Consultancy: Analysis of the 2026/27 Draft Budget and 2025/26 Budget Tracking

  • Consultancy
  • Malawi

Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONDUCTING AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2026/27 DRAFT BUDGET AND 2025/26 BUDGET TRACKING WITH FOCUS ON CLASSROOM BLOCK CONSTRUCTION,  GENDER PROVISIONS,  AND HOW THE FREE SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION HAS STARTED.

1.0 Background information

Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) is an alliance of presently 84 diverse independent and voluntary organizations such as non – governmental organizations, community-based organizations, trade unions and faith-based organizations which promote quality education in Malawi. As a collective voice, CSEC was set up to complement government’s efforts in piloting innovations, coordinating non-state actors, shaping policy discourse, lobbying for increased budget allocation, as well as tracking the utilization of resources committed to the education sector. The Coalition is fully registered with the Malawi Government under the Trustees Incorporation Act (CAP 5:03). The Coalition is also a member of the Council for Non-Governmental Organizations in Malawi and the Non-Governmental Organization Board of Malawi.

Oxfam in Malawi is a Non-Governmental Organisation that works to create a Malawi where Malawian women, men, girls, and boys are more equal, have improved livelihoods and, as active citizens, have greater influence over the decisions that affect their lives. Since 2017, Oxfam has been working to promote primary and secondary school education in Malawi with the following objectives:

  1. Improve enrolment, retention, and completion of learners in targeted schools.
  2. Create a safe learning environment for learners by challenging negative social norms that affect girls’ education.
  3. Influence government on progressive education budget allocation to support infrastructure development, teacher recruitment and education material provision.

Sightsavers is a Non-Governmental Organization that has worked in Malawi for over 70 years. Its vision is to eliminate avoidable blindness and empower people with disabilities to participate equally in society. In education, Sightsavers collaborates with the Ministry of Education, schools, and communities to ensure children with disabilities can access quality learning opportunities. This includes strengthening policies, advocating for inclusive budgets, training teachers, and developing low-cost adaptations to improve classroom accessibility.

Sightsavers also supports early childhood development and foundational learning by working with community-based childcare centers and primary schools to promote inclusive teaching strategies in literacy and numeracy. In addition, the organization engages parents and communities to reduce stigma and enhance support for children with disabilities at home and in school. Through these efforts, Sightsavers contributes to transforming Malawi’s education system to be more inclusive and responsive to the needs of all learners.

The Forum for African Women Educationalists Malawi Chapter (FAWEMA) is a registered nongovernmental organization, which brings together women educationalists in order to support and promote girls and women’s education in Malawi. The chapter was established in 1993 and was registered in March,2001 under the Trustees Incorporation Act, 1962. FAWEMA is one of the 34 national chapters of the Forum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE), a pan African Organization whose headquarters is in Nariobi, Kenya.

FAWEMA vision is A self-reliant and inclusive society where girls and women are creative, innovative and skilled for their well-being. Our Mission: To promote gender responsive policies, attitudes and practices that provide opportunities to girls and women through evidence-based interventions that allow them to prosper.

ActionAid Malawi (AAM) has developed the Country Strategy Paper VI (CSP VI) for 2024-2028, building upon the achievements of the previous Country Strategy Paper V (CSP V), “Action for Social Justice,” from 2018 to 2023. Entitled “Transforming Systems for Social Justice,” CSP VI will serve as our guiding framework for the next five years. Embracing a Human Rights-Based Approach with a feminist intersectionality lens, this strategy aligns with Malawi’s vision of becoming a prosperous “upper middleincome country” by 2063.

Action Aid currently is implementing a School Readiness project in 13 education districts in Malawi with an aim of making schools ready for children and children be ready for school and has education infrastructure support program in its Local Rights entities and school health and nutrition project in Dedza.

2.0 Background to the Study

The country development agenda is driven by the Malawi 2063which is the mid-term development instrument of the country. To ensure effective implementation of the strategy, the government through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning develops a national budget on an annual basis to support all sectors and departments that contribute to the implementation of the strategy.

On a yearly basis since the year 2000, the coalition and its partners has been conducting the analysis of the national budget and tracking of its expenditure, with a focus on the education sector. This process informs our advocacy efforts towards effective utilization of public funds.

In this regard, the Coalition and its partners FAWEMA, Sight savers, Oxfam  and Action Aid intend to analyze the draft 2024/25 draft national budget with a focus on Education, Early Childhood Development, Pre-primary education, Gender and Inclusive responsiveness and Ed-Tech and track the utilization of the 2023/24 financial year budget in the area of construction (Classrooms, change rooms and toilets), SIG and teacher distribution and retention, especially in the rural areas. The aim of this initiative is to ensure efficient allocation and utilization of the public funds and review the gender and disability sensitivity of the education expenditure.

 3.0 Purpose of the assignment

CSEC, in collaboration with its partners, is currently seeking the services of a highly qualified consultant to analyze the draft 2026/27 draft national budget with a focus on Education, Gender and Inclusive responsiveness and Ed-Tech and to track the 2025/26 national budget expenditure, with a focus on Education, Special Needs Education, Girls education and Ed-Tech. On the analysis, while the focus is on 2026/27 draft education budget, the consultant will also be expected to analyze trends in allocation (disbursement and expenditure) by carrying out a retrospective review spanning five financial years (2022/2023 – 2025/26) using (where possible) the same parameters for analysis and reviewing the outputs and outcomes of corresponding allocations

The tracking will focus on the following aspects: the comparison between the amount approved and the amount disbursed, the timeliness of disbursement from the treasury to the district and from the district to contractors or schools, physical verification of the progress on construction in relation to the amounts disbursed and progress on major procurements budget lines including the procurement of TLM for SNE and construction of special needs institute.  

4.0  Scope of work

 Specifically, the analysis shall:

  • Assess whether the budget has been aligned to Malawi 2063 with respect to education and a special focus on basic education.
  • Review allocations to different sub-sectors within the ECD and Education sector including: ECD, Basic Education, Secondary Education, TVET, Tertiary Education, EdTech, Girls’ Education, and Inclusive Education
  • Identify and compare the amounts allocated to key gender and disability provisions, allocations and outputs (including WASH) in the 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26 and education budget
  • Identify budget allocations towards TLMs for ECDE, pre-primary, basic education, secondary education, teacher development, school health and nutrition, curriculum development through Malawi Institute of Education, Inspection and Advisory Services, and tertiary education through the lenses of inclusive education.
  • Isolate budget allocation towards “Girls and SNE Education” for ECDE, pre-primary, basic education, secondary education and tertiary education and Provide an aggregated amount for Girls and SNE across the sub-sectors.
  • Assess the allocation and utilization of SIG funds, particularly in relation to Inclusive Education. Determine whether there has been an increase in funding, how these funds have been used in schools, and any gaps in disbursement and implementation.
  • Identify budget allocation towards Education Technology, Science and Innovation, education emergencies, and Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) for ECDE, basic education, pre-primary education, curriculum, secondary education and tertiary education.
  • How has the budget factored issues of capacity building of teacher’s capacity building in Ed-Tech
  • Determine the trend analysis of both the Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) and the development budget in the ECD, basic education, ODeL and the overall education sector
  • (comparing the total allocation, against total disbursement and total actual spend
  • Assess the efficiency of resource allocation across the ECD, basic education and other Education sub-sectors
  • Assess if resource allocation is informed by evidence/data from EMIS.
  • Assess how the implementation of abolition of Secondary school development fund, Examination fees for Primary and Secondary Schools has begun at the ground level, what aspects are working well, the challenges being encountered, and the recommendations moving forward
  • Make recommendations to promote:
    • Greater efficiency in resource allocation to the ECD, basic education and other Education sub-sectors including ODeL.
    • Greater responsiveness and sensitivity in ECD, education in emergencies, school health and nutrition, pre-primary education basic education and other Education sub-sectors’ budgeting and expenditure.

Specifically, the tracking shall happen in 8 sampled districts that will be agreed at the inception meeting with all partners:

  • Analyze the budget lines for construction of classrooms, toilets, and change rooms for the targeted districts.
  • Review the disbursement reports to ascertain the actual amount disbursed out of the approved budgets to determine if there was any variance, and assess gender disparities in the disbursements.
  • Assess the timeliness of the disbursement to ascertain if they were any delays.

Conduct a physical verification of the project and ascertain the progress made with the disbursement.

  • Assess the allocation and utilization of SIG in the sampled schools, particularly in relation to Inclusive Education. Determine whether there has been an increase in funding, how these funds have been used in schools, and any gaps in disbursement and implementation.
  • Assess the procurement progress on TLM including for SNE
  • Track the contrition progress of the special needs institute as 1.5 billion kwacha was allocated in the last financial year’s budget.
  • Make recommendations to promote:

o Greater efficiency in resource utilization Education sub-sectors.

In doing this work, the consultant will develop tailor-made tools to collect the needed information, which will be vetted by the contractor prior to utilization.

Documents to be read:

  • Malawi 2063National Education Policy
  • National ECD Policy
  • Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
  • National Education Sector Investment Plan
  • Education Sector Performance Report for 2024
  • Previous WASH and budget analysis reports.
  • National Strategy on Inclusive Education
  • National Girls Education Strategy
  • 2023/24 education
  • n budgets documents
  • 2024/25 Draft national budget documents
  • 2024/25 National Local Government Finance Committee budget documents

The Consultant will report to the Executive Director of CSEC but closely work with Programme Manager (CSEC).

5.0 Duration of the assignment

This assignment is expected to be completed in a period of 21 days starting on …

6.0 Deliverables

The consultant is expected to produce the following:

  1. An inception report outlining the methodology/approach, work plan with clear timelines on how the assignment will be carried out
  2. Data collection tools
  3. Electronic and hard copies of the analysis report
  4. One policy brief based on the critical findings of the budget analysis.
  5. PowerPoint presentation on the key findings oaf the draft budget analysis.
  6. A final report

Final report 

The final report (electronic & hard copy) (60 pages max) should clearly document the allocation in the education sector including ODeL and the gender, disability (inclusive education), and WASH responsiveness of the education budget. The report should also clearly detail amount approved vs disbursed, timeliness of disbursement from treasury to district and district to contractors or schools, physical verification of the progress on construction verse amounts disbursed, number of teachers deployed in the last three years verse those who are still within their deployed duty station, number of teachers verses students available and then compare male/female teacher ratio between rural and urban.

7.0 Qualifications and Experience of the Consultant

The consultant is expected to have the following qualifications:

  • A minimum of master’s Degree in Economics, Development Economics, Public Sector Financing, Statistics, and other social science subject

Specifically:

  1. At least 5 years’ relevant work experience in conducting budget and expenditure tracking exercises, ideally within the field of education.
  2. Extensive experience in public finance management frameworks and public budget formulation and analysis, among others.
  3. Understanding of/familiarity with human rights-based approach to research and advocacy on issues related to the financing of education and other public services.
  4. Demonstrated comprehensive range of analytical skills especially in key macro and microeconomic fundamentals and their application to public policy development and analysis.
  5. Experience and knowledge in regional social service delivery issues will be an added advantage.
  6. Experience in working in the field of Governance and the broader public governance systems will be an added advantage; and
  7. Demonstrated experience and solid track record in similar assignments will be added advantage.
  8. Proven understanding of the importance of ethics in research work.

8.0 Mode of Application

Applications should include a detailed proposal on how they will carry out the assignment and the understanding of the Terms of References (ToRs); the estimated cost of undertaking the assignment in a broken-down budget and the consultant’s detailed profile highlighting undertaking of similar assignment. Please also attach at least one examples of similar previous work.

Submission marked “ 2026/27 Draft Budget Analysis and 2025/26 Education Budget Tracking ” should be sent by email to The Executive Director; Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Chitukula Road, Area 47/4/ 719, Box 30736, Lilongwe 3.Tel: +265 1 762 210, Email: kkumwenda04@gmail.com and copy TKayuni@oxfam.org.uk, ekaminyoghe@sightsavers.org and mcgulani@yahoo.com

Closing date for the submissions: 9th February 2026