In 2024, they unanimously gave former minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda a standing when he announced the doubling of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) from K100 million to K200 million.
The lawmakers were back to their unanimous ways in November 2025 not once but twice. First, they clapped and cheered in unison when President Peter Mutharika announced that CDF increase from K220 million to K5 billion. They did again weeks later when Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ben Phiri told Parliament that CDF projects and spending will be determined by village and area development committees in concert with members of Parliament (MPs), not councillors.
There is something about CDF that did not only excite the lawmakers, but even persuaded them to amend the Constitution to secure their involvement in its spending despite being outlawed by the High Court in May last year, which affirmed separation of powers.
The year ended marked a historic political turning point when the nation of about 20 million, saw an increase in constituencies from 193 to 299 following the demarcation exercise conducted by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC).
The numerical adjustment required by the Constitution means more public expenditure when the Mutharika administration rolls out the promised CDF.
With each constituency promised to get K5 billion from the 2026/27 National Budget, as promised by the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the country will spent about K1.2 trillion on the fund for local development.
“We will allocate K5 billion every year to each constituency, that is K2.25 billion to be spent in every ward every year,” reads the DPP manifesto.
The party in power also promises to recruit at least 229 executive directors together with thousands of engineers, doctors, nurses, auditors, researchers, artisans and many more as part of the national decentralisation initiative.
The increase in constituencies is envisaged to enhance representation and bring government closer to the people, with MPs serving smaller populations and becoming more responsive to local needs.
However, representation must be supported by adequate resources, strong governance systems and clear checks and balances.
Thus, the K5 billion-per-year promise is a boost to the decentralisation agenda, but could be wasted on pilferage, substandard projects and populist agendas if not well implemented.
Spending K1.2 trillion on constituencies every year represents a huge knock on the national budget, currently totalling K8.5 trillion.
This could significantly reshape public spending priorities, transform local economies and improve access to essential services.
Economic experts say decentralisation has the potential to stimulate grassroots development and improve efficiency in public service delivery.
However, they warn against well-documented abuse.
Malawi Economic Justice Network executive director Bertha Phiri told The Nation that the K5 billion promise calls for robust transparency and accountability measures.
Learning from the past CDF scandals, she warns against the potential abuse and mismanagement of the bigger allocation.
Phiri states: “Given the Malawi’s Fiscal Year Resource envelope, this decision is most likely to out-crowd other important sectors like health, education and social protection.
“The DPP government can learn from the Governance to Enable Service Delivery funding window [bankrolled by the World Bank] that has clear measures. That is performance-based funding and funding that front citizen engagement.”
The measures include clear budgeting and reporting, regular independent audits to ensure that funds are used in accordance with budgetary provisions and legal requirements.
“Local communities, civil society organisations and other stakeholders should be involved in the budgeting process and monitoring of fund usage to ensure that their needs and priorities are reflected,” she said.
Concurring, social commentator Christopher Mbukwa asked the new administration to clarify how it intends to implement the programme.
He reckons that if the reformed CDF is going to be implemented like its past editions, there could be worse abuse than reported cases despite positive outcomes.
Mbukwa who teaches economics at Mzuzu University, further warns that dedicating about 10 percent of the national budget to constituency spending might disadvantage other sectors like agriculture, education and mining.
“They should come up with clear guidelines. Is it not going to displace competing sectors? But it is a good development for decentralisation,” he said.
The increased number of constituencies represents one of the most ambitious decentralisation efforts in Malawi’s history.
But the possible inefficiencies, coupled with transparency and accountability concerns—must be adequately considered for constituents to reap the fruits of the so-called reformed CDF.
Otherwise, the deafening applause that united the governing and opposition lawmakers in Parliament could fade into lamentation of more abuse of public funds budgeted for constituents’ good.
