Key challenges to advancing land tenure security through land governance in Malawi: Impact of land reform processes on implementation efforts

Abstract

Malawi embarked on a long and arduous journey of adopting comprehensive and transformative land reforms from the mid-1990s. These reforms seek to promote equitable land access, tenure security and efficient land use. Land reform, however, is replete with competing interests and competing objectives by its originators. Using the concept of land governance, this paper explores the extent to which the methodology of the land reform program in Malawi, including its conceptualisation, aids the implementation strategy in achieving the ideal of tenure security and equitable land access. It explores three questions namely: What methodology was used in land reform processes in Malawi and why? What is the impact of this methodology on the implementation strategy? What are the likely outcomes of the impact in achieving the ideals of equitable land access and tenure security, especially for women? The paper demonstrates that the inefficient management by the state of the interests and objectives of key players in land reform, such as the chieftaincy and international economic actors, at conception stage and with regard to a land reform methodology impacts negatively on subsequent implementation efforts. This is the case for Malawi as the key challenges in implementing the land reforms directly stem from the inefficient management of the policy design stage of the land reform program and the skewed legislative processes that followed.

Introduction

This paper critically reviews the methodology adopted by Malawi in land reform post 1990s influenced by international development policy and the change of government from autocratic rule to democracy. It focuses on the policy design and the legislative processes and their impact on the current implementation strategy. Compliant with global practice, the approach adopted touted ‘land governance’ (Toulmin, 2000; Quan, 2000; McAuslan, 1998) as the defining strategy for land reforms to attain tenure security and equitable land access. Hence, participatory approaches became central in achieving this ideal. Similar to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the generic methods employed promoted market based reform models without reflection on attendant costs vindicating Wily’s concerns about the limitations of this approach (Wily, 2003). These models require heavy capitalisation, making weak economies vulnerable to Bretton Woods Institutions, particularly the World Bank, as implementation of resultant reforms is extremely expensive (Silungwe, 2015). The paper interrogates the extent to which the interests of the key players in the reform process, namely, the state; international economic actors; and the chieftaincy, impacted on the methodology and outcomes of the Land Reform Programme in Malawi, including on the on-going implementation efforts.

The premise that participatory approaches in land policy design and in subsequent legislative processes attain land governance which in turn promote tenure security and equitable land access is almost treated as a truism in the land tenure discourse by some scholars (Toulmin and Quan, 2000; McAuslan, 1998). Yet this premise has always been invoked within the context of neoliberalism without interrogating challenges posed by key players in land reform efforts such as the power of international economic actors; structural and institutional constraints posed by the chieftaincy and the incapacitating multifaceted interest of the state as an ally to both Development Partners (DP) and the chieftaincy. While engagement of stakeholders is key in land policy design and legislative processes, scholars have criticised the models for their lack of responsiveness to the specific land questions on the continent. For instance, Whitehead and Tsikata (2003) emphasise the need to incorporate and consolidate the participation of women and the vulnerable in the new land governance structures thereby questioning effective participation of women. Manji (2006) and MacAuslan (2010) also join this school of thought. On the other hand, scholars such as Ubink (2008); Zuka and Matinga (2016), have questioned the likely success in incorporating and democratising the role of the chieftaincy in customary land tenure management. These questions have also been prominent in the land tenure reform process in Malawi. To the extent that there was a perception that women and the vulnerable were side-lined, and that the role of chiefs was unnecessarily valorised, it is not surprising that Silungwe (2015) has lamented the discord between the land question and the tenure reform in Malawi. We argue that the unsatisfactory manner in which the land reform programme was conceptualised, due to the influence of the three key players, impinged on the attainment of meaningful responses to the land question specific to Malawi. The competing interests of the key players were replete in the conceptualisation stage compromising the relevance of the Land Reform programme at the outset. The question of the impact of the methodology used in the reform processes on the current implementation strategy remains particularly peripheral. The paper therefore proceeds on the assumption that the conception and process of land reform is as important as the content of land reform and that these are highly intertwined. Understanding of this imperative from a governance perspective and the political economy in Malawi should offer insights on the implementation challenges that are currently faced.

The paper explores the following questions: What methodology was used in land reform processes in Malawi and why? What is the impact of this methodology on the implementation strategy? What are the likely outcomes of the impact in achieving the ideals of equitable land access and tenure security, especially for women?

In Malawi, the methodology deployed in land reform reveals stiff competition among the three aforementioned key players regarding land reform outcomes. The focus of international economic actors lie on title registration of customary land interests; the chieftaincy seek to consolidate power over customary land; while the state’s position is multifaceted and oscillates between the interests of the two in a bid to balance the need to access budgetary support and promote its political interests at the grass root level. Ultimately, political will is eroded and the country is left with a captured land reform programme.

Within this context, implementation of the land reform programme poses a challenge. It is clear that, with the myriad problems encountered due to competing interests, poor engagement of key stakeholders in the methodology deployed; and a shaky fiscal foundation to support the reforms, the land reform programme is unlikely to achieve desired results. We argue that the programme has limited capacity to promote equitable land access and tenure security as it does not respond to the land question as espoused in the debates during the change from autocracy to democracy. Secondly, to the extent that the State is compromised and has demonstrated a lack of capacity to implement the reforms both in terms of human and financial resources, the future of the programme remains hazy. Thus, the task of achieving effective tenure reforms remains futile, and a source of stiff resistance from custodians of cultural institutions.

In the following section, we define the concept of land governance which provides the theoretical framework for understanding the argument in this paper. This is followed by a discussion of the problematic of the land question in Malawi. A description of the methodology adopted in policy design and legislation process follows thereafter. This is followed by a brief discussion of the implementation strategy and the key challenges in actualising the land reforms.