Ministry concerned with Public Works results in Chitipa

National Local Government Finance Committee has urged Traditional Authorities (T/As) in Chitipa to exercise ownership of projects amid poor results in Public Works Programme (PWP) implementation.

The committee’s budget director Yohane Nyanja made the remarks during a full council meeting at Chitipa District Council where the committee introduced Enhanced Public Works Programme (EPWP) pilot project set to start in March 2019.

The director said the outgoing PWP, which was being implemented under the Malawi Social Action Fund (Masaf  IV) has brought concerns from donors that it is not showing tangible results on the ground.

“Our evaluation shows that the main reason for the project’s failure is because our communities do not assume ownership of the assets these projects create.

“I urge our chiefs to remind their subjects of their responsibility to ensure that development assets such as bridges, roads or forests are sustained,” said Nyanja.

Commenting on the issue, T/A Mwenewenya said there is need for people to change their mindset to achieve goals of development projects.

“People are not willing to sustain interventions a project has brought about when it [the project] phases out,” he said.

The World Bank, which funded the PWP under Masaf IV, commissioned the ten-month pilot EPWP project to improve on the previous (PWP) programme.

The pilot project will be implemented in 10 districts and will run from March to December 2019. Chitipa and Karonga are the selected districts in the Northern Region.