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Malawi CSOs press JB on 20-point petition

Malawi civil society organisations (CSOs) in the country are still pushing government to act on remaining issues raised in their 20-point petition presented to the late Bingu wa Mutharika administration on July 20 last year.

Feeling government is not keen to continue acting on the petition, the CSOs have since implored the UN through the UNDP administrator Helen Clark, who was recently in the country, to assist in pushing the current administration to adhere to the July 20 petition and road map as agreed by the two sides.

But Malawi government spokesperson and Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu on Monday said government is still committed to addressing the issues raised in the petition, only that it feels there are areas that it can prioritise such as turning around the economy and attaining food security.

Council for Non-Governmental Organisations in Malawi (Congoma) chairperson Voice Mhone, who led the CSO delegation that met Clark, confirmed in an interview yesterday that the 20-point petition was one of the issues discussed during the meeting.

“Our feeling is that government thinks that the petition has fallen away, yet based on the road map that we devised, there are still issues that have not been tackled. We told the UNDP administrator that the petition was not going to an individual and that there is need for the remaining issues to still be tackled,” he said.

Mhone said among issues of concern are the continued erratic supply of fuel, shortage of drugs in hospitals and the declaration of assets by leaders.

The petition prompted Mutharika to open up negotiations with the CSOs through the Presidential Contact and Dialogue Group (PCDG).

After a series of meetings, the two sides came up with a report and an implementation strategy, with a requirement that the CSOs be given space to monitor the implementation process.

Mhone said the report and the road map were presented to President Joyce Banda who in turn promised to set another PCDG and also identify key ministries that could work with the CSOs.

“Both these two things have not been done and on October 4, we passed a message through the Minister of Education to remind the President and we also asked the presidential adviser on NGOs to do the same, but we have not heard anything,” he said.

Kunkuyu said government thought of prioritising issues of the economy and food security because it felt once these matters are addressed and stability is attained in the economy, some of the issues in the petition would also have been addressed.

Said Kunkuyu: “Malawians should be assured that government is not giving a deaf ear to the issues raised in the petition, the commitment is still there.”

Clark, in an interview before her departure, agreed that CSOs need to be given more space to operate effectively. She observed that, currently, it seems the local CSOs have such space more than before.

The 20-point petition was presented to Mutharika at the end of a mass demonstrations across the country on governance and human rights issues that saw 20 people dead.

Among the issues raised were bad laws, that the Banda administration has addressed.

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