Govt committed to protect promote and defend civic space

Edward Chileka Banda : Chief Executive Officer (Ngora)

Non Governmental organization Regulatory Authority (NGORA) has reiterated Government commitment of preserving civic space in the country.

NGORA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Edward Chileka Banda said this when he addressed the media soon after opening the Council for Non Governmental organization (Congoma) Policy brief on civic space launch in Lilongwe.

Banda said Malawi is fortunate because freedoms and human rights are embedded in the Republic constitution.

“So the state has the primary responsibility to ensure that freedoms and human rights of various groups are protected. So, in promoting and defending civic space you cannot remove the role of government, the role of the state, as I indicated earlier on freedoms and human rights have responsibilities and that therefore, it is important because the civic space is protected by a set of laws and policies, ” he said.

Chileka Banda said that  it is also important for civic space defenders and human rights NGOs, civil society organizations to operate legally it will be very important because it helps the government to ensure that it protects the NGOs protects the communities and ensures that there are no criminal activities happening within the space.

“That is why I am expressing government’s commitment to promoting and defending human rights and freedoms” he said

In an interview , CONGOMA programs manager Simekinala Kaluzi, commended Government for the assurance in preserving civic space.

He said the civic space is very important since Malawi is a democratic society.

“Believe that civic space allows people to partake in decision making, requesting duty bearers to be accountable, and also at the same time ensuring that their concerns are addressed. So to hear that Government is opening up its good news,” he said.

Kaluzi said its crucial that we empower the citizens themselves so that they are able to share what they think is necessary for them to contribute to the development processes.

“We believe that development is supposed to be a collaborative effort. So all the parts and all the stakeholders to be involved need to be empowered. So what we have noted so far from this civic space paper is that we claim indeed, that the communities are being empowered through the various local government structures, but what I’ve noted is some of them are not functioning and that has devastated them from contributing profitably to the democratic process, ” he said.

He said there is need for more citizens to participate in this process by deliberately looking at what is the choking developer special, and some of these have to do with education.

On closure of some NGOs, Chileka said there are various reasons leading into this. He promised Government support to ensure NGOs are not closing.

“Some of these have to do with the laws that governing civic space. Some of these have to do with the weakness of the civil society conditions due to lack of funding. So I believe that by ensuring that all the stakeholders are taking up their roles, we should be able to empower citizens and also ensure that the government is responding to the needs of the citizens themselves.