The Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) has created a Social Development Directorate, an umbrella body that brings under one management, five Commissions of the Conference. The new structure is a direct implementation of the aspirations of the ECM strategic framework 2013-2015.
In an exclusive interview with AMECEA Online News in Nairobi, the new director of ECM Social Development Directorate, Mr. Carsterns Mulume said that all activities of the conference have been streamlined into three major directorates namely the Social Development Directorate, the Pastoral Directorate and the Finance, Investment and Administration Directorate.
“During the consultations, it was realized that there was lack of integration amongst the social commissions, namely the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM), Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Catholic Health, Catholic Education as well as Catholic Social Communications Commissions. Basically you would find that CADECOM for instance would independently be implementing a food Security program in one area and targets the schools, which belongs to the Education Commission,” Mr. Mulume explained.
He said that the matter was even worse whenever there were calls for proposal to fund certain projects and several commissions would apply at the same time. “At the end of the day the Secretary General would have to sign three to four proposals going to the same partner. We needed to therefore merge and come up with an integrated approach to our programming
As a result The Catholic Bishops in Malawi decided to establish the Social Development Directorate which comprises of five commissions namely CADECOM/Caritas Malawi, Health, Justice and Peace, Education and Social Communications.
He said that the directorate plans to come up with a joint capacity statement and a strategic plan which will be aligned to ECM Strategic framework. “This is going to foster our joint strategic advocacy, as well as strengthen the technical committee within our institutions as we try to be more aggressive while mainstreaming the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church.”
He explained that ECM is not dismantling Commissions but rather ensuring that they are as vibrant as possible. “The Director of Social Development Directorate has to oversee vibrant functioning of the Commissions through resource mobilizations and programs implementation by working in an integrated manner and as a team. This will also ensure cordial working relationships among the commissions.”
Mulume explained that the directorate must always have firsthand information on the projects being implemented by the commission and has a mandate to give directions wherever necessary and follow up on the reporting. “The Commissions can get funding on their own initiatives but this must be through the office of the Director,” he explained adding that instead of the Secretary General of the Conference getting five reports from the commissions, there will be only one integrated report from the directorate; similarly instead of the Secretary General reviewing five proposals at the same time, the proposals would have been reviewed by the Social Development office and a recommendation given.
To avoid dependence of commissions that are not capable to raise funds for the implementations of their projects, Mulume said that the directorate plans to build capacity of each commission on resource mobilization, monitoring and evaluation and any other relevant field to ensure effectiveness and vibrancy.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News