Demand-driven Poverty Programmes and Elite Capture in Malawi: Between Prebendalism and Benevolence

Abstract

This paper challenges a widespread assumption in recent research on demand-driven development programmes according to which the main obstacle to successfully reaching the extreme poor lies in kleptocratic behaviour among elites. In the case of Malawi's social funds, it is found that programme funds were relatively equally distributed across regions and districts and that the elite capture at these levels was minimal. At sub-district levels, however, there were grave inequalities between traditional authority areas. This distributional pattern clearly bears witness to an active developmental role of traditional authorities in these areas - partly controlling for these areas' size, socio-economic status and closeness to the project headquarters. In the concluding part, I discuss the developmental role - in terms of benevolence and prebendalism - of traditional authorities at community level and point towards areas needing further research. Cet article met en question une hypoth�se largement r�pandue dans les recherches r�centes sur les programmes de d�veloppement ax�s sur la demande, selon laquelle le principal obstacle emp�chant d'atteindre les tr�s pauvres consisterait en des comportements 'cleptocrates' parmi les �lites. Dans le cas des fonds sociaux du Malawi, il appara�t que les fonds des programmes ont �t� distribu�s de fa�on relativement �quitable � travers les r�gions et les districts et qu'� ces niveaux l'accaparement par les �lites a �t� minime. Au niveau des sous-districts, cependant, se sont produites de graves in�galit�s entre les zones d'autorit� traditionnelles. Ce mod�le distributif atteste clairement le r�le actif que jouent les autorit�s traditionnelles en termes de d�veloppement - en contr�lant en partie la taille de ces r�gions, leur statut socio-�conomique et leur proximit� du si�ge du projet. Pour conclure, j'examine le r�le dans le d�veloppement - en termes de charit� et de 'pr�bendalisme' - jou� par les autorit�s traditionnelles au niveau de la communaut� et montre les domaines n�cessitant de plus amples recherches.

The design of decentralised demand‐driven programmes and equity: Learning from implementation in Malawi councils

“…The principal reason for choosing the two councils is the nature and strength of civil- The trend can be traced by comparing Table 1 in this paper with the findings in (Schou 2007).…”