The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development says Malawi’s development agenda can only be achieved if citizens actively participate in finding solutions to challenges affecting their communities.

Chief Civic Education Officer in the ministry’s Department of Civic Education, Kondwani Hillary Chitosi, said this in Zomba during an interview after presenting plans to establish new Civic Education Hubs to the District Executive Committee (DEC).

Chitosi said the ministry established Civic Education Hubs, locally known as Pabwalo, in 2023 in Zomba district.

“We established the hubs in Traditional Authority (TA) Mwambo, so the DEC has given us the nod to scale up to TA Chikowi,” he said.

Chitosi explained that the hubs are regarded as catalysts for mindset change in the implementation of the Malawi 2063 agenda, as they provide citizens with a platform to discuss and develop solutions to issues related to democracy, governance and development.

He added that the Civic Education Hubs are being established at district and Area Development Committee (ADC) levels to promote civic awareness, democratic participation and social empowerment among communities.

The initiative is being supported by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with technical assistance from the Malawi Democratic Governance (Boma Lathu) Programme.