The NLGFC has applauded district grievance redress and management committees and district environmental  subcommittees for their positive  response at the end of district based trainings recently.

In an interview with this paper, the Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialist at the NLGFC Mr. Ephron Gausi said the trainings were aimed at  orienting the committees to the newly developed harmonized  manual for use in handling of  grievances for implementation  of social protection programmes such as the enhanced public works pilot project.

Gausi said the trainings were critical as the manual had  streamlined and rationalised  processes in addressing grievances across all social support programmes and humanitarian response activities such as  social cash transfer, the public works programme, community

Ephron Gausi- Environmental and Social Safeguards Specialist livelihoods enhancement, and  school meals program.  Gausi said the trainings also emphasized on the fact that,’  grievance redress mechanisms  are recognised as critical tools for transparency and accountability in social support programmes’.

He said, ’this is critical as  programme implementation  naturally generates complaints particularly where there are  misunderstandings or deviation from agreed modus operandi’.

The district based trainings also provided a scope of the  institutions, instruments,  methods, and processes of  achieving a resolution in a  project area.

The trainings involved 25  people and were conducted in the EPWP pilot districts of Chitipa, Karonga, Kasungu, Dowa, Nkhotakota, Lilongwe, Balaka, Chiradzulu, Phalombe and Blantyre.

The one day training also saw participants given hand sanitizers and disposable face masks which were provided by GIZ as a safeguard against COVID 19. The training also observed the one meter apart COVID 19 social distancing best practice.