AID COORDINATION AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS: A CASE OF THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN MALAWI

Abstract

The 2008Accra meeting on Aid Effectiveness observed that aid is still fragmenting - that there are too many donors, financing too many projects, using different models. This has negative implications for aid effectiveness i.e. the extent to which aid efforts achieve intended results. Coordination of aid and activities is seen as a means to overcome these problems and achieve better impact. The purpose of this study was to explore the link between aid coordination and its effectiveness in the education sector in Malawi. The study used a case study design using qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. Data sources included interviews and documents analysis. In total, nine key informants were interviewed. These included donor representatives, government officials and representatives from civil society. A major finding of the study is that although there is a general agreement that aid coordination is necessary for achieving better impact of aid, it is practically difficult to achieve fully and only partial coordination is achievable at the moment. This is because donors lack confidence in the coordination mechanisms in place in particular the public financial systems and therefore large amounts of donor funding remain outside the coordinated mechanisms. Findings also show variations on the understanding of what aid coordination should look like in practice and the perceived roles of the different actors in the coordination processes.