In April 2025, the Trust, Accountability, and Inclusion Collaborative (TAI) hosted a compelling funder call titled “Working with Government – Focus on Delivery: Insights from the Chandler Foundation's Partnership with the Government of Malawi”.

The key speakers were our Vice-Chair Tim Hanstad, and Dr. Janet L. Banda, Deputy Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Office of the President and Cabinet, Malawi.

Some of the areas discussed included:

• How partnering directly with government can wield the greatest influence over societal outcomes.
• The importance of establishing a tone of respectful, government-led collaboration.
• Supporting the process of reinstating Malawi’s membership in the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
• Co-creating a new National Action Plan focused on corruption prevention, debt transparency, political finance, digital governance, and natural resources.
• The importance of fostering a culture of trust, and the role of a neutral mediator.
• How through support and strategic networking, Chandler Foundation helped Malawi tap into a World Bank governance trust fund to unlock $20 million in performance-based payments.

More details about the session and the points discussed can be found here on the TAI Website.

During the session, Dr. Banda offered the following insights into both the partnership’s development and the progress being achieved.

‍

[The Chandler Foundation] has managed to change behaviors of both the government and civil society in Malawi. Before they stepped in the area of good governance [in Malawi], we were at loggerheads with civil society. We could not sit around the same table. But now with the reforms that we are doing in the NAP, with the initiative and the approach that Chandler Foundation has taken, it has helped government to work with civil society without the past challenges.

‍

‍

What [the Chandler Foundation] is supporting are reforms that are aligned with our national priorities … priority areas that also coincide with priorities for the Chandler Foundation. And the sustainability of our reforms comes from aligning Malawi’s own development priorities with our OGP National Action Plan, which Chandler Foundation helped develop. That support … started with designing the development of our National Action Plan.

‍

‍

The Chandler Foundation … has just graduated into an extended part of our team … We started with them from zero. We celebrate successes together with them and they also support the challenges that we meet along the way as we are implementing all these reforms. For us, achieving meaningful reforms requires a high level of trust between the government and our partners, and the relationship with the Chandler Foundation was built step by step. The clever thing that they did was to go to the highest office, which achieved political will from the highest office and helps to drive the reforms.

‍

‍

[Chandler Foundation] is hands-on, but very humble. They engage actively on the ground as a partner. They leverage their networks, but let us lead. [Tim] has talked about how they have facilitated us to [obtain financial support] from the World Bank. They also connected us to Open Ownership and Open Contracting Partnership … for the beneficial ownership initiatives. We are able to meet challenges because we're on solid ground in that area due to the technical support they've been giving us.

‍

‍

It's very important when you're developing a national action plan to also have alongside it a resource mobilization plan. This is where Chandler Foundation has tried to help us to link us with other partners who can also come in on the specific areas that coincide with their work, as well just to supplement or complement the work that we are doing.

‍

‍

‍