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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Good Governance in Malawi: Policy implementation and fissures in the civil service
| Panel |
17. States at work: African public services in comparative perspective
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| Paper ID | 281 |
| Author(s) |
Anders, Gerhard
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| Paper |
View paper (PDF)
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| Abstract | Good governance has become the central guiding principle for development aid, and any government that seeks financial support from the donor community is required to present a set of specific reforms aimed at transforming its civil service, which is often perceived as being riddled with corruption, into an efficient service provider that is subject to the rule of law and is accountable to the general public. Malawi in Southern Africa is one of the countries where good governance reforms have been implemented since the transition to democracy in 1994. Civil servants, the ‘target population’ of these policy measures, are responsible for the implementation of civil-service reform. This has implications for the implementation of good governance and civil servants in Malawi have responded in unforeseen ways, trying to manipulate, appropriate and in some cases to resist the implementation of these reforms. The implementation of civil-service reform has deepened already existing fault lines within the civil service, pitting bosses against juniors and old-school officials against technocrats. This paper situates the everyday experiences of civil servants in the context of good governance and focuses on mundane tactics of resistance and subversion such as moonlighting, absenteeism and corruption. |
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