Taking GBI back on track

To get the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) on track, one needs to listen to stories of local people such as Samuel Nsomela.

Nsomela, 33, is a local maize and tomato farmer from Siliya Village, Traditional Authority (T/A) Nkalo in Chiradzulu. He cultivates across the year, thanks to the fertile banks of the Lichenza—a perennial river that separates Chiradzulu and Thyolo districts.

When The Nation met Nsomela three years ago, he was not sure of the multi-million irrigation plant that had been constructed on Lichenza River just 100 metres from his house. And this year, Nsomela still hardly understands why the plant was constructed.

He only recalls hearing from his local chief that the area will benefit from some development activities. That was in 2011. Since then, nothing has happened at the plant which stands beautifully idle.

What Nsomela and his fellow farmers do not know is that the irrigation plant constructed along Lichenza River is one of the five dams that former Finance Minister Ken Lipenga, in an interview with Weekend Nation in March 2012, said were completed under GBI’s water retention programme.

The others were Livuwo Dam in Nkhata Bay, Luvwere Dam in Mzimba, Chimvu Dam in Thyolo and Nankhurukutu Dam in Mulanje. The dams are part of the 2 000 hectares developed in the 2011/12 national  budget for irrigation, both for commercial and smallholder farmers under the GBI project.

The question, then, is: If the locals meant to benefit from the project do not understand it, will the project succeed?

This, according to a study by Civil Society Agriculture Network (CisaNet) titled ‘Green Belt Initiative: An Assessment of the Policy Processes and Civic Engagement, is one key challenge that has stalled GBI’s progress.

The study notes that civic engagement in GBI has so far been very minimal.

“It has largely taken the forms of manipulation and group therapy at the worst, and one-way information flow from government to communities, at best. Community participation through chiefs is found to be seriously deficient.

“The key factors that have compromised civic engagement include the political economy context during the inception as well as pilot implementation phases of the GBI; lack of clarity on land questions and lack of an effective strategy for engaging communities and the private sector,” reads the study.

The study recommends the need to constitute GBI taskforces in targeted communities to facilitate civic engagement of ordinary people whose land is targeted by the initiative. Alternatively, adds the study, use village development committees (VCDs) or area development committees (ADCs) that are established under the decentralisation policy framework.

Besides civic  engagement, GBI national coordinator Henrie Njoloma also notes inadequate funding as a key challenge. However, the CisaNet study notes that the funding problem—though a general problem in government institutions—could be managed if there can be an effective resource mobilisation strategy to finance the strategic activities of the GBI particularly construction of irrigation infrastructure.

To achieve that, experts advise that the management of GBI needs to change—arguing for the need to be delinked from the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC).

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a contractor for one of the irrigation schemes attributes the slow progress of GBI to its being managed by OPC.

“The project is under OPC and you know how government offices operate. If it were being implemented by a separate entity, with government only financing and monitoring it, the story would have likely been different.

“The factory in Salima will be finished quickly because it is being funded by a bank loan from India. But you can note that land preparation and installation of irrigation infrastructure, which was supposed to be through by now, is yet to take shape because that is the area being handled by OPC,” he says.

Perhaps it is against this background that government, through the Public Reforms Commission, is currently in the process of removing GBI from OPC. The commission recommended to have GBI as a separate entity and an independent entity be created, namely the Green Belt Authority, as a way of strengthening it to accelerate Malawi’s development.

The question, however, is whether changing the managerial structure of GBI will solve financial woes that have stalled the initiative’s capacity to take off?

“The main challenge, right now, is that the initiative is not being funded effectively. We are failing to fund it when it is under OPC. I am not sure if the funding problem will be solved when GBI becomes semi-autonomous,” says TamaniNkhono-Mvula, CisaNet executive director.

Even the question of management will be problematic if GBI becomes a separate entity, adds Nkhono-Mvula.

However, despite these reservations, Nkhono-Mvula supports the Commission’s recommendation to move the initiative from the OPC.

“I feel the move would ease the bureaucratic processes of generating resources that the initiative has been facing. If it becomes a separate entity, decision making will be quicker,” he said.

According to Njoloma, the change in GBI management is currently at an advanced stage, and that Cabinet has already given them a nod,