Many African countries have undergone various phases of public sector reform aimed at enhancing efficiency and service delivery. But how effective have such reforms been? How and to what extent can some of these reforms be characterised as "institutional mimicry", where institutions adopt the language and behavior of reform without necessarily achieving substantial changes on the ground? How meritocratic is the civil service? And what about political interference, bureaucratic motivation and/or demotivation, corruption, and the role and influence of external actors?

Happy Kayuni is a professor of political science at the University of Malawi’s Politics and Government Department. He is currently also the Executive Dean of the School of Law, Economics and Government at the University of Malawi. His main areas of expertise are in the following areas: political governance, public administration and management, and gender and international development policy. @HappyKayuni

Key highlights

• Introduction - 00:24
• Development or the lack of it in Malawi - 03:50
• State capacity, policy formulation and implementation - 06:56
• Everyday challenges facing civil servants - 13:50
• The major areas of public sector reforms on the African continent - 22:20
• Reforms for whom and for what - 29:05
• Instituting discipline in the civil service - 40:55
• Legitimacy of the state and role of external actors - 46:44

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