By taking charge of the critical Ministry of Agriculture and risking international donor support by restoring subsidies to promote productivity, His Excellency Ngwazi, Dr Bingu wa Mutharika has set a lasting example for the African region. Through his determination and diligence in promoting food production in Malawi, he was awarded the 2008 FANRPAN Food Security Policy Leadership Award.

In recognition of this exceptional achievement it is FANRPAN’s intention to accompany; profile and showcase to the rest of Africa and the world the Malawi success story. This interview captures the voice of the champion (His Excellency Ngwazi, Dr Bingu wa Mutharika), his vision, what inspired him, what has been achieved and the challenges for the future.

FANRPAN has a vision of a food secure Africa. Malawi has done it; hence the rest of Africa can do it too.

FANRPAN has announced a four-year project to help domesticate the SADC Harmonized Seed Regulatory System. The project is supported by a US$4, 1 million grant from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to improved food security and poverty reduction through increased seed security and better disaster preparedness in the SADC region. The project will focus more on country level implementation. FANRPAN will leverage on its partnerships and scale up the project region-wide (SADC, COMESA and EAC) and continent-wide through the African Union-NEPAD.

FANRPAN is piloting the second phase of this project in four countries - Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The project was launched on 24 February 2010 in Pretoria, South Africa and on 2 March 2010 in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The FANRPAN Regional Office hosted its annual Node Common Vision Meeting from 24 to 26 February 2010, in Pretoria South Africa.

The purpose of the "Node Common Visioning Workshop" was to bring together the network’s 13 Country Node Coordinators, FANRPAN Project Leaders and the Regional Office staff to plan issues related to country nodes development, capacity strengthening, monitoring of on-going FANRPAN projects and development of 2010 work plans.

Node Coordinators had the opportunity to engage in open discussions with each other to better understand the network, its way of working and the roles and responsibilities that different parts of the network have in the implementation of the strategic plan and projects arising from the plan.