This is another project that MEJN is implementing. The project focuses on monitoring the implementation of the MGDS III. It is also a multi-dimensional project with focus on both the national and local level. At national level the project interacts largely with the National Planning Commission being a custodian of all development agendas in this country MGDSIII inclusive.
Other partners include relevant ministries and departments who forms part and parcel of the Technical Working Group at that level. These include among others representatives from the donor community, heads of Ministries and Departments. This is a five year project and runs from 2019 to 2023 and its been funded by IM Swedish Development Partner. The total funding for the five years is about 3.4 million Swedish Kroner which translates to approximately MK 270.8 million.
The project aims at enhancing compliance and responsiveness by duty bearers in the implementation of the MGDS III for development results and outcomes which will translate into improved better service for Malawi and societal change at large. The project’s interventions are geared at raising citizens’ awareness about policy processes and building their capacity to enable them demand transparency and accountability about public service delivery. It is being implemented at national level and in Salima and Nsanje Districts. In salima the project is reaching out to three Area Development Committees of Kuulunda, Makanjira and Ndindi. In Nsanje the project is also reaching out to three ADCs of Mbamera, Chimombo and Malemia.
The project has entered the second year of implementation and so far its accomplishments include:
- Raising awareness about the MGDS III and its priorities and flagship projects among CSOs and the citizens in Salima and Nsanje.
- Assessment of the status of implementation of the MGDS III which has shown that implementation is lagging behind such that most of the targets set in the document are off-track and may not be achieved.
- Sensitizing- CSOs, Members of Parliament and Government officials both at district and national levels about the status of the implementation of the MGDS III and lobbying for the scaling up of the implementation.
- Tracking public expenditure of selected development projects in Salima and Nsanje whose results have been presented to stakeholders including Members of Parliament and Government officials. As a result of the exercise construction works on some of the projects which stalled for a long time have been resuscitated (Nsanje Mortuary Project and Nnema Clinic in Salima)
- Held media campaign to lobby for prioritization of MGDS III Implementation in the national budget. In addition to this project, IM Swedish Development Partner has given MEJN an additional funding for implementation of interventions aimed at safeguarding civil society spaces and engagement on public policy. This component will be added on to the main project and for this year an Addendum to the Contract was signed in July 2020 for an additional funding of MK 10.6 million. Implementation of the activities under this component has just started.
Major achievements under this project include
- Responsive duty bearers to engage CSOs in development of the successor document to the vision 2020- MEJN led the consultation process
- Multistakeholder group established on MGDS III and National Policy Agenda as a steering committee for all policy planning implementation and monitoring
- Responsiveness by duty bearers on substandard projects that MEJN discovered during public expenditure tracking survey- Nsanje Mortuary and substandard bridges that have been demolished worthy 14 Million each just to mention a few.
