Explaining Levels of Local Government Involvement in Service Delivery: The Dynamics of Cross‐Sector Partnerships in Malawi
| Published date | 01 August 2015 |
| Date | 01 August 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1715 |
EXPLAINING LEVELS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN
SERVICE DELIVERY: THE DYNAMICS OF CROSS-SECTOR
PARTNERSHIPS IN MALAWI
JEAN-FRANÇOIS SOUBLIÈRE
1
*AND CHARLOTTE CLOUTIER
2
1
University of Alberta, Canada
2
HEC Montréal, Canada
SUMMARY
This study explores how local governments and their development partners—that is, donors, non-governmental organisations
and private companies—structure their partnerships as they work together to provide services to communities. Cases of collabo-
ration between four organisations working in the rural water supply sector and six local governments in Malawi are studied.
Using a cross-case qualitative methodology, we illustrate how power and control translate into practices, leading to different
levels of local government involvement in service delivery. This study contributes to the literature on cross-sector partnerships
in particular by developing empirically-based propositions that help explain the dynamic trajectories that partnerships between
local governments and their development partners can take. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—Africa; Malawi; decentralisation; collaboration; cross-sector partnerships; inter-organisational power; service
delivery; rural water provision
INTRODUCTION
The establishment of local governments following administrative reforms in the 1990s (Olowu, 2003; Cheema and
Rondinelli, 2007; Stevens and Teggemann, 2004), coupled with an explosion of newly created non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) (Goldsmith, 2003), opened up new avenues through which developmental aid supports
service delivery in many African countries. The multiple ways in which funds can be distributed combined with
the diverse political, institutional and cultural contexts in which decentralisation takes place have consequently
given rise to considerable variety in the way cross-sector partnerships are structured to support service delivery
(Fowler, 2000; Moran, 2006; Gazley, 2008; Jaglin et al., 2011; Brass, 2012; Anderson and Van Crowder, 2000).
To help make sense of the complexity of these partnerships, certain scholars have assessed different partnership
forms in terms of effectiveness, equity or citizen satisfaction (Golooba-Mutebi, 2012; Andrews and Entwistle,
2010; Slyke and Roch, 2004). Others have created typologies that classify and categorise cross-sector partnerships
in various ways (Young, 2000; Teamey, 2010; Selsky and Parker, 2005). These include typologies that characterise
cross-sector partnerships along various dimensions, such as converging goals and strategies (Najam, 2000) or
organisational identities (Brinkerhoff, 2002).
However, these perspectives tend to look at cross-sector partnerships in static terms. Indeed, few studies have
adopted a process view of these relations to allow for a better understanding of how partnership arrangements
emerge in the first place, or how they evolve over time. While typologies are helpful for comparing or evaluating
different forms of cross-sector partnerships, such ‘snapshot’efforts tend to quickly become outdated (Brinkerhoff
and Brinkerhoff, 2002).
*Correspondence to: J.- F. Soublière, Strategic Management and Organization, Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta, Edmonton
(Alberta) T6G 2R3, Canada. E-mail: jf.soubliere@ualberta.ca
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 35, 192–205 (2015)
Published online 22 June 2015 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1715
Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial