Panos launches $150,000 scheme for governance

PANOS Institute Southern Africa (PSAF) has launched a US$150,000 radio platform for participation of the marginalised rural communities on the management and governance of natural resources in the Southern African Development Community.
The project will cover Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Although it was pegged to be operationalised by September this year, it is late by a month and is expected to end in October 2015.
And rural community radio stations will be used as a mode of communication that communities will have to enhance their participation.
Speaking during the radio platform citizen participation regional conference in Lusaka yesterday, PSAF executive director Lilian Keifer noted that the intervention of involving rural communities will enable them engage in dialogue and debate on the management and governance of the region’s natural resources and how they can be improved for their own benefit.
Ms Keifer said the thematic focus of the project is the intervention in extractive industries.
“It goes without saying that local communities have faced the brunt of the negative effects of the extractive activities in their areas. These range from toxic waste in the sources of the water and other sources of livelihoods, internal displacement, and poor working conditions, among others,” she said.
Ms Keifer said people do not have an opportunity of channels through which they can communicate their sufferings.
“PSAF sees the need to empower these communities with platforms like radio listening clubs where they can receive information on how to demand accountability from these industries and claim their protection and dignity,” she said.
Speaking at the same function, Panos Great Lakes regional director Cyprien Ndikumana said the project will help restore peace, especially in countries where wrangles are prominent due to abundant natural resources.
Mr Ndikumana added that local people will be able to air their views on the management of natural resources and “this will raise awareness to politicians, who will know exactly what rural communities have to say over their own minerals.”