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‘Substitute is gonna put you down’: an analysis of effectiveness of emerging actors as substitutes of local councillors in Malawi’s decentralised system

This article analyses the effectiveness of emerging institutions operating as substitutes for councillors in Malawi’s decentralised framework. Councillors are a cornerstone for consolidating local-level democracy and an avenue for achieving good governance ideals. In Malawi, the absence of councillors since 2005 necessitated the emergency of substitute institutions to carry out such functions. This article finds that the substitute institutions have limitations in effectively carrying out the governance functions at the local level in terms of policy making, representation, accountability and community participation.