Partner: Hivos
CISANET contact person: Thokozani Guta, Pamela Kuwali, and Sibongile Kadewere
Description:
CISANET is implementing the Open Contracting Processes in the agriculture sector with financial support from Hivos. The project is premised on the realization that open contracting in public institutions remains a fundamental public governance issue in Malawi. On average, 60% of government expenditures are managed through public contracts rendering public contracting as one of the essential steps in the process of delivering real goods and services to the population.
At the same time, public contracting has been identified as the government activity that is most vulnerable to wastefulness, mismanagement, inefficiency, and corruption. It is for this reason that CISANET aims at contributing to the strengthening of the procurement processes in the Ministry of Agriculture and provide space to the civil society with insights on how public procurement is done and on how they can effectively play their crucial oversight role in ensuring more government transparency and accountability in public contracting. In the understanding of the project, open contracting involves the full chain of government deal making, from the sale of state assets to the procurement of goods and services for citizens.
It covers not only the awarding of contracts, but also planning, procurement, contract negotiation, implementation and performance. Specifically, the project intends to: create a forum for sector players contribution to the transparency and accountability of open contracting in Malawi, enhance media engagement in transparent and accountable open contracting in Malawi, and integrating Women, Youth and vulnerable groups in open contracting processes in Malawi.