Constituency Development Fund (CDF) schemes are decentralization initiatives that send funds from the central government to each constituency for expenditure on development projects intended to address particular local needs. A key feature of CDF schemes is that members of parliament typically exert a tremendous degree of control over how funds are spent. This scoping paper provides an overview of CDFs: when, where, and how they have emerged worldwide; identifies the key features of CDFs that impact on their performance; outlines the arguments and evidence available for and against CDFs; and investigates the opportunities and possible future research from an advocacy perspective.
