By Vincent Gunde
The Ministry of Gender through the Department of Community Development is mobilizing communities to participate in Community development activities with a vision of empowering and self-sustaining women, boys and girls.
The Ministry has developed a concept on Community Development Month (CDM) which also happens to be one of the ministry’s reforms, this is a strategy to engaging and empowering the citizenry to organize for collective action towards a common purpose.
CDM is a month dedicated toward community development work where government, traditional leaders, community members, religious leaders, development partners, donors, parliamentarians, the media, and the general public will participate jointly to share knowledge, ideas, skills, material and financial resources to develop their areas.
Presenting the project to the District executive committee (Dec) in Dowa, District Community Development Officer (DCDO) for Dowa Stella Tsiga Mvalo, said CDM is aimed at improving the implementation of the community development programmes on a regular and sustainable basis country-wide by harnessing the self-help spirit.
Tsiga-Mvalo said the CDM has objectives of rekindling the self-help spirit and revitalizing the role of communities in development, empowering communities to define their development agenda, facilitate ownership of development programmes and improving stakeholder coordination in planning, financing, and implementing community development programs.
She said the CDM is facing some challenges such as low self-help spirit among community members, lack of ownership of development projects, low capacity of community leaders to hold service providers accountable, high illiteracy levels and increased environmental degradation due to high pressure and dependency on land.
The Officer said CDM will address the challenges through reviving self-help spirit among community members, empowering communities to define their own development agendas, and improving efficiency in the utilization of the resources at all levels
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She said activities involved in CDM projects include construction and rehabilitation of various infrastructures, irrigation development, clearing construction and rehabilitation of public and private roads, and afforestation, among others.
“CDM is proposed to kick-start every year in the month of May and has benefits such as easing mobility challenges to markets and hospitals, and local leaders and communities empowered to be self-reliant in development,“ said Tsiga-Mvalo.
In his remarks, Acting Chief Planning Officer for Dowa District Council Yusuf Laki, said CDM is a long awaited initiative which will revamp Youth Week as observed in the previous years’ calling on partners in the district to support the initiative financially and materially.
District Commissioner for Dowa Stallichi Mwambiwa has already pledged his support towards the CDM initiative and has promised to go and implement the activities alongside community members in the district.
