DCA NCA
Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC) with support from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Danish Church Aid (DCA) – Malawi Joint Country Program is implementing a three-year project on Enhancing Citizen Voice and Action in Local Governance and Development Processes III (upscaling) whose main goal is to “contribute towards fighting inequality through enhanced pro-poor budgeting allocation and expenditure in the sectors of Health, Education, and Social Protection. The project contributes to the following Malawi Country Results Framework Outcomes:
Duty bearers are influenced to increase finance for, and spending to reduce poverty and inequality – Sectors: health, education and social protection. Rights holders are mobilized for a just resource governance Focus: public resources (tax revenues and government budget allocations). The project is being implemented in all the 14 Traditional Authorities (T/As) plus the three newly elevated Sub-T/As in Ntchisi and Dowa Districts.
Some Key Achievements
Media Achievements
Project has through media advocated for improved service delivery. Community Journalist have assisted in unearthing service delivery challenges in the rural that compromise rights holders access to public services such as school and hospital. A good example is the news article by the CJs which covered the communities and learners from Chibwana Primary School in Dowa district who took
to the street to protest against the raised development fee from MK1,000 to MK4,000 and matched to the Teachers Development Centre to present their petition to the authorities. .The news article instigated discussions by the District Education Manager and the Primary Education Advisors (PEA) who reviewed the new development fund and reverted back to the MK1,000 fee as demanded by the communities. The CJs have also linked up with national media houses and social media platforms such as Nation News, Times Group, Yetu Radio, ZBS radio, Luntha radio, Dowa FM, MIJ radio and Maziko to have the items aired and published. Some articles have come from the Social media platforms and reached a bigger audience. (https://malawifreedomnetwork.com/mhrrc-drills-market-committees-on-local-revenue-collection-in-ntchisi/; https://malawifreedomnetwork.com/mkukula-b-adc-ask-for-transparency-on-cdf-funds/; https://africabrief.substack.com/p/dowas-mkukula-b-adc-members-seek;
The new items have attracted the attention of relevant duty bearers and the most challenges have been duly addressed by relevant duty bearers. For example, the Times news feature on the citizen interface with council officials on the dilapidated 9 primary schools which were roofed with tiles held at Nthawira primary school in T/A Chilooko, has instigated discussions between Ntchisi district council, the Ministry of Education and DFID who funded the school project. The Council has started pushing for response from DFID who were served with the letter to assess the situation of the schools. The schools anticipated life span was 50 years but in less than 25 years, they are all dilapidated.
