Communities have been asked to strive to know their rights to development and take an active role in project implementation stages if the country is to develop.
National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Mulanje district manager Twambilire Mwabungulu said this when his organisation hosted an empowerment meeting for communities at Chonde, Traditional Authority (T/A) Mthiramanja in Mulanje South West Constituency on Friday.
“In our role to enhance good governance, we are here to ensure that communities know their rights, roles and responsibilities in the entire development process starting from mobilising themselves for a particular cause,” he said.
Among other critical issues, communities of Chonde were trained in influencing development in their area. For example, they were empowered on how they can demand and track development through active participation in community-based initiatives such as Bwalo La Nzika.
On her part, group village head (GVH) Chonde hailed Nice for the insight on how best her subjects could go about developing their area.
She said: “This meeting is an eye opener. We did not know that we have powers to demand and scrutinise development.”
