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From policy to practice: changing government attitudes towards the private sector in Malawi
Author(s) -
Record Richard
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.1403
Subject(s) - private sector , government (linguistics) , public sector , democracy , poverty , independence (probability theory) , economic growth , private sector involvement , government sector , dictatorship , economic sector , economics , development economics , political science , economy , politics , law , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics
This paper reviews relations between government and the private sector in Malawi from independence to the present. The analysis charts the changing emphasis that official policy has attached to the role of the private sector throughout the transition from dictatorship to democracy; and from a PRSP that effectively ignored the role of the private sector in national development, to the current more balanced approach that recognises the private sector as the ‘engine of economic growth’ and the best means of achieving poverty reduction. However, in spite of progress, Malawi's private sector remains fragile and while the rhetoric from the highest levels of government towards the private sector has evolved, the enabling environment for private sector development is still inhospitable. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.