They say, “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” This has been the case with youths from Mangwe and Bulilima who have used the knowledge and skills they gained at social accountability meetings in self-mobilising and engaging the local authority on their decision to peg rates in United States dollars.
The country is currently experiencing an economic crisis as its own currency continues to rapidly lose value as it is continuously hit by inflation. Even though faced with such facts the government continues to back the local currency as the legal tender of the country and has gone ahead to try put measures to control the exchange rate. This has resulted in the economy self-dollarizing as service providers prefer trading in USD while charging exorbitant prices in local prices.
In line with this, the local authority has often blamed poor service delivery to the failing local currency which continues to depreciate and lose value and to make matters worse for them, service providers continue to use local currency in favour of the USD and they are the primary source of raw materials needed by the local authority to render services to rate payers. As a solution the local authority has since started pegging their rates in USD.
This initiative somehow did not go well with youths from Mangwe and Bulilima who felt that this was unfair considering that rate payers would have to settle bills according to the prevailing rate of the day which then becomes expensive. Due to the above the youth took it upon themselves to self-mobilise and write a letter to the Town Secretary detailing the unfairness of the Council`s decision.
Firstly, the letter stated that the council cannot peg their prices in USD as the legal tender in the country continues to be RTGS hence there was some form of illegality in the move by council. Secondly, it stated how most consumers of council service are civil servants who happen to earn RTGS hence it becomes unreasonable to peg prices in a currency which is not earned by civil servants. Lastly, the letter made it clear that council is there to serve the people and as a result it cannot decide to take any initiative without firstly consulting the people especially on issues which affect them directly.
Due to the actions of the youth and the attention it raised, the council had no option but to return back to the drawing board and revise its decision and align it with voices of the youths. This shows the effectiveness of self-initiatives which are community driven buy the results they bare.
Community Youth Development Trust has in the past and recently trained youths on social accountability. This was a way of impacting them with the necessary skills and information for them to use to identify advocacy gaps in their area and try to come up with recommendations as to how best these can be addressed.
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