The media has been singled out as a key stakeholder if the country is to achieve desirable results in the Governance Enable Service Delivery (GESD) project which the government of Malawi is implementing with financial support from the World Bank.
The five-year Project which is being implemented in 28 Local Authorities pegged to a tune of $100 million seeks to strengthen Local Authorities’ institutional performance, responsiveness and management of resources for smooth service delivery.
And as part of popularizing the project, the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) oriented media practitioners on among others fiscal decentralization, district development plans and effective service delivery along the principles of (GESD).
Director of Local government services, Richard Hara said the Ministry understands the importance of providing relevant tools and building capacity to the media for communication to thrive and benefit the citizenry.
Hara however bemoaned the absence of frequent media and government interface platforms, saying this is crippling down efforts to end misinformation and poor-quality messaging.
On his part National Local Government Finance Committee Acting Executive Director Dr Kondwani Santhe hailed the Project citing that it is bearing fruits.
According to Santhe, achievements and results of a best score pushes the other councils to perform well so to get good funding too.
During the interface it was revealed that Balaka district scored the highest among the beneficiary districts with Chiradzulu scoring lowest.