KARONGA DIOCESE CCJP TRAINS IT’S MONITORS AHEAD OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BY-ELECTIONS
In the heart of democracy lies the power of choice and ensuring that democracy maintains its purpose is a task of paramount importance. On Friday 22 March, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) organized a training session at St. Mary’s parish hall aimed at fortifying the integrity of the electoral process.
The Vicar General of the Karonga Diocese Monsignor Lorent Dziko was also present at the session and advised the participants stating that “there is need for the CCJP monitors to be non-partisan as the church herself is also non-partisan to ensure that the electoral process is free and fair”. He also advised them to perform only those duties that they are supposed to perform and not do things that they are not assigned.
During the training, participants were equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform their duties effectively and they were taught the proper methodology of observation. The session also involved trainings that are meant to prepare the monitors for real-life scenarios they might encounter.
One of the participants Teresa Chisenga applauded the training saying that, “it is beneficial to us as we have learnt how to be good observers and also how we can interact with other stakeholders of the electoral process”.
CCJP is deploying 44 observers in 44 Polling Centers for Tuesday 26 March Local Government by-elections in Karonga district. These by-elections are taking place in Kaporo, Chilanga and Rukuru wards and these wards were declared vacant in September 2023 after councilors from these wards were convicted.
By Noel Chatepa
PET conducted at Hara Maternity wing
By Lestina Sanga
‘Public resources need to be well accounted for’, Mr Msukwa, the Karonga District Council Finance Committee Chairperson. This was stated in his speech during Public Expenditure Tracking (PET) dissemination for the Construction of Hara maternity wing at Chankholombe School.
the PET dissemination was organised by the Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese under the Project OSISA Health Governance. under this project, the Desk has managed to empower community members to following up on expenditures as well as projects done using resources from public funding baskets. the desk has volunteers known as the Public Expenditure Tracking (PET) Focal Team, who spearhead the tracking system and empower others. the purpose of the PET process is to ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the management of funds in the Health Sector.
Hara Maternity Wing was constructed using Community Managed Social Economic Fund. By design is the project under the fund is supposed to be managed by the community members, who receive training and technical guidance from the district councils relevant officers. However, Hara Maternity wing was constructed with no monitoring and supervision from the Council, the committees chosen did not have enough training, which affected the management of the contract with the Contractor and procurement of building materials problematic.
From the PET conducted, an amount of about MK 65,000 was misappropriated, including other already procured materials. It was also revealed by the Project Implementation team that MK 500,000 was taken forcefully by the contractor.
On way forward it was recommended that there should be New Project Management team to continue the project when funds are mobilized, the one present was doubled as the Health Center Management Committee and Project Implementation Team. so the project lacked local oversight and monitoring.
CAG Members Reveal Gaps in the Implementation of Development Projects
By Vincent Bwinga
Community Action Group (CAG) members from Lupembe and Mbande ADC have expressed concern that guidelines for development projects under Constituency Development Fund, District Development Fund, and Local Development Funds are not being followed in the implementation of projects.
Speaking during the orientation workshop at Club Marina in Karonga, on 11 September 2018, Gilbert Msukwa said they were amazed why implementers of local development projects choose not to follow the guidelines which are very clear.
He cited CDF guidelines which demand for members of parliament to engage Area Development Committees (ADCs) and councilors, in identification of projects with reference to the District Development Plan, which is not the case in his area.
“Projects are implemented without project implementation committees (PICs) and funds are being managed as personal funds. This is a direct contrast to what is outlined in the guidelines,” said Msukwa.
Also commenting during the workshop, Mercy Ndovie said the district council gets 5% from funds allocated to District Development Funds for monitoring among others but projects are not being visited. She questioned how the 5% money is being spent.
“DDF projects are not being supervised which leads to poor quality and others remain incomplete for years,” said Mercy Ndovie.
Community Action Group members hailed the Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese for coming up with Citizen Action in Local Government Accountability (CALGA) project which they said has equipped them on how they can monitor and track public resources.
CAG members promised to intensify community awareness on local development resources guidelines and demand for transparency and accountability where necessary.
CALGA project is being implemented by the Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese in Karonga and Chitipa districts with funding from Irish Government through Danish Church Aid.
Justice and Peace Desk Prepares Female Aspirants for 2019 Elections
By Elliness Mbowe and Vincent Bwinga
The Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese on 31st August, 2018 conducted a training workshop for women aspirants from different political parties and independent candidate in Karonga District in preparation for 2019 tripartite elections.
The training sought to increase women’s chances of winning in the forthcoming elections against the background of poor representation of women in political positions. For instance, Karonga District has only one female councillor out of 10 ward councilors. There is also no female Member of Parliament in the area under Karonga Diocese.
This state of affairs has been attributed to women’s limited understanding of political tactics, intricacies of political parties they represent. Despite the Gender Equality Act and other instruments, there is lack of deliberate measures by government or political parties to promote the participation of women in politics.
The training, therefore, focused on assisting women aspirants on mobilizing resources for campaign, effective campaign strategies, presentation skills, self-marketing during campaign. The women were also assisted to understand the electoral cycle of the country.
This instilled confidence, and self-reliance among women as they are approaching campaign period for 2019 May tripartite elections.
Speaking during the training, Tamala Mujilembe from Khwaba Ward who is representing DEPECO said the training has motivated them to continue with an idea of representing their wards at the council.
“We are being discouraged by men in our villages that we can’t represent them. With this training we are motivated and empowered that we are all equal. We are not going to be discouraged by all insults. We will remain focused until we achieve our goal,” Said Tamala.
Tamala Mujilembe further commended Justice and Peace Desk of the Diocese of Karonga for the training which was organized with funding from UN Women under the Malawi Electoral Cycle Support project. She expressed optimism that they will succeed in the forthcoming elections.
The women aspirants bemoaned the handout syndrome, which is deeply rooted in their communities, as a big threat for them to succeed in the upcoming elections. They have since requested more support from the Justice and Peace Desk for them to withstand the pressure of elections.
Fifteen out of twenty one women aspirants scouted attended the training. Twenty are aspiring councilors while one is vying for the seat of Member of Parliament for Nyungwe Constituency. These women were scouted from Area Development Committees, political parties, chiefs and women meetings.
Karonga CSOs to Advocate for the Adoption of FPIC Policy
By Vincent Bwinga (Justice and Peace)
Civil Society Organizations in Karonga have expressed their commitment to advocate for an enabling domestic policy and legal framework that will see the enforcement and adoption of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) policy for community rights in Extractive Industries.
The CSOs made this commitment during a three day long training organized by the Justice and Peace Desk of the Diocese of Karonga at Beach Chamber in Karomga.
The training highlighted that lack of enabling domestic policy/ legal environment to enforce FPIC in Extractive Industries leaves communities at the mercy of investors in the sector. This gap gives investors freedom to disregard concerns of communities where they operate in. Communities are rarely engaged and as such community members do not benefit from the natural resources extracted from their own villages.
Further, the training stressed that the mining database is inaccessible putting transparency and accountability in the sector into question. For instance, there are over five active mining licenses and more than ten prospective licenses in Karonga but people do not have access to this information and are not engaged I decision making so that they also benefit from mining.
The CSOs, therefore, resolved to advocate for consolidated database of mining licenses and enabling domestic policy/ legal environment for enforcing FPIC through a position paper and other forums so that community members may also start benefiting from the sector.
Speaking during the training, Reverend Father Leslie Mtekateka said Civil Society Organizations in Karonga have spoken enough on Extractive Industries with little success as communities are yet to benefit from their natural resources.
Among other factors, he said this is because community members themselves say nothing in the midst of exploitative mining activities. Father Mtekateka, therefore, recommended more capacity building for traditional leaders and community members to demand meaningful engagement in decision making.
Fifteen Civil Society Organizations working in Karonga attended training. The training was coordinated by Justice and Peace of Karonga Diocese with financial support from Australian Aid through Oxfam in Malawi on “Inclusive and Transformative Extractive Industries in Southern Africa Project” which is being implemented in T/A Kyungu and Kilupla in Karonga.
Youth of Karonga and Chitipa Call for a Holistic Approach to Health Challenges
By Louis Nkhata
The Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese with the project coined “Promotion of High Quality, Accountable and Responsive Health Service Delivery” with funding from OSISA ( Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa) held a youth conference on 2nd June, 2018.
The youth conference came at a time when out of school youth have limited platforms to participate and contribute to improving public health service delivery. The youth conference was attended by youth from Karonga and Chitipa districts covering all 10 Traditional Authorities. The youth appreciated the services provided by the numerous health service providers. However, they had a few lamentations for the public health service delivery.
The youth made an observation that flow of information from health personnel and local development committees is slow and limited. The youth recalled that in most instances, they are not given the opportunity to hold leadership positions within development committees.
For instance, the youth observed that there is only one young person in both districts who is a Vice Chairperson for Health Facility Advisory Committee (HFAC) in Nthalire. When choosing HFAC, the youth are not given a chance to participate as such the youth always remain behind. The youth expressed that because they do not have representatives in such committees, their demands are not addressed and the linkage for information from development committees to the youth is weak. The issue becomes a problem as the youth do not have the right to information on public health service delivery. However, it was expressed by other concerned citizens that “even if the youth are deliberately put in the aforementioned committees the youth mostly become rubberstamping scapegoats”.
Limited capacity of health service providers in addressing issues particular to the youth has led to more of generic approach. In other words, “one size fits all” in treating every one despite varied social differences which means different health needs. The youth thought it wise for systems to be put in place to deliberately provide proactive and reactive services to particularly address their health problems. The youth demanded that if things were to improve, more youth should be capacitated in life skills to resolve their problems.
The youth demanded that the community should be made aware that representative democracy demands that each and every committee should reflect the demographic patterns of the communities as such the youth should be deliberately included to improve the flow of information which is a precondition for informed participation.
Further, there should be more efforts from the NGOs and the District Health Office (DHO) to build the capacity of health personnel and the youth to specifically address inadequacies accelerating youth problems within the public health service delivery. In addition, the youth demanded that the DHOs of Karonga and Chitipa should strengthen their disciplinary mechanisms so that those who do not adhere to their professional oath should be answerable.
Justice and Peace and CEPA Drill Journalists on Extractive Industries
By Vincent Bwinga (Justice and Peace)
The Justice and Peace Desk of the Diocese of Karonga and Centre for Environmental Policy Advocacy (CEPA), held a two-day training workshop aimed at increasing media participation in influencing accountability and transparency agenda.
During the training, journalists from media houses across Malawi were drilled to ably enquire, investigate, systematically cover and disclose extractive industries (EI) accountability and transparency issue in Malawi.
The training also strengthened current efforts, in the project being implemented, by the Justice and Peace Desk of Karonga Diocese and CEPA to engage the media as a way of enhancing public awareness on information relating to Extractive Industries to effectively gather stories relating to the same.
Speaking during the workshop, Justice and Peace Desk Officer, Louis Nkhata said the media has a key role to play in informing the public by providing an inclusive and critical platform for public dialogue and debate on EI. This he said could assist to disseminate information to most people in the country. He further encouraged journalists to be writing stories that can stimulate Malawians to demand participation and benefits from the extractive industries.
One of the participants, Adams Wundaninge of Zodiak Broadcasting Station, applauded Justice Peace Desk and CEPA for conducting the workshop. He indicated that the knowledge gained will assist them as journalists to be producing quality and evidence based reports.
He, however, requested the two organizations to keep on building capacity of journalist and engaging them in different forums of project activities so that they are always up to date on the status of the extractive industries.
Inclusive and Transformative Extractive Industries in Southern Africa project is implemented in Karonga by Justice and Peace Desk and in Phalombe by CEPA with financial support Oxfam in Malawi.
Nthalire Community Calls For an Ambulance
By Bishop Witmos (Contributor)
Inadequate ambulances at Chitipa District Hospital is said to have slowed down access to health service by communities in the remotest area of Nthalire in Chitipa South.
This was said during an interface meeting in Nthalire between the community members and officials from Chitipa District Hospital, which was organized by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) under the Diocese of Karonga.
Currently, Chitipa District Hospital has only one ambulance that serves a population of over two hundred thousand people.
Speaking during the meeting, Councilor for Nthalire ward Christopher Mnyenyembe appealed to government and stakeholders to consider providing an ambulance at Nthalire Health Center in order to save lives that are lost at the health facility due to inadequate transport for referral services to the main district hospital.
Mnyenyembe said despite that Nthalire is located in the far-flung area of 115 Kilometers away from Chitipa boma, it is surprising to note that his area is not a priority in terms of referral services by the district hospital.
‘‘As communities in Nthalire we are really suffering due to unavailability of an ambulance at our health facility, and it reached to a point, in the year 2017, that an ambulance was available at our facility only for maternity cases,’’ said Mnyenyembe.
However, Chitipa District Hospital has since asked communities in Nthalire not to panic as procedures are already in place that by the end of May this year the area will have its own ambulance.
Representative of Director for Health Services in Chitipa at the event who is also Senior Assistant Environmental Health Officer Mordecai Mbowe told the gathering that Plan Malawi through the Inpath project is procuring four ambulances for the district.
At Wenya, communities were surprised with the 2017 to 2018 financial report presented by the hospital officials, that only half of the 2017 to 2018 financial year, the district hospital has already spent over 90 percent of its internal travel costs; a development which Mbowe said was due to an increased number of referrals to Mzuzu Central Hospital.
While at Mwenemisuku, chairperson for Kakomo Area Development Committee (ADC) Winston Silungwe observed that the financial report was only showing the budget costs as well as expenditures for the whole district hospital without specifying breakdowns for health centres.
Silungwe therefore asked the district hospital to consider itemizing the budget in order for communities to be able to track it.
According to the project officer for the commission in Chitipa Abel Malumbira, the interface meetings were organized with an aim to bridge the interaction gap between the community and health workers.
Malumbira therefore assured communities in Chitipa that the commission will continue providing support for such interactions in order to improve the health service delivery in the district.
CCJP is implementing a health governance project in selected ADCs in Chitipa and Karonga with an aim of promoting transparency and accountability in health service delivery. The project is funded by Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
Women Groups Call For Interface Meeting With Chiefs
By Vincent Bwinga (Justice and Peace Field Officer)
In response to the prevailing conditions, compounded by negative socio-cultural beliefs, which prevent women from enjoying their rights, women and girls groups in the areas of traditional authorities Nthalire and Wenya have decided to break the silence and stand up for their rights by taking duty bearers to task.
Women have since summoned chiefs and other prominent members in the area to an interface meeting. In the letter which women have addressed to chiefs in the two traditional authorities, women have cited for example limited access to productive assets like land and limited participation of women in decision making processes.
According to the letter signed by women’s task force members, women have called on chiefs and all men in the area to take action to ensure that women also enjoy their economic and political rights; through permanent land tenure and appointment or election into leadership position.
“We are prepared to face chiefs during this interface meeting. It is high time we [women] voiced out our concern and advocate for our own rights in our community,” said Tereza Mkamanga, Chairperson for Nthalire Women Task Force.
Denzie Kayira from traditional Authority Mwenewenya said that women experience so many challenges in their villages but they fail to speak out due to culture of silence which prevents them from doing so.
He further said that through women group mentoring sessions organized by Justice and Peace Desk, women have realized their rights, hence the urge to demand them from their leaders.
Over 100 women from Thumbo, Chisenga, Nthalire and Wenya have formed task forces in their zones to mobilize fellow women to participate in the interface meetings. This is an initiative under the Catholic Agency for Oversea Development funded women’s rights projects which encourages women to take an active role in defending their rights.
Karonga Diocese Donates Maize and Farm Inputs to Victims of Internal Displacement in Mpata
By Wezi Mwangonde
The Catholic Diocese of Karonga has donated maize and farm inputs to residents of Mwenitete, Mwawembe and Mwankenja Mwangonde villages in Mpata in the area of Paramount Chief Kyungu in Karonga district.
The donation follows the return of the internally displaced, Mwankenja Mwangonde villagers, who left their land in February as a result of a protracted land dispute which turned violent. The returnees had lost their means of livelihood and could not prepare for farming this year hence the donation of farm inputs.
During the exercise, each of the 69 households from Mwankenja Mwangonde received a 50 kilogram bag of maize for food, two bags of fertilizer (Urea and NPK) and a 10 kilograms package of maize seeds including a 50 kilogram bag of maize for household consumption.
The donation was extended to 120 other equally vulnerable villagers from Mwabwembe and Mwenitete villages received a 50 kilogram bag of maize each to carry them through the lean period.
Speaking on behalf of Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Karonga Diocese, Father Joseph Moloka Sikwese the Bishop’s and Pastoral Secretary, said this goodwill gesture follows the resolution of a long standing land disputes that led to the displacement of Mwankenja Mwangonde villagers.
“Diocese is very impressed with the three villages for reconciling on the long time feud through the initiative of the CCJP in conjunction with the District Peace Committee under Karonga District Council.” Said Father Sikwese.
He further pledged that through the Justice and Peace Desk, Karonga Diocese will continue fighting for Justice and peace in the area. He urged the people to utilize the village tribunals being championed by Justice and Peace Desk as one way of making Karonga free from wrangles.
Concurring with the Bishop’s secretary, the representative of the Principle Group Village Headman Kalambo said the area is behind in terms of development due to prolonged violent conflicts.