Civil service in developing countries is often perceived as being corrupt. Any government that seeks financial support for developmental aid is required to present specific reforms aimed at transforming its civil service. Civil service has to become efficient, subject to the rule of law, and accountable to the general public.

Usually the ‘target population’ of these policy measures, the civil servants, are also the ones responsible for the implementation of civil-service reform. As a consequence, the required changes and related shifts in power will raise resistance. Implementation of civil-service reform can deepen existing fault lines within civil service, and increase inefficiency and corruption.

In Southern Africa Malawi is one of the countries where good governance reforms have been implemented. Gerhard Anders, Assistant Professor of the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University in Zurich presents fieldwork conducted in Malawi in 1999, 2000 and 2002 in the urban areas of Lilongwe (the capital) and Zomba. In this fieldwork the focus is on the everyday experiences of civil servants in the context of good governance: tactics of resistance and subversion such as moonlighting, absenteeism and corruption.

Time: 15:00-17:00.

Place: African Studies Centre, Room 1.A12, Pieter de la Court Building, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden.

Registration in advance required.