Due to the increasing number of children and youth dropping out of school, the Malawi government came up with a strategy to address their learning needs through non-formal means in its Education for All (EFA) plan. This resulted in the introduction of a three-year cycle pilot programme known as Complementary Basic Education (CBE). Funded by GTZ, a German funding agency, the CBE programme has since entered its second year of implementation. This paper reports an evaluation study of the CBE programme so far, with a view of highlighting some of the challenges affecting its implementation. Using a qualitative methodology, the study found that the programme is in many respects, potentially beneficial to various groups of stakeholders including learners, their parents and the community in general. However, the study finds that the major setback in achieving this potential lies in the differences in perception of what should count as curriculum for the CBE programme between providers and beneficiaries. There is a mismatch between "needs" as perceived by learners and community members on the one hand, and "needs" as perceived by the providers on the other hand. The paper discusses some of the issues that the providers need to respond to if CBE implementation is going to be beneficial to the livelihood needs of the learners and the immediate community.