‘Stable democracies attract investment’
National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) says stable and established democracies attract investment from across their borders, eventually benefiting their citizens.
Speaking to journalists on Nice’s participation at this year’s Malawi International Trade Fair, the chairperson of the board of trustees, Bishop Francis Kaulanda said the organisation’s dream is to ensure that the country attracts vast amounts of investment.
He, therefore, called on the public to support the work of Nice as the country prepares for the first-ever tripartite elections in 2014.
“If not well understood by the majority of a country’s citizenry, elections can lead to the exodus of investors and lead to stagnation in their social economic development endeavours. This is what Nice wishes to prevent in Malawi through all its activities as outlined for the next few months till May 2014,” said Kaulanda.
He noted that in an environment where democratic values are embraced, it is easy for businesses to operate, expand and bring the fruits to all citizens to enjoy their fundamental rights including freedom to participate in their economic activities as individuals or groups for their common good.
“Civic education, therefore, contributes towards creating an enabling environment in that it empowers people to participate and provides space to demand good policies and accountability for the development of a nation including trade/economic related policies,” he said.
At this year’s fair, Kaulanda said Nice will carry out and exhibit a number of activities to reach out to people that would otherwise not have known anything about the work of the organisation and its benefits to the country’s economic growth.
Nice was established as a project of the Government of Malawi in 1999 with support from the European Union (EU) and it has been involved in civic education for all elections that have taken place.
After operating as a project, Nice transformed itself from a project of the Malawi Government to a public trust in 2012.
It is largely funded by the EU under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and on a smaller scale by the Government of Malawi.
