MALAWI

Unlike previous research studies where Blantyre City Council did
not have a website, this year, the Council has a well-established
and updated website and a Facebook account. The Council’s
website proved to be different from all the other websites
assessed. Under the section ‘Mayor’s Office,’ the page does not
only provide information on the Council’s structure but also welldetailed contact information for the Mayor and the Councillor for
Blantyre City.
In addition, the Council’s website provides a mechanism for
requests for information and feedback. The Public Relations
Manager responded to the request for information in less than
24 hours and provided all relevant information requested. This
shows how open the Council has become after scooping the
Padlock Award twice. The Council scored 14/20 in the website
category and 17/20 in the request for information category.

Therefore, the Golden Key Award for
the Most Open Government and Public
Institution for 2016 goes to Blantyre City
Council.

RECOMMENDATIONS
This study shows that most ministries and departments have
a presence on the official government website despite having
public relations managers. Some ministries, like the Ministry of
Trade, have their own websites. This means that having your own
website as a ministry is a matter of choice.
MISA Malawi believes that training government information
officers on the importance of access to information would help
improve the overall ATI situation in Malawi.

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