MALAWI SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS Category 1: Website analysis • • • • • • There is a great improvement in the online presence of most institutions sampled this year. All the nine public bodies analysed have a web presence. Three institutions have both websites and Facebook pages. Five of the institutions only have websites, and three only have Facebook pages. Most content is up-to-date and shows great improvement. The Ministry of Health, which scored 6 out of 20 points in the website analysis in 2016, has moved up the ladder to 12 out of 20 points in 2017. Some organisations appear to be online but it was not easy to ascertain the currency and nature of information on their sites. For example, Lilongwe City Council has a Facebook page which, due to unknown technical reasons, could not be accessed for several weeks during this study. It is still discouraging that some organisations continue to upload content without sufficient additional information, including the dates on which the activities took place or materials were uploaded. This is a problem as viewers cannot appreciate the currency of the information. Category 2: Requests for information • • • Of the nine government and public institutions surveyed, seven responded to the written requests for information. Some of the organisations requested a telephone and/or face-to-face interview and asked for justification from the researcher as to why the information was needed. Three of the organisations that responded to the written requests for information, initially acknowledged receiving the requests and promised to get back to the researcher. Four of the entities that responded to the requests for information did so within 24 hours of receiving the request. 25