Chimvano Pa Chuma
"Unity for Economic Growth"

ASAPAfrica in Malawi is currently implementing the Chimvano Pa Chuma (CCP) project in a remote district of Chikwawa. The district is one of the most underdeveloped in Malawi, prone to annual flooding and droughts and 95% of the population engages in subsistence agriculture. Rural farmers have extremely limited to no access to credit services. Thus, CCP helps beneficiaries access scarce capital. Click here for a detailed map of Malawi

Village Savings & Lending (VS&L) is ASAP’s primary intervention through the CCP project to ensure community’s economic and financial sustainability. ASAP mobilizes motivated community members through existing community based social systems and structures into self-selected and formed groups as the forum for VS&L. These savings clubs also provide a platform for community members to dialogue and find community based solutions to cross-cutting and over-arching issues affecting their lives.

ASAP’s VS&L is a vehicle for program beneficiaries to mobilize capital in order to access agricultural inputs and re-invest in micro-enterprise activities. In the course of building savings, ASAP provides capacity building to participating groups to re-invest their savings into enterprise activities, thereby facilitating transformation from subsistence agriculture to market-based agro-livelihoods. ASAP thereby uses VS&L as an opportunity to facilitate livelihoods diversification, and active participation in the value chain and facilitation of market linkages. These initiatives are aimed at ensuring sustainable rural economic growth and development.

On May 13 2008 the Government of Malawi and ASAP Africa entered into an operating agreement and on January 21 2009 signed a memorandum of agreement with the Ministry of Gender and Community Services.

Through ASAP’s Community Holistic Initiative for Local Development (CHILD) approach, ASAP will work closely with the government and community leadership to improve the lives of the economically active poor. Together, possible solutions to the unique problems identified within each community will be developed and projects developed and implemented.

The CHILD approach is aptly named, as ASAP strives to achieve truly sustainable improvements in villages that will last for generations to come. Please contribute to our Malawi fund raising campaign and help make this project a great success.