Lilongwe District gets K299m for Masaf IV
Lilongwe District Council has received K299 million (about $434 693) from the Local Development Fund (LDF) to implement a 12-day safety net project to reduce the impact of the anticipated hunger.
Speaking during a district executive committee meeting, director of public works for the council, Mathews Lungu, said 24 928 beneficiaries will work in 28 hotspot areas which will be aggregated into hydrological catchment areas of five-kilometre radius across the district where they will get K7 200 (about $10) for 12 days’ work.
“The hotspots have been identified and are being consolidated. Beneficiaries will be identified through participatory wealth ranking at community meetings where they will be recorded and given an identity card before this weekend,” he said.
Lungu said the council received communication from LDF to start implementing the first phase on January 18 2016. It is scheduled to run between January and February.
He said: “This communication means that the schedule of activities will have to be cut short to ensure that we qualify for funding of about K461 million for the 24-day second phase which is scheduled for February and March 2016.”
LDF information technology specialist Steven Chakola who is also Safety Nets Systems desk officer for Lilongwe said beneficiaries enrolled in this year’s project will be maintained for three years to assess the impact of safety nets on the poor and ultra poor.
Malawi Government has earmarked K5.8 billion (about $8.4million) sourced from World Bank for the first cycle of safety nets programmes which is set to benefit 450 000 households nationwide. n
