Malawi and the Politics of Foreign Aid By

1 Malawi And The Politics of Foreign Aid By: Lemson Samson Chitsamba Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D. The London School of Economics And Political Science: University of London, 1990 UMI Number: U044681 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U044681 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 71 F 67&5 x<2u3>2ca33 2 Abstract Malawi's behaviour in international relations has been interpreted largely in terms of the country's economic needs. The conventional argument has been that the country's foreign and domestic policies were adopted for reasons of making the country attractive to donor countries and organizations. This argument is so prevalent that it is even reflected in the titles of some books and articles on Malawi's post-independence political and economic history. For example/ a pamphlet kept by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Library is titled: "Malawi: Foreign Policy and Development". This thesis proceeds on the premise that foreign aid has not been the main objective of Malawi foreign and domestic policies. Accordingly, it looks critically at the alleged link between foreign aid and the country's foreign and domestic policies. It finds that the conventional argument is supported with evidence which is erroneous in many cases or at least partial and tries to show that the effects which the politics of foreign aid have exerted on Malawi are quite different from those which are assumed by the conventional argument. 3 By contrast/ the argument of the thesis is that Malawi's foreign and domestic policies are not the result of the politics of foreign aid. Rather they are the product of the style and perceptions of the country's leadership. 4 Acknowledgement It would be almost impossible to mention various senior officials and colleagues for helping in various ways. In any case it would be unnecessary to mention them. Enough to say that their help is greatly appreciated and apart from their help none of them bears any responsibility for the study or the manner in which any information has been interpreted in the thesis. Responsibility falls totally on me. My special thanks go to Mr. James Mayall, the Supervisor of the thesis, whose patience, constructive criticisms, and guidance helped me to put the study into a meaningful shape. I also thank his wife who, at home, had to put up with some of the discussion .sessions of the thesis between the writer and her husband. Finally, I thank my wife Elizabeth, not only for typing the earlier manuscript but also for her criticisms which also helped me to get some of the ideas in the study better presented. None of them, however, bear any responsibility for any conclusions of the study. 4 5 Contents Subject Page Title 1 Abstract 2 Acknowledgement 4 Content of Tables 9 Chapter One 10 Introduction 10 Definition of Foreign Aid 10 Political Character of Foreign Aid 16 Foreign Aid Effectiveness 20 Concept of Dependence 26 Some Views About the Foreign Policies of African States 34 The "Foreign Aid Argument" 47 The Approach to the Subject 58 Organization 60 Footnotes 62 Chapter Two 72 Foreign Policies 72 Introduction 72 Several Foreign Policies 73 African Policy 75 Adverse Development to African Unity 76 The Triumph of Functional Approach 80 "Discretional Alignment and Nonalignment" 85 6 Subject Page Quotations From President's Speeches 86 The Origin of the Policy 89 References to Certain Events 98 "Contact and Dialogue" 110 Quotations From President's Speeches 112 The Origin of the Policy 117 Geography and the Making of Policy 120 References to Certain Events 133 Conclusion 135 Footnotes 141 Chapter Three 149 Economic Policies 149 Introduction 149 Economic System 150 Quotation From President's Speeches 151 The Nature of Malawi's Economic System 161 Development Strategy 169 References to Certain Agricultural Schemes 174 Malawi's Development Planning 194 Development Planning Documents 209 Expatriates Economic Policies 214 Conclusion 221 Footnotes 223 Chapter Four 232 Alleged Impact of Malawi's Policies 232 Introduction 232 * 7 Subject Page Aid Relations With Donors 232 Recipient of South African Aid 246 Recipient of British Aid 253 The Root of the Deficit Problem 261 Conclusion 271 Footnotes 273 Chapter Five 280 Alleged Role of Foreign Experts 280 Introduction 280 The Presence of Expatriates 281 The Posts Held by Expatriates 296 Bureaucracy in Policy Making 303 Instruments of Decision Making 313 Conclusion 335 Footnotes 338 Chapter Six 345 Development and Aid Influence 345 Introduction 345 Place of Development Among Government Activities 346 Operations of Certain Multilateral Organizations 352 Some Difficulties in Assessing Foreign Aid Political Effectiveness 360 Instances of Foreign Aid Influence 369 Other Instances of Aid Influence 400 i 8 Subject Page Conclusion 407 Footnotes 409 Conclusion 413 Footnotes 437 Sources and References 441 9 Contents of Tables Subject Page Table I Swedish Foreign Aid to Eastern and Southern Africa 140 Table II List of Malawi's Foreign Aid Donors 237 Table III Voting Percentages in the U.N. 241 Table IV Per Capital Aid of Some African Countries 243 Table V Some African Recipient Countries 244 Table VI South African Loans to Malawi 249 Table VII Some Recipients of British Foreign Aid 256 Table VIII British Expatriates in Eastern and Southern African Countries 292 Table IX List of Malawi's Imports and Exports 398 t 10 Chapter One Introduction The thesis is a critical examination of the prevailing conviction that the need tor foreign aid accounts for Malawi's behaviour in international relations. Therefore, the task in this chapter is to state in detail this argument and indicate how it is to be considered in the subsequent chapters. This exercise is preceded by a discussion of some key concepts which include foreign aid and its political character and effectiveness. The exercise is also followed by a discussion of the nature of foreign policy, the concept of dependence, and the method of approach to the subject. The nature of foreign policy is discussed largely to indicate the manner in which the foreign policies of African countries are looked at in this thesis. Similarly, the concept of dependence is discussed to indicate the manner in which it is treated in the thesis. Definition of Foreign Aid Foreign aid is obviously the key concept in the thesis and requires, therefore, considerable attention. 11 It consists of many categories such as non-official as opposed to official foreign aid. Not every categorr of foreign aid will receive attention here. For example, the study will not pay much attention to the non-official aid. This is not to say that Malawi does not receive this type of foreign aid. On the contrary, Malawi receives a lot of non-official, or unofficial, foreign aid. Some of its charity organizations, particularly the Christian Service Committee of the Churches in Malawi (C.S.C.), the Malawi Red Cross Society, and the Lions Club, receive aid from sister charity organizations abroad such as the British OXFAM or Christian Aid or the International Red Cross Committee in Geneva. Such aid is used on small community development projects in the country such as digging boreholes, purchase of school desks, and the construction of youth hostels in towns. However, this category of foreign aid will not be considered here because it is small in amount compared to the amount of foreign aid which is channeled through the Malawi Government. For example, the C.S.C., which is a sort of non-official aid receiving agency of the country, received in 1979, $2 million worth of foreign aid which is nothing compared to $80.6 million of foreign aid which the Malawi Government received from abroad during the same year.1 Therefore, its omission need not create a serious gap in the thesis. 12 The category of foreign aid which will be considered is the one which is called official foreign aid. This is the aid which is from one government to another and also consists of two types. One part of it is called food aid and another is called the official development aid or assistance (O.D.A.). Food aid invokes its own politics, the politics of food aid. Though official, it will not receive attention here because Malawi did not receive food aid until early 1988 when it signed a food aid agreement with the United States worth some $10 million. Similarly, military aid will not be considered because Malawi has hardly received any such aid. O.D.A. is the type of aid which will receive most attention. This is the largest proportion of all foreign aid which goes to Malawi. It, too, is sometimes categorised into financial and technical aid, a categorisation which is not important at this stage of the discussion. It will be considered as just one category of aid until considerably later in the thesis. Whatever category one considers, foreign aid, as John White points out, refers to a "heterogeneous collection of 2 transactions". For example, the term is used to mean loans, grants, donations, and secondment of personnel. However, it has two distinctive features.

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