Canada and Malawi boost community radio investigative skills

BLANTYRE, Malawi — The Canadian government has partnered with MISA Malawi — the Malawi chapter of the Media Institute for Southern Africa — to empower community radio stations and enhance accountability for local projects. The initiative, “Investigative journalism and Social Accountability,” stems from a CA$69,744 (approx. US$50,120) agreement to foster active citizen and community media participation in local project implementation.

The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives is funding the project in which MISA Malawi trains 90 Malawian journalists from various community radio stations in investigative journalism to help them monitor local development funds, including the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). The Malawi Parliament approved the establishment of the CDF during the 2006–2007 Budget Meeting of Parliament after the government proposed the fund to ensure an even distribution of rural development.

However, audit reports suggest the fund has been prone to mismanagement due to a lack of transparency and accountability from responsible officers. For example, in 2020, the Public Accounts Committee of the Malawi Parliament summoned three district councils over the misuse of the CDF after a special audit report revealed the mismanagement of funds in the Dowa, Nsanje and Karonga districts between 2014 and 2016, citing ineligible expenditures and failure to deliver project materials or delivering materials with defects.

According to the agreement, the project sees MISA Malawi working with community radio stations to promote access to information at the district level. “This project seeks to ensure that ordinary Malawians participate in the design and implementation of local development projects and have access to relevant information on development plans and projects earmarked for their communities, enabling effective oversight of all community-level government and donor investments,” reads part of the agreement.

Know the projects

The six-month scheme, which started in October, requires community radio stations to introduce a new radio program called “Know the Projects in Your Area” and hold community dialog sessions. These activities aim to address concerns about the MWK 200 million (about US$115,000) that CDF allocated to members of parliament for local development.

MISA Malawi Chairperson Golden Matonga said the project would empower community radio stations, critical platforms for people to enjoy their rights to information and freedom of expression. Matonga spoke in October during the opening of a two-day training session for community broadcasters in Blantyre. He said that after the training, community broadcasters will serve as ambassadors in their communities, tracking the utilization of local development funds, such as the CDF. He further emphasized that community broadcasters are directly and easily accessible platforms for people at the grassroots level, allowing them to voice their views on various issues concerning them.

Increased newsroom capacity

Canadian High Commissioner to Malawi Adler Aristides said the training will help journalists and media practitioners investigate and promote social accountability and transparency in using local funds. They will learn to discuss ways to hold duty-bearers accountable and expose corruption. Aristides, who also represents Canada in Zimbabwe, Botswana and the Southern Africa Development Community, expressed hope that the relationship between Canada and MISA Malawi will create vibrant media platforms that enable communities to stay informed about social accountability issues in their local councils.

MISA Malawi championed the enactment of Malawi’s 2017 Access to Information Act (ATI), which took effect in 2020. However, a statement published on the MISA Malawi website notes that, as the country marks four years since the passing of the ATI Act, a culture of secrecy persists in public institutions, and local councils remain closed to the public. It says most city, town, municipal and district councils have yet to embrace and mainstream ATI, leaving many Malawians in the dark regarding development initiatives in their areas.

“Most local councils are yet to appoint or designate information officers in line with the ATI Act, and some do not have proactive means of disclosing information, such as indigenous systems, websites, or social media platforms,” the statement adds. It observes that most citizen-led structures established to drive development at the grassroots level are sidelined or rarely included in the planning and implementation of local development projects. Furthermore, many Malawians lack the voice and platform to hold duty bearers accountable and lack information on development plans and projects taking place or earmarked for their communities.

Community radio representatives say the project is enhancing their stations’ newsroom capacity. Maurine Kawerama, editor of Dzimwe Community Radio in Mangochi District, southern Malawi, says that limited capacity to investigate the implementation of community development projects has been a longstanding challenge for community stations. “We’ve often heard about government announcements introducing various community development projects in different areas. However, many of these have not materialized, largely due to fund misappropriation and a lack of accountability from office bearers. We believe this project will equip community radio journalists with the skills to uncover issues behind these implementation failures,” she says.

Kawerama also says such training would bolster the reputation of community radio stations, where most personnel work as volunteers due to financial constraints that limit the ability to hire dedicated staff.

The author reports on the industry from Blantyre, Malawi.

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