On July 4th, 2014, the civil society organizations from Dowa district met at Linde Motel, Mponela in Dowa. With support from Kusamala’s CSA project, the organizations in this meeting reviewed the draft Dowa Civil Society Network’s constitution, and the draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) documents. They also agreed to elect a new committee to lead the group, taking over from the current interim committee.
Participants
With Masankho Kamsisi Banda’s excellent facilitation, the participants discussed the details of the constitution and MoU and made necessary changes. The documents have since been circulated to all of the network members, so that those who were not present at the meeting will also have their opinions represented. Once the commenting phase is over, the MoU will be signed by the Network and the Dowa District Council. The election of new committee members started with a nomination process using the free online survey tool, Survey Monkey, to ensure transparent and fair results. Following the nominations, final voting for specific committee positions will commence, also online. The goal is to have a committee set by the beginning of August.
MoU between Dowa District Council and DCS Netword
As these processes are on going, we are glad to see that the network will be sending Mponela AIDS Information and Counseling Center (MAICC) to represent the network a national conference, dubbed ‘Malawi Agriculture at 50: Towards a Common Vision for the Next 50 years’ as organized by the Civil Society Agriculture Network (CISANET). The Conference is scheduled to take place on the 30th-31st of July at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe. MAICC will ably represent the network, as they are implementing several Ag-nutrition (food security) projects.
