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Public Financial Management for PRSP Implementation in Malawi
Local planning process
In 2002, Malawi’s districts were for the first time eligible to take measures
for a locally initiated ‘medium-term planning’, called District Development
Planning System (DDPS) 19 . This system contains steps such as preparing a
Socio-Economic Profile (SEP); developing Village Action Plans (VAP) 20 ;
and finally, prioritising development needs of each district in a District Development
Plan (DDP) (Republic of Malawi 2001, 43; MoLGRD 2004).
Figure 4 illustrates the local planning process.
As a starting point the Village Development Committees (VDC) usually
identify community-based projects and estimates the required internal and
external resources mainly in cooperation with members of the District Executive
Committee (DEC) and local extension workers. Nevertheless, community
members, NGOs, and grassroots organisations may also propose projects
to the VDC. The Area Development Committee (ADC) then compiles a list
of suggested projects for prioritisation and finally submits the list to the
DEC. 21
The DEC should approve projects that are feasible and judged worthwhile, by
comparing the goals and objectives and evaluating whether the project implementation
will assure an efficient use of resources. The DEC also evaluates
on how the chosen projects will be best realised in order to achieve the
objectives and outputs (Republic of Malawi 2001, 36–38). The DDP describes
the objectives and strategies of the district thus providing a compre-
19 According to the Development Planning System Handbook for District Assemblies, the
DDPS is based on four principles namely (i) bottom-up approach, (ii) participation, (iii)
district-focus, and (iv) people-centred (Republic of Malawi 2001, 5, 33). The handbook
also makes clear that the whole DDPS process should be based on the MPRSP and the Vision
2020 (MPRSP-Annex 1 2002, 34; Republic of Malawi 2001, 32, 41).
20 Developing a VAP involves a highly participatory process. To prioritise village needs
independently, group patterns, such as elderly, women, or the youth within a village are
separated to prioritise and finally bring all their findings together for discussion.
21 Important prerequisites for this participatory process to function well were established only
recently. Before 2003, VDCs did not exist in most districts and the process at village level
was either not working or dominated by arbitrary actors, which contributed to a state of informal
procedures and flawed accountability. This has changed in most Malawian districts.
Similarly, so far ADCs were chaired by Traditional Authorities (TA) instead of elected
members. Some districts, however, have undergone adjustments in this respect after councillors
pushed for reforms to have VDC members elected by the village population and
ADC members and their chairs elected by the area’s VDCs.
German Development Institute 69