Malawi Economic Justice Network (Mejn) has said people in rural areas must understand the national budget to be able to assess and monitor how funds are being used for the country’s development.
Mejn Southern Region coordinator Mike Banda said this on Wednesday during the closing ceremony of a three-day public budget transparency training that brought together participants from area development committees (ADCs) from nine districts, including Mwanza.
Banda said Mejn organised the training in line with the Decentralisation Act of 1998 which encourages involvement of grass-roots structures in national issues.
“The workshop, comprising six modules, including decentralisation and economic literacy, was funded by Tilitonse.
“Communities at grass-roots level need to be enlightened on public budget and other important economic activities because they will understand and monitor the economy more accurately,” he said.
Mwanza district commissioner Gift Rapozo commended Mejn for the training, saying rural leaders would now be able to play an active role in monitoring public funds in their respective districts.
He said people at grass roots are important in the formulation of budgets because they have a better understanding of challenges they face within the societies they live in.
“The training will help district councils to work more effectively with ADCs because they are now aware of various aspects of government and the national budget. ADCs will now be able to assess how the district council works and how allocated money has been used,” said Rapozo.
