Ben Phiri: CDF to become ‘people-centred’ as minister vows to end funding chaos

Malawi’s Local Government Minister has unveiled a major shake-up of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), insisting the controversial pot of public money will now be driven by what communities actually need — rather than what officials decide to hand out.

Dr Ben Malunga Phiri made the bombshell announcement in Parliament as he faced pointed questioning over the fate of stalled and half-finished CDF projects littered across the country.

The minister was responding to Lilongwe Msinja South MP Francis Belekanyama, who grilled him over what the Ministry is actually doing to rescue projects left languishing for want of a final cash injection.

Phiri revealed that new guidelines governing the CDF now demand that every project be funded as a complete package from the outset — rather than being left to limp along in fits and starts.

He insisted the shake-up would put ordinary people, not bureaucrats, at the heart of decision-making, declaring that the fund would now be firmly “people-centred.”

The announcement will be seen as a direct response to long-running frustration among MPs and communities alike, who have watched scores of CDF-funded projects — from boreholes to classroom blocks — stand unfinished for years due to funding shortfalls.