By Wellington Sibale

Neno, October 24, Mana: Neno District Council is pinning its hope on Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project to improve the standards of the social services in the district.

The council's chairperson, James Chiphaliwali, said this, Wednesday, during a joint monitoring exercise of GESD projects by the Civil Society Organizations and council officials.

Neno District Council is implementing three GESD projects worth K380 million in the 2023/2024 financial year, namely, construction of Chidokowe Classroom Block and staff house in Traditional Authority (T/A) Mlauli, Rehabilitation of Nadzanga Classroom Block in T/A Chekucheku and construction of Mbemba Waste Yard in T/A Symon.

"Construction of classroom blocks will reduce the number of learners who learn under trees and when these classroom blocks are ready for use, we will also avoid injuries caused by natural disasters,” said Chiphaliwali.

He said shortage of teacher houses is a great challenge that makes teachers reluctant to come to the district which negatively affects the quality of education and hopes that the houses will motivate them.

Chiphaliwali therefore appealed to the communities to avoid vandalism of various development projects taking place in the district.

Lisungwi Ward Councilor, Mark Ngwangwa concurred with Chiphaliwali saying that the initiative will change the face of social services in the district.

"The waste yard which is being constructed will help reduce cases of the cholera pandemic in Neno. As a community, we will benefit more from this project," he said.

Ngwangwa pledged to work together with the council and the contractors in order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness of the projects.

Chairperson for Civil Society Organizations in Neno, Russel Msiska commended the council for the significant progress made in implementing developmental projects under GESD.

He said successful implementation of the project will enhance education and sanitation infrastructure in the district.

GESD is a Government of Malawi initiative with support from the World Bank aimed at strengthening institutional performance of Local Authorities (LAs), their responsiveness to citizens and management of resources for effective service delivery.