Malawi Results Report 2023-2025

Malawi’s second action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... advanced key government anti-corruption reforms by increasing transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More around public contracts, beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... More, and natural resources. Progress centered on strengthening laws and institutions expected to open government to citizens in the longer term. During implementation, Malawi formed its National Steering CommitteeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru... and Technical Working Groups.

Implementation
Malawi’s second action plan (2023–2025) achieved notable progress on flagship anticorruption reforms.^[1] It featured government priorities of political party finance and public debt transparency, digital governance, and mining sector governance reforms.^[2] CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 1 on open contractingA transparent procurement process, known as open contracting, increases competition, improves public service delivery, and ensures governments better value for their money. Technical specifications: C... More and beneficial ownership transparency as well as Commitment 5 on natural resource governance achieved the most progress. The remaining commitments made important foundational strides but had not yet achieved notable results by the end of the implementation period.

Under this action plan, new laws and institutions strengthened accountability and transparency. These included amendments to the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority Act and the Ombudsman Amendment Act,^[3] drafting the Whistleblower Protection Act,^[4] and creation of the Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority.^[5] These legal changes are expected to increase public access to information on who is doing business with the government and report potential suspect dealings.

Commitments 1 and 5 were flagged as promising and clustered in the Action Plan Review as they pursued a similar policy goal of establishing beneficial ownership transparency in the mining sector and government procurement. Upon reviewing adjustments made to the commitments during implementation, the IRM decided to de-cluster them and assess the results separately. Notably, the ambition of Commitment 1 was strengthened by additional objectives that were added through the Open Gov Challenge.^[6]

Participation and Co-Creation
Malawi made notable progress in establishing OGP coordinating bodies and ways of working during the implementation period. The OGP Secretariat is administered through the Office of the President and Cabinet, working in collaboration with the national steering committee and technical working groups (TWG).^[7] The steering committee comprises five representatives each from government and civil society organisations.^[8] This is an improvement from the informal steering committee that led the co-creation process, which comprised mostly government stakeholders. The steering committee now has basic rules of participation and terms of reference to guide their scope of operation.^[9] Similarly, there was noteworthy progress towards developing the terms of reference for the technical working groups,^[10] which oversaw the implementation of respective commitments with government and civil society members from relevant policy areas that extended beyond those in the steering committee.^[11] During the implementation period, the working groups provided a structured way of ensuring that key actors remain formally engaged in tracking progress and jointly problem-solving.

Implementation in Context
During the official launch of Malawi’s OGP action plan in 2023, the steering committee and technical working groups co-chairs added ‘Presidential Commitments’ to each thematic area in the action plan. Co-chairs of the technical working groups pledged and signed before the president to implement these activities along with the action plan.^[12] This initiative enhanced the ambitionAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, OGP commitments should “stretch government practice beyond its current baseline with respect to key areas of open government.” Ambition captures the po... of each commitment and more closely aligned the action plan with government priorities, as articulated in Malawi Vision 2063—its national development framework. In this report, the IRM uses the original action plan text as the basis of its assessment and takes into consideration the added ‘presidential commitments’ in determining the level of early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde... More.

Strong support from the Office of the President and Cabinet revived Malawi’s OGP process after a period of inactivity from 2018 to 2022.^[13] The OPC mobilised government institutions to participate in OGP activities and ensured that engaged institutions allocated the necessary financial and human resources.^[14] However, the pace of implementation—particularly in the early stages of the action plan—faced challenges, including financial constraints,^[15] a lack of permanent personnel, and inconsistent coordination between government and civil society.^[16] Partner support from organisations such as the National Democratic Institute, Chandler Foundation, the World Bank, and Open Ownership contributed to the ensuing process and reform implementation. As Malawi did not have an online repository of their OGP activities, they fell short of the minimum requirements under the OGP Participation and Co-Creation Standards.^[17] However, this action plan falls under a grace period, and therefore there are no implications for their status in the partnership.