The Parliamentary Committee on International Relations invited Council for NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA) to among other things shed more light on the operations of CONGOMA in regard to the operations of International NGOs (INGOs) in Malawi especially after the passing of the NGO Amendment Act 2022 and the working relationship between CONGOMA and the NGO Regulatory Authority (NGORA) in Malawi.
The meeting which took place on Tuesday, 30th May, 2023 at the Parliament building, saw the Executive Director of CONGOMA, Mr Ronald Mtonga, explain the history of CONGOMA including its Vision, Mission and Objectives; its work modalities with INGOs; its general current focus; how it relates to NGORA and its mandate within the NGO Act 2000 (amended2022).. He stressed much on the operations of the international NGOs in regard to their operations according to the Act.
He explained in detail that Council for NGOs in Malawi (CONGOMA) has a mandate according to the NGO Act (amended 2022) to coordinate all NGOs in Malawi including the International NGOs. Their operation therefore, with the International NGOs revolves around but not limited to the following;
Designated INGO own entry category into full membership with CONGOMA different from local NGOs; providing for operating policy guidelines for INGOs by working with Malawi Government within the National NGO Policy for Malawi 2019, under policy priority area 3.2: Coordination, Partnerships and Networking under these strategies, develop and enforce regulations on partnership and networking between local and international NGOs; establish and strengthen NGO networks at all levels; having MOUs signed between NGOs and Local Council and fair and equitable spatial distribution of NGO work across the country. On the amended law, the Executive Director (ED) pointed out that Section 35 provides for a Regulation for the operations of INGOs. On this point an update was made that a draft Regulation on operations of INGOs was available awaiting adoption at the next CONGOMA General Assembly.
The honorable members wanted to know if CONGOMA and NGORA operations can be merged as they seem to be duplicating each other’s efforts. They suggested that if these two entities can be merged, it can increase their impact but also they can be better resourced from the Governments subvention. In response to this, the ED for CONGOMA said that that was also the original idea by the NGOs that there should be one entity that would regulate and coordinate them. However, he explained that the challenge is if NGORA and CONGOMA combine, what state will this entity assume: Government entity or Non Government.
The honorable members wanted to know more from CONGOMA, especially concerning operations of international NGOs in terms of how much percentages of the INGOs submit their annual audited reports to the coordinating body, how CONGOMA follow up on their operations in the country and how they ensure equal distribution of NGOs in different areas in the country.
It was revealed at the meeting that only 10% of the INGOs submit their annual audited reports to CONGOMA this far. This is a very small percentage of the INGOs operating in the country. This did not reflect well on the side of the INGOs to the committee, who then wanted to know what CONGOMA does with the INGOs who do not submit their reports. It was explained that CONGOMA engages the INGOs to find out why they do not submit their reports of whichthey give reasons like the cumbersomeness of submitting reports to NGORA, CONGOMA and their donors while suggesting a one-stop-point for reports submission and let all authorities share the same to reduce burden on INGOs. The Committee then asked CONGOMA to provide the names of those INGOs that do not submit reports to CONGOMA.
On the working relationship between CONGOMA and NGORA, Mr Mtonga explained that the relations can be described as goodand cordial to a large extent with some isolated pitfalls to a limited extent as follows; both have a similar understanding of the scheme of the NGO Act 2000 (amended2022) that NGORA Regulates NGOs (S18(1))and CONGOMA coordinates the NGO sector (S24(1)). Both have a common understanding of their powers under the NGO Act, notwithstanding powers, rights, obligations given under any otherwritten law in Malawi. He explained their individual powers as stipulated by the law.
He also continued to say that CONGOMA and NGORA engage in joint ventures some of which include, the holding of the District Development conference in Salima on 9th September 2021; NGO Act amendment process 2022 in which together they lobbied for the enactment of amendments in NGO Act 2000; together popularized the amended NGO Act; together set up a process to develop NGO Regulations including on operations of INGOs; together consulted NGOs on the 1st draft NGO Regulations; Jointly revised the 1st draft Regulations into 2nd draft that is ready for validation by CONGOMA General Assembly in July 2023, just to mention but a few.
The members also wanted to know what challenges CONGOMA is facing and how CONGOMA feels the challenges can be addressed. In this case CONGOMA mentioned some of the challenges that it faces in executing its mandate in the country as;
1. Lack of own office accommodation for CONGOMA versus the high rental costs in private rented offices against low funding to coordination functions.
2. Old fleet of vehicles that are risky to drive, have high maintenance costs and are few, making it very difficult to coordinate NGOs across the country as NGOs are in excess of 1,500 in total.
3. High poverty levels in Malawi (52%) which makes NGOcoordination very critical but with limited available capacity to coordinate.
4. Delayed gazetting of CONGOMA as a coordinating bodyand representative of all NGOs in Malawi
Mr Mtonga further went on to make recommendations as to how CONGOMA feels they can be assisted.

He suggested that the Committee should collaborate and/ or intervene in the realization of the following:
1. Coordination functions of CONGOMA to be supported by public resources through NGORA or Ministry of Gender.Without good coordination (by CONGOMA), regulation (by NGORA) will face limitations.
2. Government to speedily gazette CONGOMA as an NGO coordinating body. The law mandates the Minister responsible to designate CONGOMA. Otherwise CONGOMA can be challenged in its functions.
3. Ministry of Lands to quickly identify land that it provisionally allocated CONGOMA for the NGO Village project. The land should be for free as it will revert to Government in the unlikely event of CONGOMA winding up as per its Constitution.
4. Work with CONGOMA to document the beneficiations and impact on national development of the various international agreements and protocols signed by Malawi Government.
5. Work with CONGOMA to re-orient the Malawi foreign Missions towards trade, investment and tourism economics.
Both parties agreed that this should not be the last time for them to engage. This should continue because they need to work together for the betterment of the citizens of Malawi.