Country: Malawi
Social Media: Facebook
Focal Point: Leonard Matanda, National Director
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Tel: +265 99 3 949 750
Mission and vision
Our Mission is to be a leading institution in uniting and promoting human rights youth NGOs in Malawi to be empowered through capacity building, coordinating and implementing initiatives.
General description of the CSO work in the anti-corruption area
Two main projects are running side by side to inadvertently prevent and fight corruption.
Child Participation Forum: This particular project provides children to take a leading role in making sure that proceeds for National Budget trickle down towards their progressive realization of social rights.
Social Accountability Monitoring: duty bearers are accountable for both the decisions that they make as well expenditure management. Any departure from approved budget is traced with reasonable temerity to make sure that justification is made or corrective action is implemented. Members of the network also tracks expended money and the impact the expenditure has significantly made.
Specific description of the CSO work in relation to the UNCAC
Open Contracting Multi Stakeholder Group is pleased to be a flagship institution in the implementation of a Pan-African State of the Union Project that has been tracking the implementation of nearly fifteen (15) Legal and Policy Instruments by the African Union.
Noting the paramount importance of tracking the compliance levels of the African Union, the Reference Group considered it prudent to expand the scope of tracking to include critical convention of the United Nations.
The importance of the UNCAC in the compliance study cannot be exaggerated. Each year, members of National Advocacy Platform – NAP, consisting of 77 members provide feedback regarding how the State has adhered to the provisions of the legal and policy instruments. The UNCAC is reviewed in the same manner. In the end, Policy Brief is developed for the Quarter and submitted to the Office of the President and Cabinet for their attention and action dealing with shortfalls.
Specific description of the CSO work in relation to the review mechanism of the UNCAC
The Open Contracting Multi Stakeholder Group is involved in making sure that the Focal Points and no institutions working in the fights against corruption are working in silos. In view of that, OCMSG recently managed to broker a working relationship between the Ministry of Justice, Anti-Corruption Bureau on one hand and the Corruption and Rights Watch and Malawi Economic Justice Network on the other hand. This collaboration mechanism is suitable considering that the National Integrity Strategy identified CSOs as one of the solid and durable pillars of the strategy. Noting the recognition, it was considered prudent to ensure that key institutions in the CSOs are organized to represent the larger proportion of the constituency. it is therefore pleasing to note that during the previous review Malawi Economic Justice Network – MEJN was involved in the Self-Assessment.
CSOs are optimistic that more efforts will be made to have additional members of the CSOs to be considered for future UNCAC Reviews. In the meantime, as stated in the above, the CSOs is preoccupied with ensuring that even the private sector claims its own suitable space in the fights against corruption.
National Anti-Corruption Forum is on the cards to sensitize the business community that they are not on the receiving end anymore. Founded on the knowledge that was gained at the last UNCAC Workshop and Review Mechanism, CSOs will take a leading role in establishing a National Anti-Corruption Drive that will ensure that even private sector is vital in the fights against corruption.
Anti-Corruption events in your region
Impressed by the definitive role of private sector as prescribed by the UNCAC, there is paper work on the table, which is seeking to bring virtually all members of Malawi Confederation Chamber and Commerce, which is a confederacy of reputable companies in Malawi.
The Conference will be held under the theme: Placing the Corporate Companies as Centrality for eradicating Corruption in Malawi.
It is evident that private companies in Malawi have not had visible contribution to the fight against corruption perhaps due to notion that they do not have direct link to any. Nonetheless, noting from the latest cases of corruption, reputable business captains were arrested and others requested to proffer evidence as State Witness in the court of Law.
In that range, it is imperative to establish visible and solid connections between the CSOs, MDAs and the Private Sector to ensure that there is segregation of duties amongst the players to maximize on efficiency and effectiveness.
The outcome of the Conference will be a duly signed working Memorandum of Understanding to govern the relationship amongst all sectors in the fight against corruption in Malawi.
If you or someone from your organization has participated in a workshop on UNCAC and its review mechanism organized by UNODC/ UNCAC Coalition, please indicate who, when and where
Leonard Ephraim Reginald Matanda, the National Director for Open Contracting Multi Stakeholder Group, and Executive Member for NGO Coalition for Child Rights – NGO CCR participated in 2018 UNCAC Multi – Stakeholder Workshop on UNCAC and Review Mechanism which was held on 8–12 May 2018 in Senegal.