CSOs asked to probe K327m ECD, nutrition funding
Members of Parliament (MPs), under the Parliamentary Committee on Social Welfare and Community Affairs, have appealed to civil society organisations (CSOs) to help probe the status of K327 million meant for nutrition and early childhood development (ECD) programmes.
The MPs made the appeal in Lilongwe on Thursday when Civil Society Organisations Nutrition Alliance (Cisona), in partnership with Save the Children International (SCI), presented their findings on budgetary allocations trends towards ECD and nutrition programmes.
The meeting attracted MPs from various committees, including Health; Aids and Nutrition; Health and Population; Agricultural and Natural Resources; Education, Science and Human Resources; Budget and Finance and Women’s Caucus.
Parliamentary Committee on Social Welfare and Community Affairs chairperson Richard Chimwendo-Banda (Malawi Congress Party-MCP) told the participants that his committee has been facing difficulties to track and establish the status of the K327 million of the K950 million the House approved for improving nutrition and ECD programmes in the country.
He said: “Of course, we are not insinuating that the funds have been cashgated [stolen]. But we want the civil society to help us probe and establish the status of these funds.
“We want to know whether the Treasury released the funds or not. If the funds were released, we would be interested to know how they have been used because on the ground, there is nothing [to show for it].”
Save the Children director for programme quality and development Stanley Mwase said although Malawi has made significant strides towards combating undernutrition, indicators are still far from convincing.
He observed that government still has a long way to increase its allocation to nutrition budget from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent by 2020, a commitment it made at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in London, United Kingdom (UK). n
