Research/academic paper

A Critical Assessment of Aid Management and Donor Harmonisation: The Case of Malawi

“The purpose of this study is to identify stumbling blocks to effective aid delivery, donor practices that create a burden on the Malawi Government in terms of ownership, transaction costs, institutional capacity, as well as identify possible benefits and opportunities to cost effective development assistance delivery. Malawi has benefited from substantial donor support and it has implemented liberalisation and structural adjustment programmes, yet it still has high levels of poverty. A number of previous studies have focused on how Malawi has not been fully committed to these programmes or how it has misused or misappropriated aid. Not much attention has been paid
to how donor behaviour has impacted on the quality and effectiveness of aid. The effectiveness of aid depends on both donor and recipient country policies and practices. This study intends to expose the difficulties related to these issues in the context of Malawi and propose ways on how to resolve them.”