Archive / Project Report
Silently leaving Malawi: Sweden's delegated exit
12/11/2009 By Nils-Sjard Schulz, Marketa von Hagen
Separate ways: Sweden's lessons in leaving Malawi (Photo: Markéta von Hagen)
Malawi is an often neglected developing country with huge development challenges. It hosts a fluctuating donor community. After the exit of Denmark and the Netherlands, it was Sweden’s turn to leave Malawi, as a result of the geographical concentration of its aid portfolio.
Building upon interviews and a workshop conducted in Lilongwe in March 2009, this case study explores the practices of Sweden’s exit and its impact. Key conclusions are that, as a result of the delegated cooperation with Norway, poor communication and the lack of knowledge regarding the financial dimensions prevented national stakeholders from designing a strategy to avoid sensible losses. Critical gaps were detected in the coordination between Sweden and its lead partner Norway, which reveals important lessons on how to jointly implement a delegated exit. For its part, the remaining donor community did not engage in shared responsibility and compensation strategies in particularly sensitive areas such as governance.
The case study, conducted by Markéta von Hagen and Nils-Sjard Schulz, highlights the need for clear communication, particularly in the context of delegated cooperation. Phasing-out implementation requires a close examination of sustainability by strengthening national capacities and ensuring certain guarantees to avoid negative impact on the national development processes.
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Projects
Division of labour in development aidKeywords
Aid effectiveness Division of labour European Union Malawi Norway Sub-Saharan Africa SwedenRelated publications
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Bio author: Nils-Sjard Schulz
Nils-Sjard Schulz is associate fellow at FRIDE. His research focuses on the new aid architecture, the global governance of aid, the impact of donor harmonisation on partner countries, democratisation, implications of international division of labour and South-South cooperation.
Bio author: Marketa von Hagen
Markéta von Hagen is an international consultant in good governance, governance of aid, gender and youth development.
