Director of Planning and Development (DPD) for Mchinji District Council, Noel Dakamu, says the district needs to create a platform to harmonise development initiatives among non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Most development activities in the district have not been appreciated because of lack of convergence between government departments and donor-funded organisations in the area, according to Dakamu.

Dakamu was speaking in Mchinji during a district monitoring and evaluation coordinating committee (DMECC) meeting organised by local government accountability and performance (LGAP).

‘District councils are living activities where various development initiatives are impended, both funded by government and donors’, he said.

‘So, for all these activities to be seen, we need an active monitoring and evaluation component like DMECC which can effectively help track all the projects run by government and civil society organisations’.

‘DMECC became inactive two years ago and that put us off track in terms of project monitoring and evaluation as a district’, he noted.

Chairperson for civil society organisations in the district, Anderson Chikalipo, who is District Manager for Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO), said the resuscitation of the district projects monitoring tool would enhance transparency and accountability of the NGOs in the district.

‘DMECC will be very key in the mapping of various interventions of NGOs and provide technical support towards the implementation of the interventions’, he said.

‘This will also enhance transparency and accountability of NGO programming in the district’.

Source: Malawi News Agency

Photo source: Malawi News Agency