OSISA Urges Government to Implement ATI Law
By Ephraim Nyirenda-Tuntufye FM
The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) that supports the Justice and Peace Desk of the Catholic Diocese of Karonga in implementing health governance project , has asked government to speed up the process of coming up with procedures so that the Access to Information Bill can start working.
Programme Manager for OSISA , Cynthia Ngwalo Lungu said this during a visit to appreciate what CCJP is doing in Karonga and Chitipa districts.
Ngwalu in her remarks said, through the interface they had with different stakeholders such as; Area Development Committee, Health Advisory Councils and Civil Society Organization in the two districts, it has been observed that people do not have adequate information on health service governance.
“The community members and even local duty bearers do not know that they have the right to know how drugs are being utilized, how much money were put in the drug budget. Therefore, as a country Malawi, you are lucky that parliament passed ATI Bill that could solve many of these challenges in the Health sector” She said.
She therefore asked all partners to push government so that the ATI law be put practice.
In his remarks, the Caritas Secretary for the Diocese of Karonga Mwawi Shaba quickly said that as civil society organization, CCJP will try to work with other stakeholders and make sure that people are enjoying their right to good health service so that citizen could appreciate the role of government on the same.
Commenting on the plans to raise Nthalire Health Centre to a rural hospital, Mrs Cynthia Ngwalo Lungu said this is an opportune time considering that even the president made a public commitment on the same. Therefore, citizen have just to devise ways of following up in this pledge.
Open Society Initiative started funding CCJP of the Diocese of Karonga in 2016 and the first phase expired in June this year with an extension of another year with money amounting to $120,000.00.