Churches funded for vital services

 The government has released K25 million to Christian churches under the State and Church Partnership agreement for education and health services, United Church development secretary Kali Sete said.

Sete said that during the Consultative Implementation and Monitoring Council’s national development forum last week.

He presented a paper on the issues and challenges of implementation at the sub national level.

Sete said the synthesis of studies on civil society organisations (CSOs) indicated that civil society existed long before colonisation was deeply rooted in the traditional structure of local societies.

He said in recent years there had been increasing recognition from the government regarding the importance of CSOs in development as reflected by the signing of the government church partnership agreement and the partnership policy framework.

Sete said churches had been an active part of civil society and played a key role is providing health, education and spiritual services.

“We have put in place mechanisms for transparency and accountability for government funds. It is done through the Churches Development Council (CDC) whereby all proposals are signed off by the head of respective churches,” he said.