Assessment of the role of traditional leadership in facilitating community development in rural Malaw

Chinkonda, Sosten Sylvester Joseph

Title: Assessment of the role of traditional leadership in facilitating community development in rural Malaw
Creator: Chinkonda, Sosten Sylvester Joseph
Subject: Rural development -- Malawi
Subject: Community development -- Malawi
Subject: Tribal government -- Malawi
Subject: Land use, Rural -- Malawi
Subject: Traditional leaders
Subject: Development project
Subject: Power
Subject: Participation
Subject: Social capital
Subject: Neo-liberalism
Subject: Debt crisis
Subject: Structural Adjustment Programme
Subject: Rational choice
Date: 2012
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: M Soc Sc (Rural Development)
Identifier: vital:11943
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1004907
Identifier: Rural development -- Malawi
Identifier: Community development -- Malawi
Identifier: Tribal government -- Malawi
Identifier: Land use, Rural -- Malawi
Identifier: Traditional leaders
Identifier: Development project
Identifier: Power
Identifier: Participation
Identifier: Social capital
Identifier: Neo-liberalism
Identifier: Debt crisis
Identifier: Structural Adjustment Programme
Identifier: Rational choice
Description: The study was carried out to assess the extent to which the intervention of traditional leaders is effective in mobilising support for community development projects and to examine the perceptions that communities have about the role of the traditional leaders in development projects. The study has been guided by the critique of neoliberalism which exposes the negative effects of implementing the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in Third World countries. The literature that has been reviewed has looked at the historical and political background of the role of chiefs and other traditional leaders in order to assess the nature of participation that is promoted through their involvement in development projects. An overview of the neo-liberal prescription and its critique has been made in order to expose the effects of the oil embargo of 1973 and the debt crisis of the 1980s on the economies of Third World countries in general and Malawi in particular. On the basis of evidence which has been gathered through a survey and focus group discussion, the study has found that the intervention of traditional leaders is very effective in mobilising communities for development projects. It has further been established that communities have high regard for their traditional leaders and that they perceive them as crucial role players in the conception and implementation of development projects. The study has however established that traditional leaders use unorthodox means such as threats of punishment to solicit the cooperation of the community members which in essence is counterproductive to the participatory approach to development.
Format: 79 leaves; 30 cm
Format: pdf
Publisher: University of Fort Hare
Publisher: Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities
Language: English
Rights: University of Fort Hare

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