Genuine partnership: FSU’s approach to engagement with the Malawi Ministry of Education

• In Event: Strengthening teacher education and practice in Malawi: Data analysis, recommendations, and the importance of genuine partnership

Proposal

The STEP Activity, led by Florida State University, is working with the Malawi Ministry of Education (MoE) to improve the quality of teacher education taking place in all public and private TTCs in Malawi. Recognizing that MoE buy-in, ownership, and leadership is core to maximizing programmatic impact and sustainability of the project’s inputs, FSU has made genuine government partnership central to every aspect of program planning and implementation.

This presentation will explain why genuine partnership with the host government is essential to building government capacity and ensuring sustainability, discuss barriers that inhibit genuine government partnership, and outline FSU’s approach to genuine partnership with the MoE while implementing the STEP Activity. This presentation will provide concrete examples of the approach in practice and discuss the challenges, benefits, and considerations of using this approach to strengthen host government ownership and sustainability of aid-funded programs.

Author

• Jeremy B Koch, Florida State University