Malawi Decentralization Policy 1998

After about thirty years of a highly centralised one party rule a radical political transformation has occurred in Malawi with the introduction of Multi-party democracy, and the adoption of a new constitution based on the principles of participatory democracy. Since then a number of steps designed to consolidate and institutionalise this newly gained political freedom and improve governance have been taken and slowly democracy is taking route in Malawi.

As part of the process of consolidating democracy and as a strategy for realising the country's development goal of poverty reduction the Malawi Government expressed its desire to decentralise political and administrative authority to district level.

In July, 1994 Cabinet directed that a comprehensive review of all decentralisation initiatives including that of District Focus for Rural Development be undertaken. In accordance with the Cabinet decision, the Department of District and Local Government Administration has over the years commissioned a number of studies on Decentralisation. The studies culminated in the formulation of a Draft National Decentralisation Policy which has been widely discussed.

The Cabinet approved the policy, in principle at its meeting held on 26th January, 1996. Cabinet further directed that a Cabinet Committee on Decentralisation be set up to look into the details of the policy, including its financing and report its recommendations to Cabinet. This policy is therefore a result of the Cabinet Committee on Decentralisation's work.