PARTICIPATION AND OUTCOMES OF LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Abstract

In Malawi, Local Development Fund (LDF) projects use community participation to achieve community development. This study assessed the nature of community participation and its influence on infrastructure development project outcomes in Lilongwe and Chikwawa. Qualitative data was collected from participants who were purposively sampled from 6 LDF projects in Traditional Authority Chiseka’s area in Lilongwe and Makhwira in Chikwawa. The study revealed that the nature of community participation on its own had little influence on development outcomes. The results indicated that the community participation found in Lilongwe and Chikwawa were similar but the differences on development outcomes were determined by the leadership and interaction of institutional climate which is defined as the policies, laws, strategies and the implementers of those policies, together with social structures and community collective assets. It was found that the leadership of T/A Chiseka in Lilongwe built unity, awareness, transparency and accountability to its village members on the construction of the projects, while in T/A Makhwira in Chikwawa there was mistrust and conflicts due to land disputes and nepotism practiced by the leaders. The study also found that interaction of policy, social structures and community collective assets in producing the desired outcomes was very high in Lilongwe compared to Chikwawa. The study suggests that if development project procedures and forecasts of the desired outcomes could be communicated to all community members, it could assist in creating a clear direction of community participation in achieving the projected outcomes.