The European Union (EU) has called for the active involvement of ordinary Malawians in the process of demanding transparency and accountability from duty-bearers.
\nSpeaking when the EU handed over vehicles and motorcycles to the National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Public Trust in Lilongwe on Thursday, EU Ambassador to Malawi, Marchel Gerrmann, said citizens need more civic education to understand their rights and obligations.
\n \u201cThe empowerment of citizens by Nice, to demand transparency and accountability from duty bearers, is crucial for the promotion of domestic accountability in Malawi,\u201d Gerrmann said.
\nHe said the EU believes that strengthening democratic governance, domestic accountability and access to justice\u2014especially for women, girls and other vulnerable groups such as people with albinism \u2014 are crucial for sustainable development initiatives.
\nGerrmann said, with a network of 8,000 volunteers and a reach to Malawians in all the districts, Nice could play a role in encouraging citizens to claim and defend their rights.
\nNice Trust Board Chairperson, Susan Kaunda, said the vehicles and motorcycles would ease transportation challenges faced when providing civic education services.
\n\u201cWe promise to take good care of the vehicles and motorcycles as we have always done. Let me assure you that the Trust will put the resources given today to good use,\u201d Kaunda said.
\nNational Authorising Office Head of Unit, Nations Msowoya, said the government recognises good governance as a prerequisite for economic growth and development as reflected in Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II.
\nThe donated four vehicles and 11 motorcycles, which are worth K154 million, have been procured with funding from the European Development Fund through a programme called Chilungamo.
\nIn October 2016, the government and EU signed a Financing Agreement for Chilungamo Programme (Justice and Accountability).
\nThe EU has been supporting Nice since its inception 15 years ago. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The European Union (EU) has called for the active involvement of ordinary Malawians in the process of demanding transparency and accountability from duty-bearers. Speaking when the EU handed over vehicles and motorcycles to the National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Public Trust in Lilongwe on Thursday, EU Ambassador to Malawi, Marchel Gerrmann, said citizens need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58079,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58075\/revisions\/58079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}