"In 2014, new legislation introducing a Constituency Development Fund (hereafter CDF) was passed by Myanmar?s Union parliament, then dominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Commonly observed in Westminster-inspired parliamentary systems in the developing world, these types of distributive funds allocate budgetary resources to members of the national legislature, which they can spend annually on specific state-funded projects in their own electoral constituencies, without any local tax increase. The law adopted in 2014 carved from Myanmar?s Union budget an annual fund of 33 billion kyat (US$25 million) and allowed the CDFs to be disbursed equally in each of the country?s 330 townships. Each electoral constituency would thus receive an annual sum of 100 million kyat (US$75,000) to be spent on small development projects and public works. The CDFs were designed to promote annual community-based projects, chiefly focused on electricity access, water sanitation, and the construction of basic infrastructure such as roads, bridges, clinics, and schools. The management of CDFs was to be supervised by an appointed Township Development Implementation Committee, which would gather representatives from the local administration or municipal offices, and the four Members of Parliament (MPs) that each of the 330 constituencies elects: one legislator in each chamber of the bicameral Union parliament (the representative from the lower house chairing the committee), and two from the country?s fourteen subnational legislatures..."