Who leads? Village development committees and local governance in Southern Malawi

Abstract

Since the 1980s, many developing countries have enacted policies of decentralization to create localized, representative forms of government. A highly under‐studied body of local governance are village development committees (VDCs). Utilizing a mixed‐method approach in three districts of Southern Malawi, we combine surveys, focus groups, and interviews to examine the role of VDCs in local politics. Selected by their peers, VDC members navigate a complicated landscape including: local and central politicians, government bureaucrats, NGOs and special interest groups, and traditional authorities. We find that citizens are accurately able to evaluate the development work that VDCs are doing and consistently rate their trust in these institutions higher than their trust in elected authorities. Still, challenges persist: members receive no standardized training and there are consistent gender gaps in the experiences of men and women members of the VDCs.

Nuancing the spheres of authority of chiefs: State perspectives on hybrid governance

“…The responsibilities for chiefs today reach far beyond their traditional responsibilities and their authority is reaching new arenas and partners (Claassens, 2019; Tieleman & Uitermark, 2019; Yeni, 2019). This trend has been driven by new forms of governance, such as decentralization and collaborative governance, that perceives governments as one actor amongst many (Maiden et al., 2021). However, while other actors in the governance process are included based on specific competences, democratic elections, or resources; chiefs' position and power in hybrid governance systems mainly derive from tradition.…”