Another aspect that underscores the relevance of the scheme is its development and administration context as the scheme is implemented within the existing local government development and administration set-up with main functions divided between the district assembly and the community. This is a good set-up as it does not need additional institutional implementation arrangements and human resources.
However, the downside of it is that capacity at district level may be over-stretched as the workload increases at community level due to scaling up of the scheme. The district development plan has even singled out capacity constraints as one of the issues affecting the district assembly to effectively deliver its services. At the time of the study, it was not possible to examine the total work load demand as the scheme was still scaling up. This is an area that requires further examination to determine
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how the assembly copes up with scheme as it scales up. The next sections explain in more detail about the functions of the various structures.
In Malawi, District Assemblies (DAs) under the ministry of local government are responsible for the district’s development and administration activities. The DAs are also responsible for the implementation of various policies and development initiatives through the respective ministries represented at district level. According to the district development plan, the development plan is developed in line with national development policy priorities. The main national development goals, policies and strategies are highlighted in the vision 2020, MGDS and Social Investment Programs.
In the current decentralised system of government, development decision making process is meant to follow the bottom up approach where development ideas start at community level through VDCs with the support of government extension workers (Chinsinga 2008; Cross and Kuntengule 2001). Decentralization stems from participatory development approaches which were the overarching philosophies of the 1990s where the poor are given the priority to participate in issues that affect their lives.
Communities work in collaboration with extension workers who are government representatives at community level working under the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Extension workers are the link between the community and the government. They provide technical assistance to Village Development Committees
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(VDCs) and Area Development Committees (ADCs) on community development matters.
Village Development Committees as the name suggests are community committees that deal with development issues at village level. VDCs channel development ideas consolidated as projects to the Area Development Committee (ADC). The ADC then forwards these project proposals to the DA through the District Executive Committee (DEC). At district level, all the development ideas (that are practically viable) from the communities are consolidated into what is called the District Development Plan (DDP). This then becomes the master plan for development initiatives for the district. The DDP details development initiatives from which the government, NGOs and the private sector can channel their development support.
Figure 8 shows the institutional set-up of how the various committees link up together under the social cash transfer scheme at district level.
Figure 8: Malawi social protection institutional set-up for district assemblies
Source: Malawi Government (2010)
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At district level, social protection is coordinated by the Social Protection Sub-Committee of DEC. The SPSC is composed of seven members from government and the civil society, headed by the Director of Planning and Development. The main task of the SPSC is the supervision of the SCTS Secretariat and the approval of applications. The SPSC also ensures that the scheme is coordinated with other social protection programs in the district as shown in Figure 9.
The SPSC gets support from the Social Cash Transfer Scheme (SCTS) Secretariat appointed by DEC. The main function of the Secretariat is to plan, implement, record, monitor, and report all activities required to establish community level committees and to train committees in the targeting process. The Secretariat also performs a number of tasks in the approval and delivery process. The Secretariat is also responsible for facilitating and monitoring all stakeholders at community and district level to implement the scheme in accordance with the guidelines and to take corrective action in case of any problems that may occur. In other words, the secretariat ensures that they implement scheme in a cost-effective, reliable, and timely way.
The Secretariat is composed of the District Social Welfare Officer and Social Welfare Assistants and a number of other Assembly and NGO officers who are trained as trainers and facilitators. The SCTS Secretariat maintains an elaborate list of all the Village Groups (VGs) in the area and for each village, the number of households.
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At community level, the scheme falls under the existing community development structures. This is a good approach in as far as participatory development is concerned. Members of community development committees are not government employees because this is part of the participatory nature of community rural development in a decentralised setup.
At the top is the Area Development Committee (ADC) a representative body of all Village Development Committees. The ADC is under the leadership of the Traditional Authority (TA). Traditional authorities are administrative regions of the district. The ADC is the main link to the District Assembly. The ADC is charged with the responsibility of mobilizing community resources and development funds, supervises and monitors the implementation of projects in their respective areas. The ADC is chaired by an elected member and is composed of local politicians, members of parliament, group village headman, religious leaders and women and youth groups. The Area Executive Committee (AEC) is an equivalent of the DEC at district level and comprises representatives from various government ministries. The AEC is a technical advisory arm to the ADC. The AEC Chairperson is also the Secretary to the ADC.
In terms of the social cash transfers scheme at community level, there is a Community Social Protection Committee (CSPC) specifically to deal with social protection issues and the social cash transfers scheme in particular. The CSPC is an equivalent of a project committee. The CSPC is a sub-committee of the Village Development Committee (VDC). The CPSC gets assistance from government extension workers. The function of these extension workers is to check if the
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targeting process has been fair and transparent and if the results are correct, and then approve the 10% poorest households. The 10% cut off point is based on the assumption that on the average, less than 10% of households are in absolute poverty.
As can be seen from the above, in relation to capacity and institutional set up, only three additional committees for support have been introduced: the social protection sub-committee to deal with all social protection issues at district level, the social cash transfer scheme secretariat to specifically deal with the cash transfer scheme and the CSPC at community level. Although it is called the community social protection committee, currently, it only deals with the social cash transfer scheme.