By Vincent Gunde

The Dowa Civil Society Governance Network, says it is set to implement a-3 months Community-Powered-Transparency, a development accountability support under the banner Malawi Anti-Corruption Civil Society Support (MACCSS) project.

The project is targeting areas of three Traditional Authorities in the district such as Chiwere, Mponela and Kayembe with the possibility to be extended by mutual agreement of the implementing partners and communities of Dowa.
 
Presenting the project to the District executive committee (Dec), Governance Chairperson George Kaunda, said accountability and transparency of District Development Fund (DDF), Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and Local Generation Revenue (LGR) collected by the District Council is one of the main challenges the district is facing.

Kaunda has claimed that there’s limited information on LGR and unfulfilled obligations saying communities, institutions, and CSOs mandated to demand accountability have limited awareness of the DDF, CDF, and LGR guidelines.

He said there is inadequate skills to track utilization of the resources and spaces for dialogues saying limited or no access to information and reports on CDF, LGR, and DDF do not reach the communities and it is difficult for the communities to demand documents as they are not empowered to do so.

The Governance Chairperson said political and council leadership sometimes resolve to stop people who speak upon irregularities shrinking the citizen’s civic space observing that shrinking donor funding CSO Network has failed to execute its mandate despite having the expertise and tools to carry out the task.

He said the objective of the Community Powered accountability initiative Malawi Anti-Corruption Civil Society Support is to address governance and accountability challenges by monitoring District Development projects and initiatives funded by the DDF, CDF, and LGR and empower the citizenry to effectively demand transparency and accountability as their integral entitlement.

Kaunda said the committees, people movements and political influence has brought in capacity gaps in the existing committees rendering them ineffective to deliver their functions and the Dowa CS Network will engage council to monitor some of the projects under the DDF, CDF, and LGR.

He said the project will strengthen the capacity of the committees’ s structures to competently to demand accountability in the management of the resources and adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

“This will be achieved through enhanced coordination between the Civil Society Network and Dowa District Council and empowering the community to actively engage in demanding better governance and transparency through voice, evidence, social media, and radio,” said Kaunda.

He said the Network will build the capacity of the community through the provision of tools and Nice Trust has instituted and capacitated citizen forums in all communities focusing on checking adherence to Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs).

Kaunda said the governance project will facilitate dialogues with the District Council officials based on the results from the monitoring exercise saying the local radios will be used to raise awareness, creating visibility and encouraging community involvement to help track progress, and share updates.