Presented at Mwananchi Partners Meeting; Lusaka Zambia. 9 th May, 2012 Lucy Nyirenda Malawi Economic Justice Network

Program : Liu Lathu (Our Voice) Goal: Citizens effectively express their views and interests and hold their elected representatives and governments to account for their actions Purpose: Civil society, media, and elected representatives are better able to understand and support the use of evidence-based approaches to shape policies and practices that meet the interests of citizens

Strategies: Strengthening the capacity of citizens to demand performance, accountability and transparency from their elected representatives; Building/strengthening platforms and capacity for citizens’ participation in decision making, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation; Strengthening citizens’ capacity to access justice; Expanding the extent, and improve the quality, of dialogue and interaction among/between civil society, media, and the elected representatives.

 Decentralization policy; ◦ Implementation  Challenges in LG offices  Local government elections: no councilors  Political environment ◦ Donors shunning away from working with CSO’s  Nobody wanted to be associated with opposing force  Shrinking civil space for CSO’s  Deteriorating governance situation  Economic challenges ◦ Fuel scarcity  Change of staff at NCO  Change of government

GranteesThematic Area CHREAA &WHCAccess to justice/also focus on Gender Based Violence IPI, Umodzi Youth Org. Womens Rights Lobby Group & HRCC Right to Development (Monitoring Health, Water and Education Projects and Promoting citizen participation) DCT, APW & IPRSEMonitoring and Accountability of LDF and CDF and Cash transfer program YONECOYouth Empowerment ( Implementation of youth Development fund

 Grantees implementing second phase of the grants  Started with ten, 2 dropped out ◦ IPRSE ◦ Women’s Rights Lobby Group  Six have received final round  2 received 1 st tranche second phase  Also started implementation of the project 11 Citizen Charter  National Level activities

 Output 1:Enhanced dialogue among CSOs, media and elected leaders ◦ National Dialogue meetings  Youth Participation in YEDEF; Secretariat reacted to issues raised ◦ Public debates ◦ Radio Listening Club programs ◦ Village voice recordings  Output 2:Capacity development support aimed at enabling partner organisations to effectively implement interventions under the Programme. ◦ Trainings; Outcome Mapping, Gender mainstreaming, Social accountability tools  Output 3:Transparent and accountable elected representatives ◦ Interface Meetings ◦ Indabas ( stakeholder meetings) ◦ Public debates

 Output 4: Improved citizens’ participation in policy making, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation ◦ Capacity Building for Local Governance Structures (ADC& VDC)  Output 5: Improved citizens’ access to justice ◦ Sensitization and awareness on GBV/ couples counselling (working with victim support unit of police) ◦ Training CBE on various aspects of the law ( CBE used as contacts in the villages) ◦ Reviewed aspects impeding access and enforcement ( GBV & Chabwalo)  In collaboration with magistrates and law commission  Came up with short term solutions while advocating for changes

◦ Enhanced capacity of citizens to demand accountability from government as well as elected representatives ( people are now able to voice their concerns to duty bearers)  Voice recording  Interface meetings

 Improved citizen involvement in decision making processes ◦ Some MPs consulting ADC on development in the area Kasonga area ◦ In Thambani Electricity and Network connection was a result of citizens demands ◦ Media report on Thambani.doc  Improved collaboration between the interlocutors ( grantees) and the duty bearers i.e council officials  Grantees are More inclined towards getting evidence before engaging officials

 Improved awareness of local leaders and communities on their role in policy processes( campaign on changing some aspects of the law on domestic violence  local leaders ;T/A Mkanda taking a leading role in the movement and providing a lot o support to the process

 Active involvement of local structures in development processes  ( Photo: VDC and Radio Listening club members monitored construction of these teachers houses from LDF

 Improvement in access to justice; ◦ People are now opening up more and seeking justice for issues happening in communities as well as households; ◦ Traditional leaders agreed on solution to one of issues which was impeding access to justice ( Chabwalo ) ◦ Magistrates and police always available to provide guidance  Positive attitude towards women occupying positions in local structures by chiefs: ADC positions being filled by women ◦ T/A Govati encouraged ADC to replace vacant positions with capable women

 Projects boundary partners: MPs, District Council officials, Media,  Elected Representatives ◦ Started responding positively to interventions in their constituencies; acting on querries ◦ Some have started visiting their constituencies ◦ Stopped working with parallel (political) structures and working with the legitimately set local structures ( ADCs) Zomba;T/A Malemia, Phalombe T/A Kaduya ; ◦ Mwanza an MP from neighboring constituency demanded the project from the DC during the DEC meeting ◦ In Phalombe the MP called the grantee to arrange a meeting with them ◦

 District council official ◦ They are now more open with information ◦ They are now able to attend to representatives of citizens from local structure with issues ;

 DPD in one district used to be very aggressive at first claiming he is not answerable to civil society, shunned out the community members when they came to his office, currently he called the grantee to liaise on the district development plan which the district was developing; one of the community members also highlighted an experience with the DPD initially and current after the intervention

 Media are making the slowest progress  Some grantees have made good relationship with media ◦ i.e UYO have good relationship with media at all their function and their programs get published and aired. ◦ This contributed to getting the attention of the MPs and government officials to their intervention and brought positive changes  Calling grantees for stories.  Very little pro-activeness in reporting on issues

 Traditional leaders ◦ Very supportive of the interventions ◦ Showing to be more enlightened and taking more centre stage in issues

 Organisation challenges affected progress and implementation of intervention by grantees ; ◦ 2 dropped grantees and one facing challenges  Use of local structures in interventions bringing more ownership and empowerment  Elected representative in ministerial positions tend to feel more superior to their constituents and are the ones hardest to engage

 Most of the grantees are using volunteers based in the communities as their contact persons which seems to be working well ◦ Issues of low capacity are very visible; information documentation challenges  Community Leadership plays an important role in progress of the intervention  Personal characteristics of people in the set up structure have an influence how much progress is made ◦ Radio Listening clubs and VDC’s

 Use of media made a lot more impact on issues and getting attention form some partners like gov’t officials and parliamentarians ◦ YEDEF ◦ Water Points in Phalombe  Gap in linkage between identified issues and follow up with duty bearers ( not much is being done); ◦ One off activities and random visits to project sites ◦  Limited collaboration among CSO’s; ◦ each focusing on achieving their targets

Zikomo