Monitoring and evaluation in Malawi
When Ian Wilson and Carlos Barahona of the Statistical Services Centre at the University of Reading were asked to review an evaluation of the effectiveness of an aid package in Malawi, they expected a simple enough task. But few things in the developing world are simple. Where aid for the poorest is concerned, is evidence collected and analysed with enough rigour to enable well‐informed decisions to be made?
Food security, social protection, growth and poverty reduction synergies: the Starter Pack Programme in Malawi
Development Introduction For the past six years, the Government of Malawi, with the support of international donors, has implemented a free inputs programme for smallholder farmers in the main agricultural season. The programme provides a tiny pack of free inputs containing roughly 0.1 ha-worth of fertiliser, maize seed and legume seed. Originally, the programme was known as Starter Pack and it provided universal coverage, as nearly three million packs were distributed – enough for the whole smallholder population – in 1998–9 and 1999– 2000. In the 2000–1 and 2001–2 seasons, however, it was scaled down and efforts were made to target the inputs to the poorest smallholders. To reflect this change, it became known as the Targeted Inputs Programme (TIP). In 2002–3 and the following year, as a response to a serious food crisis in early 2002, the programme was expanded to near-universal coverage. There is growing evidence that in some countries, acute food crisis takes place against a backdrop of increasingly entrenched chronic food insecurity. Malawi, with its high population density, diminishing farm size, decreasing soil fertility, high cost of imported inputs such as fertiliser, weak service delivery systems and weak governance, is one such country. In settings such as these, the policy options are limited. This paper analyses the performance of a highly innovative intervention in Malawi – the Starter Pack programme – which provided free of charge small packs of improved maize and other seed together with appropriate fertiliser. The paper discusses how the objectives of this programme evolved (but remain complex), its cost-effectiveness, and complementary policy objectives that might be pursued. It considers the different expectations raised by Starter Pack with regard to agricultural growth, poverty reduction, social protection and food security. The paper argues that Starter Pack’s main strength is as a tool for combating chronic food insecurity, but there are also important synergies with social protection, growth and poverty reduction. FOOD SECURITY, SOCIAL PROTECTION, GROWTH AND POVERTY REDUCTION SYNERGIES: THE STARTER PACK PROGRAMME IN MALAWI Sarah Levy with Carlos Barahona and Blessings Chinsinga
Judicial politics in Britain: Patrolling the boundaries
This study considers judicial policy‐making in Great Britain by noting the peculiarly British institutional restraints on judicial action of parliamentary sovereignty, the resulting subordination of all courts to the legislative branch and the absence of a codified charter of rights or constitution. Though there is no judicial power to annul legislative or executive actions, British courts and judges still play a small, but significant, role in policy‐making through the common law and, in particular, through judicial review of adminstrative actions. A written bill of rights would likely draw courts further into the the political arena and politicise the appointment of judges.