Publication:

AN ANALYSIS OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN MALAWI.

Community Participation is one of the factors that leads to successful implementation of development projects. Public Works Projects (PWPs) in Malawi are categorized as one of the developmental projects. Fewer studies have examined the participatory approaches between the Government and Non-Governmental Organisations in PWPs. This study contributed to the debate on community participatory approaches in Malawi. The study used MASAF 4, a PWP project implemented by World Vision (an NGO) and Government project in Zomba district under traditional authority (TA) Chikowi. Based on a qualitative approach, the study used key informant interviews (KII) guides with project facilitators and focus group discussion (FGD) guides. The approach was selected because of the study, in order capture lived experiences. This helped the researcher an opportunity to understand and interpret social changes and interactions. The study investigated; how the community participated in project selection, maintenance of PWPs projects and how communities were involved in monitoring of PWPs implemented by the Government and NGOs. Interview audios were transcribed into English and were coded using deductive and inductive methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data in Atlas.Ti software. Community participation was measured using Arnstein‘s ladder of community participation. Overall. the Government led project demonstrated more community participatory qualities as compared to the NGO led project in all the three phases examined. Community participation can only be achieved where only the local community is empowered, which calls for early inclusion of community members in project decision making and activities.