CSO'S asked to track development projects in councils

Neno, April 26, Mana: Center for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) has called on Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working in Mwanza District to track development projects which Mwanza District Council and partners implements to ensure quality service delivery.

CSAT Head of Programs and Policy, Albert Lulaka made the call on Friday during a training of CSOs at Mwanza Hotel which was meant to equip them with skills and knowledge on how they can track development projects to assess impact.

CSAT in partnership with International Republican Institute (IRI) with funding from National Endowment for Democracy (NED) are implementing a one-year project called Strengthening Local accountability in Malawi (SLAM) in Mwanza, Mzimba and Salima districts.

Lulaka said failure to monitor development projects at implementation stages results in councils providing substandard projects to citizens, adding that SLAM project was looking at ways and means of strengthening local CSOs in civic engagement apart from local government processes and systems.

“CSOs monitoring of projects will provide checks and balances to projects and systems like Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and District Development Fund (DDF), District Development Plans and Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) to ensure that quality services reach citizens,” Lulaka said.

He said the training was organized after observing that most CSOs lack capacity to monitor projects at grass root level such that CSAT further observed that there was no proper direction in district councils in terms of service delivery.

International Republican Institute (IRI) Consultant, Gavalet Mzembe said development plans for the council comes from Village Development Committees and Area Development Committees which are fed into District Development Plans.

She therefore said there was need for the CSOs and citizens to monitor development activities to ensure they are of good quality and relevant to meet citizen’s development aspirations.

The consultant added that project monitoring will ensure that District Development Plans respond to the needs of the people.

“It’s very important for citizens to track and demand accountability on the development plans that they submit to councils because it’s the only way the community is going to develop,” she said.

District Community Development Officer (DCDO) for Mwanza, Wesley Saidi expressed hope that the training will strengthen collaboration between the council and CSOs in the district.

He said Mwanza District Council will involve CSOs in the implementation of various projects as the CSOs claim that the council only involves them in planning and not in the implementation stages.

Mwanza CSO vice Chairperson, Bertha Gondwe said the training will increase CSOs knowledge on local government systems and structures.

She added that CSOs will learn how to engage duty bearers to ensure transparency and accountability in all the development activities taking place at the council.

SLAM project aims at providing capacity to members of local NGOs to effectively monitor funds allocated to projects for improved service delivery at the local level.