From Policy to Practice

Malawi has made clear commitments to transparency and digital transformation, but its progress on open data governance remains uneven and largely symbolic. The country has the foundational laws/policies and the ambition, from the Access to Information Act to the Digital Transformation Strategy and Malawi 2063 Vision, yet the practical systems that make data genuinely open, usable, and valuable are still missing. The core issue is a persistent gap between policy intent and implementation. Data remains scattered across ministries in incompatible formats. There is no central authority to enforce open standards or ensure regular publication of government data. Most government datasets remain trapped in PDF reports or locked behind institutional silos, making them difficult to reuse for public accountability or innovation. Weak coordination, limited funding, and low data literacy have turned open data from a national goal into a set of disconnected initiatives

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