Malawi: NGOs React to Bill Consultation Period

Council for Non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi (CONGOMA) and the National Advocacy Platform (NAP) say the period for consultation on the draft NGO Act Amendment bill of 2020 is too short.

The NGO Board of Malawi, which begun the consultation on 29 January, 2021, gave stakeholders two weeks to contribute to the development of the bill.

Development partners had asked the NGO Board of Malawi to conduct comprehensive and inclusive consultation before taking the bill to parliament.

The bill, which replaces the controversial NGO Act Amendment Bill of 2018, seeks to transform the NGO Board of Malawi into a more powerful regulatory authority.

It also seeks to impose new stiffer penalties and criminalisation in case of malpractices by NGOs

But the NGO community feels the bill has potential to limit civic space in the country.

‘We cannot have a meaningful consultation if there is no an agreed roadmap for all stakeholders’, Executive Director of CONGOMAN, Ronald Mtonga, said.

‘The period should have been longer. The board should have indicated which tools would be used in the consultation. The process should be all-inclusive’.

Similarly, the NAP Chairperson, Benedicto Kondowe, said the new bill needed thorough scrutiny of all stakeholders.

‘The entire NGO community and other interest stakeholders needed to review the draft bill in order to determine whether the concerns raised, based on the 2018 bill, have been fully addressed’, he said.

‘Stakeholders need more time to go through the bill so that they are able to give a nod or raise issues that still stand in the way of the law’.

But speaking at a consultative meeting in Lilongwe, the country’s capital, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Roselyn Makhumula, said the bill is a ‘good one’.

‘The new bill wants NGOs to cooperate with the government in entirety so that we implement projects in line with the government’s development agenda in order to achieve sustainable development’, she said.

Source: Nyasa Times

Photo source: NGO Board of Malawi

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp

About the Author