Media advocacy buoys development
Clean water is basic human right and one essential amenity the Malawi Government is committed to providing to all citizens through a national decentralisation policy.
The major aim of this policy is to speed up improvements in services delivery at the local and community level. This is based on the notion that decentralization reforms result in effective and equitable development, which centres on full participation, representation and involvement of ordinary citizens in decision-making process in their communities.
Notwithstanding the policy, this had not been the reality for the communities of Phalombe. The local citizens, especially women, still walked long distances of over four kilometres to fetch safe drinking water each day, increasing their work burden and time away from their families.
Most community members, who could not manage such long distances, had simply resorted to sourcing water from nearby contaminated rivers and water sources, resulting in outbreaks of water-borne-diseases, such as vibro-cholera and diarrhoea.
Compounding the problem is the absence of a district hospital, with a few local health facilities only available to cater for outpatients with minor ailments.
The Mwananchi-Liu Lathu Project, implemented in two T/As Mkhumba and Kaduya in 2010 in Phalombe District, was aimed at improving interactions between local citizens and the decision-makers, by creating a social platform which would provide opportunities for citizens and stakeholders to articulate critical issues affecting the communities.
To realise the goal of the programme, Umodzi Youth Organization (UYO) devised deliberate approaches in developing synergies and collaborations with its boundary partners in the district such as community-based organisations, the district council, district youth office, area and village development Committees, youth clubs, the Institute for Policy Interaction (IPI) and the media designed the project called Phalombe Advocacy and Community Empowerment (Pace). This project sought to strengthen the capacity of the local structures that seemed to have influence in advancing local governance agendas for social service delivery at the district council.
In consultation with the community, UYO identified the scarcity of safe water and lack of quality social service delivery as the key local issues to address. UYO thus engaged citizens, local leaders, members of the local structures and the local district officials in public debates and interface meetings, which were geared at allowing these local citizens to raise their voices on issues and concerns affecting them.
Although some of those issues particularly required on-the-spot responses from members of Parliament (MPs) in the constituencies, as well as other duty-bearers from the district council, the MPs were hard to get to participate in such fora. Some were reported to have last been seen in their constituency areas during voters’ campaigns in 2009.
Thus, this was where media advocacy came in handy. Mwananchi-Liu Lathu project used media engagement approach, especially through print media, which created a spontaneous space for MPs and other local government officials to acknowledge and react to the citizens’ voice, articulating challenges and issues faced by their local communities.
Despite a volley of threats directed towards UYO’s project officers from some elected representatives following such media coverage, the MPs eventually understood the dynamics and began responding to the articulated needs of the citizens. The MPs began the installation of 15 new water pipes and maintenance of 10 non-functioning boreholes, with resources from Constituency Development Fund (CDF), among others.
Through the project, several lessons can thus be drawn. These include the efficacy of working in partnerships, which has been an agent of change, and the power of media advocacy and citizen engagement, through which a spontaneous platform can be established and through which citizens’ voices provoke decision makers’ better understanding and response, without direct contact and dialogue. The role of the media in local governance and socio-economic development cannot be underestimated.n
—The author is a programme director for Umodzi Youth Organisation, an institution which has been implementing Democracy, Humans Rights and Governance Programmes under Liu Lathu with support from Overseas Development Institute (ODI) through the coordinating partner Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn).
