The Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC) has funded the formulation of the service charters for health, water, environment, education and agriculture sectors in Dowa district.
MHRRC provided the support with funding from Danish Church Aid (DCA).
Speaking in an interview, the MHRRC’s Project Coordinator, Chimwemwe Sakunda thanked the Dowa District Council through the leadership of District Commissioner Fannie Msimuko and the former Director of Planning and Development now with the Mulanje District Council Emmanuel Bulukutu for providing human resource from various sectors who worked tirelessly orienting the communities and making relevant research for improved service charters to be easy and possible.
“The formulation of the service charters needed much time, understanding and effort, interactions thereby sharing pearls of wisdom during the course of service charter formulation,” Sakunda said.
She expressed hope that the service charters will serve the people and communities of the district better and let them enjoy the services from 2016 to 2018.
In his remarks, Dowa District Council’s chair councillor Precious Chaguza Kambuzi said the council is committed to address these issues in the areas of health, water, environment, education and agriculture and strives to serve the people of the district.
Chaguza said though the formulation phase of the service standards will only be concentrated in the two traditional authorities Kayembe and Chiwere, implementation will cover the whole district.
“The council considers the said service standards to mark a social contact between the council and all the people of Dowa. The formulation was made with the full involvement and participation of everyone,” Chaguza said.
The council chair commended the Service Charter Task Force for leading the process of formulating the service standards for the district expressing the council’s commitment to see it work.
The MHRRC is implementing a 2 year (2016- 2018) Citizen Voice in Local Governance and Development Processes project in the two districts of the country namely Dowa and Chitipa.
