Partnership for Success—Community-Based Economic Development: A Case Study of Ngolowindo Cooperative, Malawi

Abstract

IntroductionAfrica has suffered disproportionately more than other continents from a series of political and economic shocks. Chief among them are the debt crisis, the questionable impacts of structural adjustment, and various political and natural disasters (Adedeji, 1996;Barratt Brown, 1995;Belshaw and Livingstone, 2002;Manji and O'Coill, 2002). Whilst it is apparent that in the first years of the 21st century many African governments are more stable, democracy is more entrenched, and governments are putting in place significant decentralization and economic reform processes, a significant development backlog still remains. In addition, while Poverty Reduction Strategy Plans are in place and the Millennium Development Goals are widely accepted and striven for, extremely limited resources make the specified goals difficult to attain in the short term (Jenkins and Tsoka, 2004). Many of these policies have a medium to long-term vision whilst also having to respond to immediate needs. As argued elsewhere, the scale of the`development impasse ' (Binns and Nel, 1999) requires the full utilization of all viable alternative development interventions, including those of community-based development and NGO-assisted development, given that the development backlog far exceeds the capacity of national governments. This particular paper, which is based on a successful community-based development initiative in Malawi, seeks to explore the nature of the key success factors needed to initiate, support, and maintain a successful project and which allow it to attain financial success and sustainability by effectively penetrating formal sector markets. As such, findings contribute to the knowledge based on local development capacity and opportunities in the African context.Abstract. Africa has a disproportionate share of the world's poorest countries and within this context economically weak states generally lack the ability to provide the ideal level of support and opportunities for their citizens. This paper examines how, in Malawi, a community-based economic development initiative, with the aid of a supportive NGO, has significantly improved rural livelihoods and facilitated market access in the formal market economy. Active government and NGO support for small scale irrigation farming coupled with their encouragement of community development led to the emergence of the Ngolowindo agricultural cooperative which serves as a useful model and example of locality-based development in Africa. After providing a context for the study in terms of both contextual literature and details specific to the Malawian context, the paper examines how the cooperative emerged, how it operates, what role the supporting NGO plays, and how products are sold. The study concludes with an overview of key findings and an examination of the lessons for local development in Africa.

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