How (Not) to Fix Problems that Matter : Assessing and Responding to Malawi's History of Institutional Reform

Bridges, Kate ; Woolcock, Michael

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CAPACITY BUILDING;    INSTITUTIONS;    PUBLIC SECTOR;    GOVERNANCE;    REFORM;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8289
RP-ID  :  WPS8289

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Malawi can be understood as a microcosmof institutional reform approaches in developing countriesmore broadly. A common feature of such approaches, whetherimplemented by government or donors, is reform initiativesthat yield institutions that "look like" thosefound in higher-performing countries but rarely acquire thesame underlying functionality. This paper presents aretrospective analysis of previous institutional reformprojects in Malawi, as well as interviews with Malawi-baseddevelopment practitioners. The paper finds a plethora ofinterventions that, merely by virtue of appearing to be inconformity with "best practices" elsewhere, aredeemed to be successful yet fail to fix underlying problems,sometimes in contradiction to internal and public narrativesof positive progress. This unhappy arrangement enduresbecause a multitude of imperatives, incentives, and normsappear to keep governments and donors from more closelyexamining why such intense, earnest, and long-standingefforts at reform have, to date, yielded so few successes.This paper seeks to promote a shift in approach toinstitutional reform, offering some practicalrecommendations for reform-minded managers, project teams,and political leaders in which the focus is placed oncrafting solutions to problems that Malawians themselvesnominate, prioritize, and enact.