By Charles Mkoka
ZOMBA, Malawi (Planet Defence) – Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP) is orienting relevant stakeholders as it plans to roll out social marketing as an option for livelihood economic diversification in a bid to make gains in landscape and ecosystem restoration nationwide.
Social marketing is the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify, or abandon a behavior for the benefit of individuals, groups, or society as a whole.
Director of Natural Resources for Zomba, Linda Mphande said she was happy with the orientation ” as at the end of the orientation we will know how to do the campaigns since there are challenges in having problems for people to adopt SLM.”
social marketing could create a favourable environment for sustainable landscape restoration efforts, aligning societal needs with ecosystem conservation goals
Malawi Government under the Ministry of Water and Sanitation’s leadership is implementing MWASIP.
In his remarks, MWASIP Communications Specialist, Pacharo Munthali unpacked social marketing as something that is essential to maximize public engagement, behavior change, resource mobilisation, and partnerships in the sector of landscape and ecosystem restoration in Malawi.
MWASIP Technical Team member Osward Mulenga concurred with Munthali that adopting social marketing could create a favourable environment for sustainable landscape restoration efforts, aligning societal needs with ecosystem conservation goals.
The World Bank-funded MWASIP aims to scale up catchment rehabilitation especially landscape restoration as it is connected to soil, water, and support to other forms of life.
MWASIP is a six-year project that is running from 2020-2026 and is focusing on restoring the degraded landscapes in priority river basins and improving water security, agricultural productivity, and Livelihoods.
The project is being implemented in the districts of Mangochi, Machinga, Balaka, Ntcheu, Neno, Zomba, and Blantyre (Additional information by Chris Kachikho). – The article was first published on Planet Defence – (PD).