-centred and trainer-centred participatory learning

methods will drive the implementation of the programme once
approved. The Secretary General and Union National leaders shall act
as custodians of the programmes.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

Monitoring

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The Deputy Secretary General of MCTU will be responsible for
monitoring of the implementation of the project. She will set up a
system which will enable the MCTU Secretariat to ensure that progress
is made and that deviations from the original plan are identified in
time.
The system shall include:
• A format for collecting the relevant information from the
implementation of the activities. (Sources of information, methods
for collection, minimum amount of information)
• A feedback system
• A format for progress reports to be distributed among major
stakeholders;

The implementation of the project will be reported to the secretariat

from time to time. In this regard, the project coordinator will ensure
that all the planned activities are carried out and, to this end, will
produce progress reports three days after the activities have been
completed, at the latest.

The monitoring of the finances will be undertaken by the Finance

Department, in close collaboration with the Project Coordinator. The
Finance Department shall put in place all the necessary mechanisms
and procedures for proper and timely financial reports.

Evaluation
A mid-term review will be carried out by the Project Team. At the end
of the project, a joint evaluation with an external evaluator shall be
carried out on the basis of a Terms of Reference prepared by MCTU
and HIVOS.

Inputs: Overview
i. Human Resources
• Resource persons from the labour movement
• One project coordinator
• One project officer
• Project administrator (for technical support)
• Focal points
• Trainers/educators(two)
• Accountant

ii. Material resources

• Office equipment

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• Computer equipment and supplies
• Training materials
• Publications
• 1 motor vehicle
• 3 motor cycles(to facilitate out reach programmes)

iii. Financial resources

- See the budget