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The African Devel­op­ment Bank (ADB) and Roads Author­i­ty grad­u­ate trainee pro­gramme being imple­ment­ed under the SADC Sub Region­al Trans­port and Trade Facil­i­ta­tion project with fund­ing from African Devel­op­ment Bank, Opec Fund and the Malawi Gov­ern­ment has been described as a remark­able ini­tia­tive meant to offer men­tor­ship as well sa hands on expe­ri­ence to the trainees.

Pro­gramme has employed 20 grad­u­ate trainees, that have been placed at Roads Author­i­ty in civ­il engi­neer­ing; Finance; Envi­ron­men­tal; Social and Pro­cure­ment depart­ments where they are expect­ed to gain skills and knowl­edge after which they will be deployed to site.

The SADC Sub Region­al Trans­port and Trade Facil­i­ta­tion project stretch­es from Kaphaten­ga-Nkho­tako­ta-Dwang­wa road and is 135 km.  The Project will improve con­nec­tiv­i­ty and trade along the North-South Cor­ri­dor in Malawi and Mozam­bique, par­tic­u­lar­ly through the recon­struc­tion of key road sections.

“Under the project, the grad­u­ate trainees are being offered numer­ous ben­e­fits, includ­ing struc­tured train­ing, career devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, net­work­ing, and the chance to gain diverse expe­ri­ence and build a strong foun­da­tion for future lead­er­ship roles,” said Roads Author­i­ty engi­neer and coor­di­na­tor for the Project, Patrick Kamanga. 

The broad objec­tives of the Pro­gram are to pro­vide the oppor­tu­ni­ty to acquire and devel­op the abil­i­ty to work in an inter­na­tion­al envi­ron­ment, pro­vide the Bank a pool of poten­tial can­di­dates in the future and enhance the vis­i­bil­i­ty of the Bank and its devel­op­ment activities.

“My expe­ri­ence so far as a grad­u­ate trainee has been good. I am learn­ing a lot,” said Thokozile Msete­ka, a Social Sci­ence grad­u­ate who majored in demog­ra­phy. She added, “I aim to devel­op a com­pre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of social safe­guards and apply these frame­works effec­tive­ly in my work.”

Envi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment grad­u­ate Phoebe Msuku described the pro­gram as “both eye-open­ing and reward­ing.” She shared, “It’s excit­ing to see how envi­ron­men­tal man­age­ment plays a crit­i­cal role in infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment and how the­o­ry trans­lates into real-world action.

For James Kamk­weche Lamya, who holds a degree in Social Sci­ence (Eco­nom­ics), the pro­gram has been enrich­ing. “It has broad­ened my under­stand­ing of infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment and its eco­nom­ic impact. The sup­port from col­leagues and super­vi­sors has sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tributed to my growth.”

Tech­ni­cal Assis­tant for the Project Wil­son Sumani said the pro­gram offers hands-on expe­ri­ence, while bridg­ing the gap between the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge and prepar­ing the trainees for the prac­ti­cal experience.

“Some of the trainees might be absorbed into RA, while oth­ers might get lucky and find jobs from oth­er insti­tu­tions. As an imple­men­tor, our main objec­tive is to pre­pare the trainees for the indus­try,” he added. 

The pol­i­cy of the Gov­ern­ment of Malawi (GoM) towards the roads sub-sec­tor is to build, main­tain and ensure effi­cient uti­liza­tion of the road infra­struc­ture and oth­er ser­vices appro­pri­ate to meet the cur­rent and future devel­op­ment needs of the econ­o­my. The M005 Road is one of the pri­ma­ry over­land trans­porta­tion cor­ri­dors in Malawi. In this regard, the Gov­ern­ment of Malawi through Roads Author­i­ty (RA), with sup­port from the African Devel­op­ment Bank (AfDB), is plan­ning to reha­bil­i­tate M005 road sec­tion of Ben­ga to Dwang­wa in Nkho­tako­ta District.

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