In this new interview, we hear the organic journey of MCLD Malawi’s national coordinator Sothin Ziba, from an accidental start in development to leading the Movement in Malawi. He shares how MCLD Malawi is amplifying grassroots voices, building a regional presence, and pushing for accountability and shared impact. Plus, we get a glimpse into Phukira, his impact-driven startup focused on tools and systems for sustainable change.
Sera Bulbul: How did you get to where you are? What inspires you?
Sothin Ziba: I had a very organic path towards the development ecosystem. I joined this ecosystem almost accidentally when I was a researcher at the University of Malawi. I was to go to the community and learn about their priorities and test community needs using community scoring techniques in groups. This was unique for the time it was, around 2016! Each group presented unique needs based on demographics.
Fast forward a few years, and I worked in a few institutions and foundations, and was looking at the question of measuring and communicating the impact of community-led work. Ultimately, this was how I came across the Movement for Community-led Development (MCLD).
MCLD Malawi has been my vehicle to push for the voices of the community and their ability to say ‘this is what we want and how we want it.’ I am privileged to be the National Coordinator now, and we are making critical steps to build our national agenda.
Sera: What is MCLD Malawi focusing on at the moment?
Sothin: Our ambitious goal for the next five years is that we as MCLD, amplify CLD and all community voices.
Critically, this year we are also looking at the elections that are happening. We are at an important stage for fundraising and organizing ourselves. Locally-led development goes beyond those technical terms and jargon in the development sector, the reality is that politics plays a role in shaping the agenda, so we are looking at how to ensure that the voices of communities are heard by people vying for political leadership positions.
There are three levels in Malawi’s government system, and the level that will be elected this year is the National Assembly. These are councellors who interact with the local government system and interact with village committees. We want to ensure that they are aware of people’s needs and hear debates at the local level using CLD tools.
Sera: Would you tell us a little bit about your own organization, Phukira?
Sothin: My organization, Phukira, is aligned with the pillars I see in MCLD Malawi, especially the idea of movement building. Phukira was originally based on me as an individual, but we now have products and clear programs we offer. Our goal is to accelerate development outcomes in low-resource countries by empowering human resources, systems, and building resilience movement for change.
- Phukira Sessions/Fellowship program: targeting young professionals joining the development sector, including professional development, personal awareness courses, and community-led development approaches.
- Suntha (means “move” in English): a fundraising ecosystem product for writing project concepts, grant calculations, and creating an organizational growth plan. We hope that this service will facilitate resources for development.
- Bungwe Community Readiness Program: putting in place goals, objectives, and indicators so that people can be accountable for their impact.
These tools are all available at phukira.org. More information is also available here.
Sera: Coming back to MCLD, you joined in 2019. Following that, how did you come to be the Malawi coordinator and how was that transition?
Sothin: I was a very active member of MCLD, but I did not seek out being the coordinator. When Arthur Nkosi transitioned out, he recommended me, and I accepted because I’m a very curious person and I love community. It takes passion and a willingness to learn. The Movement offered me a wider community in different countries. I am driven by passion, a sense of community, and the need to engage with others instead of working in a silo. Through the Tool training, the monthly calls, and more, I was excited to build deeper relationships.
Sera: Can you share a little bit about how MCLD Malawi has grown?
Sothin: We have grown as a Movement in Malawi due to a true sense of people understanding what we are doing and striving to do. The biggest thing has been that people see the value of joining the MCLD community.
When people see value in what we do and what we believe in, they join. The question is, how do we sustain that value. We are looking at introducing regional chapters so members can meet and discuss contextual issues in their communities. Then, we’d meet as a collective annually. We hope this will help us expand further across the country.
Equally, it is people who do development. We are planning to start academic clubs to empower students at an early level with a fundamental knowledge of CLD approaches. This aligns with my work at Phukira as well because we focus on mindset change.
Sera: What are some of the biggest challenges you face in community-led development, and how do you overcome them?
Sothin: I see three barriers to development:
- People: We need to invest in the next generation of social impact leaders. Many low-resource countries do not have enough people to do the work that can be done fast enough, so their organizations don’t get an equal chance to do the work. This undermines local institutions. How do we really structure the shift the power conversation to empower the institutions that we say should be empowered?
- Institutional barriers: over half of Malawi’s population is aged below 25, and these are people who work in development. They must find institutions to allow them to do the work without disregarding them for their youth.
- Community movement building: How do we create demand for CLD? This is one of MCLD Malawi’s main pillars. There should be a common voice among the people in communities, and when development organizations come to them, they should respond to the demands of that voice.
The ecosystem where we implement community-led development has multiple players: coalitions, networks, and committees that all have the same goal. Our challenge is that we do not consolidate our mandates, goals, and values, and instead want to operate on our own. Being this fragmented poses a challenge to our collective success.
Because CLD is sector agnostic – it’s a framework that runs everything – we want to map what other coalitions exist and how we can come together to learn from each other.
Sera: What is your vision for the future of community-led development in Malawi?
Sothin: Malawi has good grounds for community-led development. The country’s decentralization policy of 1999 put in place a framework for how development should happen.
My hope is that we will do community-led development through systems that already exist instead of inventing new approaches. The drivers of policies are here, but the execution has been low.
My vision is that in the next five years, communities will know their priorities and their priorities will be listened to. People in power will represent community voices and accountability systems will be in place and be vibrant.
Sera: What is one piece of advice or guidance you would give an organization starting its journey towards being more community-led and more inclusive?
Sothin: I actually was asked this question recently. Organizations trying to be more community-led should find out what CLD means to their target community. We cannot prescribe it. They should find out how people are solving the problems they are trying to solve, and adopt what works. That is true community-led development.
At the systems level, they should evaluate themselves or reflect as an institution how they are doing their work. Ask, ‘can this work continue without us?’ If they are a gatekeeper or a CLD player, they’ll find out through the answer to that question.
Lastly, I would say that CLD is, for lack of better words, evolving. At MCLD, we are a community, and it is the visionary voices and shared vision that are shaping the next five years.