LL city councilors in ICT engagement with residents
Lilongwe City Council has adopted a digital communication application called Mzinda Platform that attempts to facilitate service delivery by enabling residents to engage with their elected Councilors and service providers.
The implementers of the platform; mHub and Citizens for Justice (CFJ) on Monday engaged the 24 Lilongwe City councilors to train them on how the web application operates.
CFJ Executive Director Reinford Mwangonde said the web application will help to enhance service delivery as residents will among others be able to instantly reach institutions such as ESCOM and Water Board without a need for physical interaction or having to wait for a community meeting.
“Mzinda will enhance citizen participation in reporting on the delivery of essential services such as water, electricity and waste collection. The reports by citizens through the platform will be visible to other citizens and accessible by the relevant stakeholders and that will enhance responsiveness from councilors, city council and service providers”, he said.
Mwangonde added that media personnel from various service providing institutions and city council will be able to login Mzinda and respond to queries received from residents.
Mayor for Lilongwe City, Councilor Willie Edward Chapondera said the platform has come at a time when the city is growing hence needing people to play an active role on what should done in their respective areas.
“The platform has the ability to transform the city because council or service providers alone cannot know all faults in the city which is growing everyday but through interactions with residents we shall be able to know every problem in time and respond accordingly”, said Chapondela.
Lilongwe City residents can log in to http://www.mzinda.com, send an SMS to 0 888 242 063 or share on Facebookhttps://web.facebook.com/mzindawanga/ about service delivery in their area. The application is under ICT for Citizen Engagement Project being funded by OSISA.
