LILONGWE (Maravi Post)–Malawi Speaker of Parliament Richard Msowoya has said that strengthening social accountability and enhancing citizen’s participation in budget tracking and monitoring for equitable and sustainable development projects in the country promotes good governance.Msowoya made the remarks yesterday in Lilongwe during the official launch of two projects for Actionaid aiming at strengthening transparence and accountability in health and agriculture in southern Africa projects from 2016 to 2019
Said Msowoya: “The two projects are expected to address gaps of mismanagement of funds in government and non-governmental organization since citizen will have knowledge on governance and accountability notably in policy dialogue and public expenditure tracking”
He further stressed that to contribute improving transparency, accountability in public expenditure in the country government and CSOs should create an environment for public audit and feedback on expenditure monitoring.
The Speaker also called for responsible and positive reporting by the media, arguing that in most cases, journalist sometimes blow issues out of proportion.
However, he hailed the media for exposing and investigating deeply on matters of public interest citing an example of embezzlement and mismanagement of public funds (cashgate) at Capital Hill.
Executive Director for Actionaid in Malawi Mather Khonje said in conjunction with CISANET, they have embarked on a three year Project in same move of enhancing citizen’s participation in social accountability in 4 districts namely Rumphi, Mchinji, Phalombe and Nsanje.
According to Khonje, Actionaid together with PSAM, ESAFF and SAfAIDS, with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), is implementing a Southern Africa regional public resource management (PRM) project on Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique.
Among others, the project seeks to improve public services delivery in agriculture (food security), and health (HIV/AIDS), sexual and reproductive health and rights) in the SADC region specifically; selected parliamentary committees, relevant government departments, CSOs, smallholder farmer organization and media.
Actionaid Malawi is a local Non-Governmental Organization affiliated to Actionaid International. It started working in Malawi in 1990 and is currently working in 13 districts with a vision of having a nation without poverty in which all citizens live a life of dignity by realizing their social political and economic rights.