Regarding political and economical aspects – or-

Malawi; political economy analysis’ approach within rural water

supply sector
https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/12436.pdf

https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/5014/1/Chowns14PhD.pdf - chapter 3 and 4….

https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/12436.pdf - Introduction

Several authors have argued that political and economic factors intrinsically
influence whether and how reforms happen, and that poor performance cannot be
explained by technical or managerial factors alone (Fritz et al., 2009; Hudson and
Leftwich, 2014).

Research aim and objectives

Structural aspects concerning rural water services in

Malawi
Fragmentary decentralisation of service delivery

In Africa, decentralization has often been a mechanism to challenge political

competitors and extend the power of the ruling groups to widespread localities
(Cabral, 2011)
Malawi started the transformation with the constitution of 1994 followed by the
Decentralisation policy in 1998. The objective of this was to reduce poverty by
delivering the public goods and services to the population in rural areas. District
offices will be in charge of planning, delivery and maintenance of rural water
supplies.
Unfortunately the great plan of decentralisation did not come to a good end and it
has only partially achieved at this point. It seems that whole project has been quite
slow, particularly in the water sector, and most of the funds are still under control of
MoAIWD. Lockwood and Kang (2012) argue that the question of whether the
MoAIWD has devolved far enough is one of perspective.
According to Naomi Oates and Evance Mwathunga, having a partial decentralisation
can cause some issues regarding delivery, sustainability and equity of services as it
shows in figure …..Those issues are mainly:
- District Water Development Office (DWDO) have an important lack of funds
which means less staffing and transport. It makes difficult to supervise
constructions, training water point committees and providing the appropriate
support. This can conduct to have several technical issues and thus can affect
heavily the water point functionality.
- Issues to implement effectively the Malawi;s Sector Wide Approach (SWAp),
as it specially designed when services are decentralised. This can affect to
the coordination between different actors and funding agencies, and on the
other hand will have ramifications for an effective policy-making, planning and
investment.
Figure: Linking structural factors to service delivery bottlenecks. (source: report on political economy analysis of Malawi’s rural,
Naomi Oates and Evance Mwathunga, October 2018)

Staffing shortages
The water sector in Malawi is suffering at the moment with a dramatic chronic staff
shortage which affects directly to the sustainability of the Rural water supply
services. It is estimated a vacancy rate of 60% at this moment, national estimation.
(See Naomi Oates and Evance Mwathunga, 2018)
Apparently Malawi government is trying to make some savings by cutting staff from a
sector they think is not productive enough and it would not cost much to the
population. Obviously this is causing damage to the public in terms of health and
hygiene. Also affect in a negative way the short-termism of some programmes
directed by donors or NGO.
Sometimes There are lonesome districts and it is difficult to appeal to those water
sector professionals to come long and even more difficult to retain them for long
period of time. Balaka is experiencing at the moment with high staff movement
affecting the district and coordination teams. These movements affect directly to the
progress and development of the water point services.
Due to the lack of district organizations some donors prefer to invest money through
the government directly as they are aware of the lack of qualified personal, and that
is an impediment to work productively with.
Table: Staffing levels for groundwater supplies in Lilongwe Rural and Balaka districts at the time of fieldwork. (source: report on
political economy analysis of Malawi’s rural, Naomi Oates and Evance Mwathunga, October 2018)

Lack of funding?
As I mentioned in the previous section there is a lack of staffing working for the water
sector, this shortage has a close relationship to the need for financing. Malawi
government tend to prioritize in other sectors. Figure shows the budget allocation for
2014/2015, with only 1 billion Malawian kwacha spent for the water sector in
comparison with 140 billion Malawian kwacha spent for agriculture or 80 billion
Malawian kwacha spent for Education. For example, if we put these numbers in a
real life context, for any district in Malawi, it would not be possible to build a new
water point as there is need to cover construction, training activities, monitoring,
evaluation and so on. Up to this point there is not enough investment in water sector
so there is a need from development partners funds and it is far to be sustainable for
the near future.
There are considerable gaps in skills, knowledge and resources on the ground,
despite significant investments being made at national level to establish guidelines
for post-construction support and develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks and
tools (Sindani, 2016).
Post-construction the responsibility rests with DWDO (District Water Development
Office) that have been created to provide training and technical support directly to
WPC’s (Water point committees). They are also responsible for monitor, report on
water points functionality and tackle the major repairs. WPC’s are responsible for
managing and maintenance of water points. The problem comes when they have to
travel to rural locations and in most of the cases the vehicles they go with are not
available or they have lack of fuel. Unfortunately There are few resources for fuel to
move around and this is crucial for water monitoring and evaluation. How do you
know what is going on the ground if you are not there?
 2014/15 budget allocation
160

140
billion Malawian kwacha

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
Water Agriculture Education
Sectors

Figure: 2014/2015 Malawi budget allocation. (source: A political economy analysis of Malawi’s rural water supply sector Naomi
Oates and Evance Mwathunga)

Politicians impact in water services

Corruption is rife in Malawi and poses serious compliance risks to businesses
investing in the country. All sectors of the economy suffer from widespread
corruption, and large networks of clientelism and patronage exist (Gan, Business
anticorruption portal). Figure shows the corruption rank in Malawi according to
Trading Economics global macro models and analysis expectations. By 2020 is
projected to reach the highest number since 2010. It is dangerously increasing every
single year.
The World Bank estimates that ‘worldwide, between 20% and 40% of money
intended to develop water infrastructure is lost through corruption’. Although there
are not reliable corruption data in water services in Malawi it is common to find high
level of corruption in water sector in Malawi. In 2016, According to the European
Investment Bank (EIB) ‘Malawian government asked to repay $20.3 millions after
finding evidence of serious corruption involving water projects funded by the EIB’.
Apparently the research found anomalies in every aspect of the water project, such
as cost, vendor selection and post-construction.
Malawi has a well set up way of doing things but in just a few occasions that is
accomplished. Theoretically, the government prioritise communities for the
construction of new water points. Practically, there is a lack of statistical data so it is
difficult to produce a ranking for communities in real need. This limited data main
reason comes from a limited staff available to update data accordingly, including few
partners monitoring those water points. Donors and NGO’s also rely on similar
government criteria but applying their own strategy to rank priorities.
In Malawi the water infrastructure investment destination falls on clientelism mainly.
In rural areas there are some people who get incentives to influence the location of
water points. Politicians in most of the cases tend to prioritise their own district to
construct a water point and thus get a reward of a bunch of votes in the district
elections.
Corruption in water sector in Malawi seems to be an endemic problem these days.
Clientelism and patronage are in control of rural water sector investments and it has
effective implication for the sustainability of the services (Figure). What is actually
concerning is the need of honest politicians to resolve the problems that are behind
an effective service delivery. In spite of these obstacles in Malawi there are several
actors working on the field, such as institutions, groups or individuals, that are trying
to do their best to get the job done.

Figure: Malawi Corruption Rank – Forecast. (source: trading economics, 2018)

Box 1 What is political economy analysis?

The acknowledgement that politics matters has been one of the trademarks of international
development thinking and practice over the last decade. Several authors have argued that political
and economic factors intrinsically influence whether and how reforms happen, and that poor
performance cannot be explained by technical or managerial factors alone (Fritz et al., 2009; Hudson
and Leftwich, 2014). With regard to the water sector, Molle (2009) maintains that the development
and management of resources is inherently a political process, characterised by shifting political
alignments and contestations. Social and political structures, and differentials in access to various
forms of capital, shape power relations, interests and positions and therefore decisions, stakes and
claims to water resources (Cabral, 1998; Madison, 2007). Political economy analysis (PEA) has
emerged as a useful approach to understanding the dynamics surrounding national and sectoral
policy-making and implementation, and has usefully been applied to the water supply and sanitation
sector in a number of contexts (e.g. Harris et al., 2011). PEA provides: A systematic approach to
analysing relationships between key structural factors (such as historical processes and
environmental issues), institutions (formal and informal rules, norms and arrangements) and actors
in a given country or sector context (Jones, 2015; see also Landell-Mills et al., 2007; Booth, 2012;
Duncan and Williams, 2012). Such analysis can be used to support more politically and culturally
feasible development strategies, helping to set realistic expectations of what can be achieved and
identifying potential entry points for intervention (Booth and Golooba-Mutebi, 2009).

Box 2 Progress on rural water supply in Malawi

Water development is recognised as key to Malawi’s socioeconomic development, and the provision
of water and sanitation services is thought to make a significant contribution to public health, as well
as positively impacting on children’s education and household productivity. Malawi’s vision is
therefore to achieve universal access to water and sanitation by 2025 (MoFDP, 2011). To this end,
the national government has enacted a considerable array of policies and laws, supported by
development partners, which aim to improve sector governance. Malawi has made impressive
progress on increasing water supply coverage over the last five decades, surpassing the Millennium
Development Goal target on water supply for 2015. Both rural and urban coverage figures are high.
During the 2013/14 financial year, 83% of people had access to improved water sources (within a
distance of 200 m for urban and 500 m for rural areas) and 93% had an average time to collect
drinking water (return trip) of less than 30 minutes (MoIWD, 2014). Around 90% of schools have
improved water supply systems (ibid.). Estimates from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring
Programme (JMP) for 2015 are similarly impressive, indicating that coverage for improved water
supplies is 90% nationally, 89% in rural areas and 96% in urban areas (WHO/UNICEF, 2015). Despite
the progress made, however, there are serious present and future threats to the sustainability of
water supply services in Malawi. Low functionality of RWS is prevalent, with an estimated 25% of
water points not working at a given time (MoIWD, 2014).1 Sector reports also show variations in
coverage between districts, and there is a notable difference between urban and rural areas. Hence,
access to clean water is by no means equitable.2 These uneven patterns of service provision and
problems of functionality are caused by various bottlenecks in the service delivery chain, as well as
broader political-economic structures and actor relationships that shape water governance in
Malawi.

Box 4 Groundwater monitoring

The Ministry has 30 boreholes purely for monitoring purposes in addition to collecting data during
water point construction. For these boreholes, data on water quality should be collected every wet
and dry season and on water levels, collected manually once a week. It is not always possible,
however, to visit on the right day and distances ‘can be challenging for field staff’ (not to mention
the shortage of funds for field visits). Since 2013, most monitoring boreholes have had automatic
data loggers installed to record temperature and groundwater levels, but the water quality experts
still have to go in person to collect samples. There is no clear system for data collection and
reporting, and most of those doing it are not trained experts. Many gauge readers work for the
Surface Water Division of the Ministry (rather than the Groundwater Division), and ‘in Mangochi
there is a clerical officer’ collecting the data. It can be difficult to incentivise regular data collection
by gauging assistants, especially when there is no payment and little moral support: ‘They like to be
visited and asked questions as then they feel that what they are doing is important.’ The Ministry is
trying to encourage the DWDOs to get take an interest in supporting groundwater monitoring
efforts, and to make sure NGOs share their data on newly drilled boreholes. And while most donors
prefer to fund infrastructure for service delivery, some funds have been provided by the African
Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank for groundwater monitoring.