By Ernest Mfunya
Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) over the weekend trained Mangochi-based media practitioners to build their capacity so that they should ably inform, educate and communicate to people in the rural areas about issues to do with social accountability and social protection programmes.
MEJN, Programmes Coordinator, Mike Banda said journalists should always play a crucial role in reaching out to citizens with adequate information on governance and other issues of national importance so they should demand their rights from duty bearers who should be accountable to the citizens.
Banda said this during a one-day training workshop in Mangochi where MEJN tackled, media ethics and how best the media can come up with programmes that should help citizens participate in various social protection programmes the government implements.
“Malawi moved from a time of one media house. We now have a lot of media houses and practitioners, as such, we organised the training workshop to discuss media ethics and how best media practitioners can come up with programmes that should help communities to participate in various development activities,” he added.
Banda said that media has the potential to reach out to rural masses who mostly participate in social protection programmes.
In his remarks, National Director of Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi Chapter, Aubrey Chikungwa appealed to the media practitioners to play an advocacy role to push for positive change by engaging policy makers to exercise transparency and accountability for socio-economic development.
According to Chikungwa, MISA Malawi is expected to roll out a project that focuses on raising community awareness of development projects taking place in rural areas to track progress, including a project involving community radio stations.
One of the participants, a producer at Umoyo Community Radio Station, Daniel Jackson, commended MEJN for organising the training saying it was insightful as it will help the media practitioners produce programmes that will inform citizens in rural areas on governance, transparency and accountability on social protection programmes.
“The workshop was insightful as we gained knowledge on how to produce programmes that can help inform communities about various government programs so that they understand what is happening in their community. This will help them to hold duty bearers accountable on various issues,” he added.
Government is currently implementing various social protection interventions such as Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP) and Malawi Watershed Services Improvement Project (MWASIP) and Climate Smart-Enhanced Public Works Programme (CS-EPWP).
MEJN is implementing the project in Mangochi called Fighting Inequalities with technical and financial support from NORAD, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation through Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Danish Church Aid (DCA)
The project seeks to reduce economic and social inequalities by enhancing citizens’ participation in policy-making processes.
