Scholarship /
How transport planning can change my country - OFID scholarship application [5]
Hey Holt thanks for the feedback took your advice and this is what i came up with.
Malawi depends on agriculture for its economic growth but over the past couple of years Malawi's economy has been deteriorating and one of the main reasons is that the profits made from the agricultural produce keep decreasing, at the moment farmers are not so keen to grow any produce let alone export it due to the fact that 30% of the profits made go to the transportation bill, transportation costs in Malawi are so high due to the fact that roads in the rural areas are in a very bad condition and transporters charge a lot more to make up for the maintenance costs, delays etc. Now imagine the difference that farming would make to Malawi's economy if the roads farmers use were in a good condition.
My experience in the construction Industry has been focused on projects in the rural areas and I have firsthand seen the struggles these farmers are having with the current road conditions and fortunately I have also seen the big difference building a bridge or reshaping damaged road makes, this difference is what motivated me to apply to the University of West England for their MSc in Transport Planning and Engineering Program and I believe that because of my Passion for Transport Planning, 3.5/4 GPA and also my experience over the past year helping The Roads Authority of Malawi to come up with an effective and efficient maintenance plan which makes optimum use of the limited resources available by taking into consideration factors like economic growth social development and also the budget allocated while taking into consideration the return on the investments made on the chosen roads I managed to get an unconditional offer from the university and it is these same factors that qualify me for this Scholarship.
Getting this scholarship to study MSc in Transport engineering and planning at UWE will a not only give me an opportunity to learn up to date transport planning methods that can be applied to real-world situations that will vastly improve my countries' economy, it will also give me an opportunity to meet more talented people who share the same passion, people who am confident will inspire, motivate and also encourage me and because in the Roads Authority of Malawi having a master's degree is a prerequisite for a managerial position where I can better help change and improve on policies and procedures.
With this Qualification I hope to Introduce the Roads Authority of Malawi to up to date software's like Roadroid which is a phone application used to collect road roughness data, QGIS an application used to display data collected in relation to its position on earth and HDM-4 which is a software used for the analysis, planning, management and appraisal of road maintenance, improvements and investment decisions. By using these three together it has proven to significantly save both time and money and it would help them pick which roads to priorities in order to get the maximum return on their investments.