Amidst a sombre atmosphere across the Warm Heart of Africa due to COVID-19, rare smiles in Malawi’s rural settings were captured in the last 3 months as YONECO cumulatively retrieved a total of MK 2,006,100 that was unlawfully taken from individuals who are benefiting from various humanitarian programmes.
For the last 4 years, YONECO has been in a partnership with World Food Programme (WFP), whereby the former has been managing an Integrated Complaints and Feedback Mechanism (CFM), with the aim of ensuring accountability to beneficiaries of various WFP programmes.
With the partnership yielding great results over the years, the last 3 months between November 2020 and January of 2021 have been particularly busy ones as YONECO – together with government district departments and other organizations implementing various WFP programmes – fought tooth and nail to retrieve a total of MK 2,006,100 which was unlawfully taken from beneficiaries.
Perpetrators of the uncivilized acts were some traditional leaders, members of various Village Development Committee (VDCs), and some primary school teachers in Nsanje, Chikwawa, Phalombe, Zomba, Machinga, Mangochi, as well as Dedza districts.
In the fight against food insecurity in Malawi, WFP is implementing various programmes such as Lean Season Response (LSR), Food Assistance for Assets (FAA), and School Meals – with YONECO managing the complaints and feedback which is received from across these programmes.
YONECO mainly uses toll-free lines (116, 5600, and 5800) to get feedback from WFP beneficiaries or whistle blowers. Other mechanisms deployed by YONECO include; community feedback sessions, Theatre for Development (TfD) activities and face-to-face interactions with complainants.
