DECENTRALISATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN MALAWI: LESSONS FROM DONOR-SUPPORTED PROJECTS

Martin Mkandawire () and Ben Yassin ()
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Martin Mkandawire: Institute for General Ecology and Environmental Protection, Dresden University of Technology, D-01737 Tharandt, Germany
Ben Yassin: Environmental Education, Training and Outreach Division, Department of Environmental Affairs, Private Bag 394, Capital City, Lilongwe 3, Malawi

Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), 2004, vol. 06, issue 01, 51-72

Abstract: Malawi entered a formalisation of a decentralised administration structure through the enactment of the Local Government Act of 1998. The environmental implications and obligations are stated in the Environmental Management Act 1996, which also mandates the Environmental Affairs Department as the co-ordinator for environmental management. Both acts devolve environmental management responsibilities to the District Assemblies. Donors (i.e., UNDP and DANIDA) sponsored and facilitated environmental management decentralisation through projects that strengthened legal and institutional framework, and built capacity. A few of lessons have been learnt from the process, and some are outlined in this paper e.g. the need for capacity building, harmonisation of the major statutes, and institutions where to anchor the mainstreamed decentralised environmental management functions. Other lessons include lack of delineation between devolution and deconcentration leading to local participation apathy, different policies among donor agencies resulted in implementation difficulties, and uncertainty in continuity of the initiative e.g. closure of DANIDA activities resulted in almost halt to the decentralisation of environmental management.

Keywords: Decentralisation; local government; environmental management; state of environment report; environmental action plan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1142/S1464333204001596

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