ILEDISNET wants community to raise voices
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- Published on 21 July 2017
The community has been motivated to raise their voices after realizing some difficulties in accessing primary public services. A Project Coordinator for Ilemela District CSO Network (ILEDISNET), Majaliwa Chui, says the society’s silence and its little involvement in demanding for budgeted financial expenditures has put hurdles on realizing primary public service delivery.
ILEDISNET is a CSO based in Mwanza Region. It receives funding from Foundation for Civil Society in order to implement a project on increasing public participation in tracking public expenditure. This project was implemented in eight Wards of Nyamanoro, Ilemela, Kirumba, Nyakato, Buswelu, Bugongwa, Pangabuye and Pansiasi.
At Ilemela Ward, the project focus was to track the 2015/16 budget for expanding a maternal and newborn services facility at Ilemela Dispensary. The allocated budget was Tshs 900 million, which they later realized that it was not disbursed.
At Nyamanoro Ward, the challenge lay on a water pump for which the people had demanded a budget allocation since 1999. Water service provision is a critical issue in this particular ward. It was observed through the project that it had never been allocated a budget by the municipality. "The people of Nyamanoro did not realize the challenge until we traced the problem at municipal level," he says.
"After implementing the project, we realized that various services demanded by the people citizen were not budgeted for, and, in some cases, the allocated budget was not disbursed. We also realized that government officials were not delivering the information to the people. Keeping quiet does not solve the problems," he says.
At Kirumba Ward, the challenge lay in the school building and the school fence. Located in the middle of a residential area, schooling became both difficult and unsafe for students. It led to absenteeism.
