Early childhood development (ECD) advocates have expressed concern that Constituency Development Fund (CDF) guidelines do not explicitly provide guaranteed funding for ECD programmes despite sustained lobbying efforts.
In a statement, National ECD Advocacy Taskforce Chairperson, Reverend Nase Chunga, says the final CDF guidelines have failed to ring-fence a specific allocation for ECD programmes at constituency level.
Chunga says while women and youth programmes have each been guaranteed K100 million per constituency, children have been left without similar financial protection.
“We are grateful that ECD has at least been included in the guidelines but there are no deliberate funds specifically protected for young children,” Chunga says.
He says the taskforce will now shift its focus to engaging local councils to ensure that ECD programmes are prioritised under decentralised funding structures.
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Chunga, who also heads the ECD Department at Livingstonia Synod of the CCAP, proposed at least K200 million for every constituency for ECD initiatives per year.
He says councils need to establish model community-based childcare centres (CBCCs) and introduce incentives for volunteer caregivers to improve school readiness among children.
The push comes ahead of Malawi’s hosting of the third Africa Foundational Learning Exchange (Flex) summit.
The summit is scheduled for Lilongwe from July 15 to 17, 2026.
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Commenting on the issue, Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) Executive Director Hadrod Mkandawire said issues that the taskforce was raising were valid but questioned the rationale behind ring-fencing funds for the sector.
Mkandawire argued that development priorities under the CDF were community-driven, meaning the construction of community-based childcare centres (CBCCs) would, for example, depend on the specific needs identified by people in each area
“One thing that we also need to understand is that prioritisation of projects is community driven. So, if community members in a particular area are of the view that ECD infrastructure has to be prioritised, it is the responsibility of, and incumbent upon, members of that community to do that. I also need to emphasise here that, in terms of recurrent expenditure for running ECD [initiatives], that does not fall under the development budget and that cannot fall under CDF—if that is what they mean when they say they have to ring-fence recurrent expenditure for ECD,” Mkandawire said.
Parliament passed the K10.978 trillion national budget, which initially saw ECD funding reduced from K1.2 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year to K300 million in the 2025-26 allocation before advocates pushed for a restoration to K629 million.
The guidelines outline eligible CDF investments, including the construction of infrastructure in sectors such as water and sanitation, education, health, security, agriculture and the environment.
