Public Financial Management for PRSP Implementation in Malawi

The present study on ‘Public Financial Management for PRSP Implementa-tion in Malawi’ was conducted within the framework of the postgraduate training course at the German Development Institute (DIE) from November 2004 to May 20005. The team consisted of five postgraduate students with various academic backgrounds under the direction of Stefan Leiderer from the DIE professional staff. The main findings were presented and discussed at a workshop in Lilongwe on 26 April 2005.
The study benefited hugely from the support and contributions of various persons and organisations. First and foremost, we would like to emphasize the contribution of our cooperation partner the National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) as well as the sector programme ‘State and Democracy / Public Finance Reform’ of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tech-nische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) in the preparation and realisation of the re-search. Especially, we would like to stress the commitment of Adil Chilungo (NLGFC), Matthias Witt, and Aues Scek (both GTZ), who provided valuable organisational support, thematic input, and advise.
We also received much assistance from various other individuals and organi-sations. Among them are Masawani Jere, District Commissioner of Dedza, Frank Sigmund from the German Development Service (DED) in Rumphi, and Peter Chihana, Vice Chair of the District Assembly in Rumphi. We are very grateful for their help in establishing contacts and setting up interviews as well as for their provision of thematic input. We are also grateful for feed-back and advise of various kinds from colleagues at the DIE, especially Petra Schmidt, Peter Wolff, and Stephan Klingebiel.