1. Department of Information and Civic Education

Through the Department of Information and Civic Education, the Ministry registered the following achievements between 2004 and 2009:

• Coverage of Presidential and State Engagements

The Ministry achieved over 100 per cent coverage of Presidential, State and Public functions, producing over 50 documentaries on various Government and development initiatives.

• Central Office of Information

Coordinated over 400 press conferences for Government Ministries and departments, the private sector and Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs).

• Publications

Produced and distributed over 6 million copies of Boma Lathu newspaper to enable people, especially rural communities, have access to news on Government and other development initiatives.

• News collection and dissemination

Collected and disseminated over 5,000 news stories which were published and broadcast by various media houses.

• Telecommunication Services

Introduced 1,274 public telephoning services in selected rural areas through the infrastructure Services Project (ISP) with funding from the World Bank.

The Ministry, through the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) facilitated issuance of a fixed telephone license to Access Communications Limited (ACL) which is to roll out its services in 2009, and will bring the number of fixed line telephone operators to two, the other one being Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL).

The Ministry also facilitated issuance of a mobile phone license to Globally Integrated Networks bringing the total number of mobile phone operators to three. The other operators already licensed are Zain Malawi Limited and Telekom Networks Malawi Limited. The third mobile license has increased the teledensity (number of phone lines per every 100 people) from around 5 percent in 2004 to 11.8 percent in 2009. The new operator is expected to roll out in 2009.

• Television and Radio Broadcasting Services

Connected the two Public Broadcasters, Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and Malawi Television satellite broadcasting in 2007 which has improved both sound and picture quality.

Initiated live coverage of Parliamentary proceedings since 2006 to bring the National Assembly close to the people and make parliamentarians accountable to the electorate.

• Postal Services

Improved performance of the Malawi Postal Corporation (MPC) services by introducing Domestic Electronic Money Transfer Services in all 120 Post Offices throughout the country, replacing the slow and fraud-prone manual transfer.

Installed eight satellite mail post and delivery units for MPC in the major cities of Balntyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.

Through partnership with development partners, in October 2008, MPC launched a programme with UNICEF to support communication programmes in rural areas on the Government's National Accelerated Child Survival and Development (ACSD). The initiative involves hand delivery by MPC staff of letters containing child survival messages to all village headmen in the country.