executive summary

AGLIT+ is an initiative that brings the destiny of adolescent girls to the forefront of involvement in the transformation of Malawi. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world,”1 meaning the future of Malawi rests in the bosom of her women. They are the major influence for change, the anchor of the family. The basic centre of our culture. Adolescent girls are the most vulnerable group in our society and yet they are Malawi’s future. AGLIT+ is the only supporting NGO that represents rural illiterate adolescent girls. This strategic plan aims to strengthen this support.

foreword

Strategic Planning is an integral process for any organization. For Adolescent Girls Literacy Plus (AGLIT +) the strategic planning process provides an opportunity to reflect on its mission and clarify its vision and focus on its unique contribution to the empowerment of adolescents in Malawi.

From the beginning in 1997 AGLIT+ operated without a written and shared Strategic Plan. Following the Organizational Development Assessment which was supported by All We Can in 2018 AGLIT+ developed a5 years Strategic Plan. This has been in operation since, and as it comes to an end in 2022 there was need to develop another strategic plan for the 5 years to come.

This Strategic Plan seeks to build on the work that AGLIT+ has already been doing. At its core, the plan reaffirms our vision and ambition to offer adolescent’s pragmatic functional literacy services that prepares them for the success in the prevailing complex environment. This strategic plan outlines distinctive ways of addressing challenges that impede effective functional literacy programme delivery among adolescents, and also outlines broad goals, objectives with detailed implementation arrangements to follow which AGLIT+ is confident to achieve in the next 5 years.

The Strategic Plan has been developed to align with international and national legal, policy and strategic frameworks such as Sustainable Development Goals which guides the global policy framework, Malawi Agenda 2063, National Youth Policy, Education Investment Plan and other sectorial policies. At a global level the strategic plan seeks to operationalise 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals; Goal 1which calls for an end to poverty in all its manifestations by 2030; Goal 4which aims to ensure inclusive equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all; Goal 5 which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.To support these efforts towards, AGLIT+ will facilitate youth empowerment activities and support the provision of quality, accessible and equitable education for all young men and women both in the non-formal and formal education sector. The Malawi 2063 (MW2063) which was adopted in order to chart Malawi’s new development trajectory with the aim of achieving an upper-middle income status by the year 2063 recognizes education and skills development as they key to unlocking all the other developmental goals. In the same line, AGLIT+ through this strategic plan will implement programmes and interventions that aim at equipping and empowering both out-of-school adolescent girls and boys with functional literacy skills as well as skills development.

Both the National Education Sector Investment Plan (NESIP) and National youth policy recognize that an education and skilled population will positively contribute to improvements in other social sectors and overall economic growth. This strategic plan is built on the same principle and understanding that education and skills development forms the foundation of any meaningful development of any community or country. Furthermore, this strategic plan recognizes that for any sustainable change to happen investments must be made on the youthful population who make more than half of the population.