About the Department of Housing

Objectives 

  • To manage national housing legal framework
  • To provide adequate and suitable office and housing accommodation to government and public servants throughout Malawi.
  • To facilitate access to affordable, safe secure urban housing for all income groups.
  • To create an enabling environment to encourage investment in urban housing by local and foreign investors.  
  • To facilitate the provision of quality, cost effective and timely built and environment infrastructure and management of government buildings.
  • To Coordinate human settlements with international organizations

Department of Housing has five sections namely;

  1. Management and support services
  2. Rural Housing Development
  3. Home ownership Scheme
  4. Urban Housing
  5. Estate Management and Valuation

Objective 

The Section exists for the sole objective of providing general administrative support services to the Department.

Functions 

In fulfilling its objective, the Section carries out the following functions:

  • Management of financial and accounting services
  • Provision of Human Resource Management and Development Services
  • Administration of Office Services and Supplies
  • Provision of Information, Communication and Technology Services.

Organisation 

The Section is organized into various Sub – Sections as follows:

  1. Administrative and General Services

The purpose of this sub-section section is to provide administrative and office utility services to the department.

To achieve this purpose the section carries out the following functions:

  • Provide office services and supplies
  • Fleet management
  • Procurement
  • Warehousing and distribution of stores and equipment for the department’s needs
  1. Finance and Accounting Section

The sub-section section provides financial and accounting services to the department.

To achieve this purpose the section carries out the following functions;

  • Provision of revenue accounting services, ORT main accounts, ORT Cash office, salaries, reconciliation and staff advances
  • Provision of development accounting services which include:

Preparation and maintenance of accounts ledgers of development projects

  • Receipts and payments of financial transactions of development projects and programmes
  1. Human Resources Management and Development Section

The purpose of this sub-section is to provide Human resources for the Department.

To achieve this, the section carries out the following functions:

  • Processing and determining workloads, staffing and grading requirements and appropriate organization structures for the Department;
  • Planning and development/training of human resources for the department;
  • Responsible for the management of personnel records, personal emoluments and recruitment. 
  1. ICT Section

The purpose of this sub-section is to provide ICT related services for the smooth operation of the department

To achieve this, the sub-section carries out the following:

  • Provide training on basic use of ICT equipment
  • Maintenance of software and hardware
  • Mobilization of resources for  updating website 

Objectives

  • To improve the performance of the Rural Housing Scheme.
  • Improving and enhancing housing conditions in rural areas by facilitating the rural communities’ access to quality housing. 

Steps taken to achieve named objectives

Formulation and implementation of policies on rural housing delivery and rural settlements.

Formulation and dissemination (Including Building Capacity) of building standards for rural housing and rural settlements.

Dissemination of new appropriate and affordable building materials and technologies.

Coordinating and mainstreaming disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction, relating to rural housing and rural settlements.

Strengthen decentralized rural housing delivery, in line with the decentralization policy.

Support rural families improve their housing through provision of proto-type house-designs, technical guidance and technical supervision.

Coordinate and liaise with various players in rural housing delivery including facilitating access to housing finance (such as credit) for rural housing.

Objectives

  • Housing policy formulation and implementation
  • Housing finance especially for the low income
  • Institutional and legal framework for housing and urban development.
  • Prevention and upgrading of slum settlements
  • Provide efficient and effective estate management agency services to government ministries, departments, parastatals and general public.
  • Efficient and effective property management of the assets of the public housing development treasury fund and the United Nations housing treasury fund to sustain the performance of the housing units.
  • To manage government leased properties to ensure compliance of covenants by the landlord and government as the tenant.
  • To provide efficient and effective valuation services to government ministries, departments ,parastatals ad general public.