The Malawi Social Action Fund is one of the instruments employed by the Malawi government to fight poverty within existing policy frameworks. The third phase of MASAF (MASAF 3) was designed as a platform for the implementation of multi-sectoral community Driven Development (CDD) interventions in the areas of Education, Health, Water, Transport, Communication, Natural Resources, Energy, Agriculture, Irrigation and Community Services. These interventions have been placed in five Community Service Packages (CSP) such that community demands to meet local needs must be within these Service Packages in order to get funding from MASAF. Each of the Service Packages has elements that are meant to address specific Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Malawi Poverty Reduction strategy Paper (MPRSP). The five Service Packages are health, education, water and sanitation, transport and communication and household food security. The major instrument to catalyze demand of projects by communities is communication (development communication). While procedures and processes to access CDD interventions are complex, MASAF 3 has demonstrated that a focused development communication strategy can improve project uptake by communities. CDD operations are bottom up and empowering to communities. Development communication in CDD operations therefore enhances transparency and accountability.

 

Key words: Community, development, communication, accountability.