CDF has brought a lot of change - Malambo

COMMENT - And if the humble CDF can make a huge difference, imagine what would happen if the government supported local councils with 50% of national revenues? ($550 million in 2004.)

CDF has brought a lot of change - Malambo
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Mon 21 June 2010, 04:00 CAT

CHIPATA District Farmers Association (CDFA) coordinator Virgil Malambo has said the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) has brought a lot of change in areas where it has been managed in a transparent manner.

In an interview after his association revealed the outcome of its research on the CDF guidelines, Malambo said there had been a lot of benefit arising from the CDF.

“We have seen a lot of great benefits from these funds, especially where they have been managed in a transparent manner and this is what we want to see. Zambia is ours, the funds are ours, so we need to guard these funds jealously and report where people are not managing the funds properly,” Malambo said.

He also called for the translation of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) guidelines for the Zambian community to understand them better.

“The community must be aware of what is happening as regards to the CDF so the translation of the guidelines is an important aspect as well,” he said.

Malambo further said the association would help in pushing for the increment of CDF allocations.

And the research revealed that the biggest challenge and concern surrounding the CDF lies with lack of transparency and accountability at the community level.

The research which was presented at Chipata district public dialogue meeting last week by Gilbert Chisenga indicated that the CDF lacked transparency and accountability from the planning of community projects to the implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

The report also disclosed that the Ministry of Local Government and Housing delayed too much to disburse funds to approved projects and this made communities to wait for a long time to benefit from the CDF.

The delay, according to the report, also derails the implementation of the identified community projects.

The report also revealed that council officers failed to advise members of parliament and councilors objectively over decisions on CDF because of fear of being victimised.

It stated that the other concern was that MPs abused their authority to appoint four community leaders to the Constituency Development Committee (CDC) by picking their closest political cadres.

And the participants at the dialogue meeting learnt that Chiparamba ward in Kasenengwa Constituency has had no Ward Development Committee (WDC) since 2006.

The ward, whose councillor Malvern Zulu is also Chipata mayor, was supposed to form a committee about three years ago.

Chipata district commissioner Moses Nyirenda pledged that the matter would be discussed during the District Development Committee scheduled for June 23, 2010.

And Malambo said the association was currently carrying out a project titled ‘Public Policy Engagement’ to influence change in the CDF guidelines for improved management of the fund.

He said the project which was funded by the Zambian Governance Foundation was aimed at undertaking specific public policy engagement activities that would lead to revising the CDF guidelines to make them pro-poor.

Malambo said after the research and the dialogue meeting, his association would call other civil society organisations to plan on lobbying and advocacy issues.