MCLD started in Malawi, and our first National Association was officially established in the country. Building on the May 2015 High-Level Panel Discussion on Localizing the SDGs, The Hunger Project-Malawi, World Vision-Malawi and Heifer International-Malawi held an Alignment Session on 12 May 2016 at which 18 organizations declared their membership. Today, it is a vibrant forum for collective action with 160+ local organizations, community-based organizations, INGOs, social enterprises, and individuals.

In 2021, at the peak of the COVID 19 pandemic, members of the Malawi National Association came together to create a radio show to fight COVID misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. The show was so successful that the government partnered with us to keep it running.

In 2024, MCLD Malawi successfully trained over 50 civil society organizations on how to be community-led through local language trainings. We reached even more through the Participatory CLD Assessment Tool, supported by a grant from World Vision. MCLD Malawi has a cadre of local organizations that can run workshops and trainings on community-led development in English and local languages. We are currently working to support local civil society and traditional authorities in Malawi to be more community-led.

In 2024, the Association also secured funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to host a dialogue connecting local and community-based organizations directly to the USAID Mission to shape their locally led development agenda and practice. MCLD played a key role in the National Localisation Conference and expressed interest in joining the steering committee for the localization agenda.

Over the last three years, we have also been working consistently to strengthen our governance processes to emerge as a inclusive, and safe space for collective action. Our progress was bolstered by the official registration of MCLD in Malawi, the establishment of an elected board, and our first in-person Annual General Meeting, where we laid the groundwork for a strong future.