Constituency Development Fund
Constituency Development Funds (CDFs) are central government funds given to members of parliament for expenditure on their constituencies, also called electoral districts. CDFs were first adopted in India. After introduction in Kenya in 2003, CDFs spread to other African countries and across the world. Ghana. Ghana's CDF was instituted in 1996, when members of parliament were allocated 5% of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). India. India has two CDF systems: the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) at the national level and the Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development Fund (MLA-LAD ) for the Legislative Assembly of each of India’s 28 states. The MPLADS scheme was instituted in India in 1993. Under the MPLADS, an equal amount is allocated yearly to each parliamentary constituency. Kenya. The Kenyan Constituency Development Fund (CDF) was introduced in 2003 during the Kibaki presidency. The fund was designed to support constituency-level, grass-root development projects. It was aimed to achieve equitable distribution of development resources across regions and to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targeted all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots . The CDF program has facilitated the putting up of new water, health and education facilities in all parts of the country, including remote areas that were usually overlooked during funds allocation in national budgets. Corruption. There have been many examples of, and complaints about, misuse of the funds. This has led to the CDF Act 2013 (effectively repealing the CDF Act 2003) and significant changes to be applied in 2013.