AN INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF MALAWI’S 1994 POVERTY ALLEVITATION INITIATIVE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS By Blessings Chinsinga

The potential successes of the Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs. Which have become more or less the defining features of contemporary development strategies, raise crucial questions of institutional design. Would the successful implementation of PAPs require new and autonomous institutional designs or would they simply be integrated into the existing institutional apparatuses? The argument in favour of novel institutional set-ups is that they are less constrained by the orthodox bureaucratic traditions. They would, as a result, benefit from the strategic management capability, that is the trinity of adaptability, flexibility and pragmatism. The argument for existing institutional apparatuses is that poverty in developing countries is too deep and widespread to merit temporary relief. PAPs should not supplant but instead reinforce the institutional delivery systems are already in place. The institutional debate is also intricately related to the concept of beneficiary involvement in the process of development. The question then is whether the notion of participatory development is effective operationalised in the PAP poverty initiatives as conceptualized. Are the outcomes of the process of development any different as a result? The possible danger is that whole notion of participatory development may be less of an effort at real empowerment of the poor than a managerial or rhetoric device. The extent to which the voice of the poor in the process of development is real and effective may be questionable. The paper therefore attempts to address the foregoing concerns vis a vis the 1994 Poverty Alleviation Programme which remains the operative development philosophy of the re-elected United Democratic Front (UDF) government but now as a prelude to poverty eradication. The analysis is made within the framework of North’s theory of institutions. The theory is adapted to project the potential ramifications of the current institutional design of the PAP to future efforts to fight the ubiquitous problem of poverty in the country.