Ownership and Education in Malawi

In 2017, Malawi President Peter Mutharika published an op-ed, “The Moral Imperative of Quality Education,” that reads as a thank you letter to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and its potential funders. In the letter, Mutharika discusses his time organizing and convening conferences, belabors a crisis quality “that has reached [his] doorstep,” praises his nation for increased education spending as an example to the “developing world,” and thanks Rihanna for the “spotlight” her trip to Malawi offered. Mutharika does not mention ownership once. He does not comment that despite the “transforming” nature of the GPE partnership, education expansion and attainment in Malawi has stagnated by most international, regional, and national indicators; that educational quality in Malawi has always suffered, at the earliest dating back to colonial legacies about education’s provision and purpose; that the extremely high 23% national budgetary expense on education—with 60% towards primary schooling—is the result of a donor-enforced conditionality; or that Rihanna is hardly a household name in Malawi. 

Ownership is the cornerstone and foundation of aid effectiveness; it is not a strategy for improvement or aid’s newest buzzword. Ownership should be recognized as a prerequisite for any successful and sustainable development—an understanding that is particularly crucial in the education sector. Using examples from Malawi, this paper explores the importance of ownership in education and the spectrum of ownership definitions employed in donor-recipient relations, to advocate for a reinvigorated conversation around ownership and aid.