As one way of strengthening District Networks, officials from Council of Non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi-CONGOMA took an initiative early this year in visiting District Networks to appreciate their operations, as well as challenges they are facing on the ground.

This is in line with what the Country Director for IM Swedish Development Partner Steve Tahuna once said during the joint meeting of Sector Technical Forum and District Networks on December 14 2017, citing that IMSDP has deliberate programmes to strengthen capacity of CSOs in Finance Management, Human Resource Management, Governance, Programme Management and service delivery.

“With CONGOMA we are building its capacity on how to communicate with its members at the same time strengthen the District Networks. The whole idea is where we are looking at how we can identify issues on the ground, issues that disadvantage marginalised groups in our society and pick up those issues and raise them at different levels”, explained Tahuna.

Concurring with remarks of IMSDP’s top official, Most District Networks are being strengthened than before as the Networks are now being on the fore front demanding Social Accountability, properly coordinating themselves plus being vibrant enough to ensuring that their operations yield positive outcomes.

This was proved upon visiting the networks where it was noted that many had their Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Malawi government hence having a cordial relationship with the District Council as well as being visible enough in the eyes of other relevant key players involved. For Nsanje District, this development has been a mile stone as expressed by Chairperson of the Network Moses Luhanga that their network got vibrant after the MOU was signed.

“Nsanje District Network is vibrant, we are well coordinated and working together. The coming of CONGOMA in the District has been an eye opener as we ably participate in District Executive Committees plus engage those new Non-Governmental Organisations coming to the district to first register with the Network before the Council”, stressed Luhanga.

He further said that the network was doing much on transparency and accountability as well as tracking resources coming to the district plus monitoring service delivery being given to members of the community. Vivid example that was given was the recent scenario where the district reported alarming cases of Maternal Mortality rate due to negligence of medical personnel working at the District Hospital.  He explained that the network managed to follow up the issue with the District Health Office where the DHO assured the network that his office would ensure that such cases got improved and promised to render good standards of health services to patients. The intervention of the network on the matter was fully supported by all District Network Members and they pledged full support to alleviate the problem.

When asked how the Network meet costs when executing duties, the Chairperson of the Network said “as CSO Network, we have an active account that we manage to self-sponsor some small activities without any external forces. For example, we are able to carry out District NGO mapping, and creation of profile data base which help us keep records of our members and easily track operations being carried out by NGOs in Nsanje”.

Furthermore, Luhanga alluded to the fact that the network managed to come up with sub committees in line with thematic areas as advised by CONGOMA Secretariat. He said the development has enhanced special recognition to other partners who engage the network when implementing projects in the district to easily identify NGOs to partner with in line with similar area of interest. He cited an example of the training workshop that was held on 7 May 2018 focussing on Public Expenditure Tracking organised by National Small Holder Farmers Association of Malawi – NASFAM and Action Aid where those carrying out projects in Agriculture got trained.

Having appreciated Nsanje District Network, members of Blantyre CSO Network also voiced out how their operations have been so far.  When CONGOMA team visited the network, it was so pleasing that members appreciated the existence of the network in Blantyre. According to Secretary of the network Shy Ali, membership of the network is continuing to be on the rise as of 2018 the numbers had reached 27 a situation which was not like that in the previous years.  He attributed growth of membership as enough proof of how the network is active plus a positive sign that the network is well coordinated.

He further said that “apart from singing the MOU with the Local Council, the network is well established to the extent that we have an active bank account where we keep our funds safe and we are able to share resources as well as working together whenever an opportunity arises. Recently, we were involved in the project being funded by World Bank where as the Network we were carrying out nutrition awareness campaigns on breast feeding in Traditional Authorities Lundu, Makata and Kapeni,” summarised Ali.

As for Karonga District Network, the story is different as they have their own means of strengthening the Network. In an interview with Chairperson for the Network Yonam Kaunda the Network has provided support to individual CSOs doing their work especially related to Human Rights, Governance and Democracy.

According to Kaunda the Network has played coordination role and has acted as a common pool of human resources that has been effectively utilized by individual CSOs that needed them.  He further said the network has also provided a platform through which National Level Actors have mobilised support for their work and popularized National agenda, Regional and International Protocols.

“CSO networks have effectively campaigned for Transparency and Accountability in the management of Public Resources. This reached its peak when some Council Officials were arrested for abuse of Public Resources and mass transfers ensued”, clarified Kaunda.

He further said “there have also been vigorous campaigns for efficient and effective service delivery especially in the Health Sector. Cases   about abuse of public resources like funds and drugs are hotly pursued. For a long time, communities have been sensitized on responsible mining and Corporate Social Responsibility. Now people are on their look out when new mining initiatives are being introduced in Karonga”.

All these issues are emerging because IMSDP has whole heartedly supported CONGOMA to communicate to its members as well as to strengthen the District Networks so that duty bearers should not be abusing public resources in the country plus empowering members of the community through the networks to demand improved social service delivery.