The CEO for the NGO Regulatory Authority says the Authority is upbeat that more district Councils will implement the project-based signing of MOU with NGOs. Mhone made the remarks when making a presentation at the 2023 Annual General Meeting of the Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA) at Sigelege Beach Resort in Salima on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.
In 2018, District Commissioners requested NGORA to develop the MOU to be signed between Councils and NGOs on project basis.
Mhone encouraged Councils to sign the MOUs with NGOs saying that they are crucial for monitoring and service delivery.
“The MOUs will help Councils to easily monitor projects and improve service delivery by the NGOs to the public. The MoUs are also crucial in helping with issues of project sustainability as projects will be aligned district development plans. Further to this, citizen engagement and empowerment will also beencouraged,” he said.
He added that MOUs are necessary because they improve transparency, and ease the monitoring of NGO projects/programs. They also ease coordination between the Council and organisations and improve partnerships and thus reduce duplication of projects.
So far Dowa is the best performer in the implementation of the MOU signing followed by Mwanza and Mulanje. Dowa has signed the most MOUs with 20 MOUs signed out of 22 new projects introduced through DEC meetings as of March 2023.
Since January 2022, 17 out of 28 districts are implementing the MoU with 122 MoUs signed out of 439 projects representing 28%. Out of all these projects, our estimates are showing that the projects introduced are worth MK235 billion and since only 28% have signed these MOUs, only MK66 billion can be traced with the MOUs.