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The development community is seeking more development funding,
particularly more training support from the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA), as it had promised to the African country
of Malawi.
Malawi has received a commitment from the
Canadian government at last year’s G8 Summit to double Canadian
assistance to Africa, that will now reach $2.1 billion by 2008 to
2009.
CIDA has lately stepped up aid support for
Malawi by announcing funding for University of Malawi Polytechnic to
update its curriculum and develop skills training courses and
prepare students for employment.
The Malawi school seeks to upgrade its technical
training programs and will be assisted by the Canada-based
University of Regina.
The University of Regina, meanwhile, will
receive funding support from the Canadian government to assist its
Malawi counterpart with $2.4 million in funding to help redesign the
Polytechnic’s curriculum to make it more relevant to Malawi’s
social and economic development.
Several stakeholders in Malawi are involved in
this project including the Chamber of Commerce, the Technical
Entrepreneurial Vocational Education Training Authority (TEVETA),
and the Ministries of Education and Labor.
The project is funded by CIDA’s University
Partnerships in Cooperation and Development Program (UPCD). Through
UPCD, Canadian universities work with organizations in developing
countries to increase their abilities to meet local human resources
needs and development needs.
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