Creating a National NGO Council for Strengthening Social Welfare Services in Africa: Some Organizational and Technical Problems Experienced in Malawi

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Periodical article

Title:	Creating a National NGO Council for Strengthening Social Welfare Services in Africa: Some Organizational and Technical Problems Experienced in Malawi
Author:	Simukonda, H.P.M.
Year:	1992
Periodical:	Public Administration and Development
Volume:	12
Issue:	5
Period:	December
Pages:	417-431
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Malawi
Subjects:	NGO social services Politics and Government Economics and Trade Development and Technology
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230120502
Abstract:	In 1985, Malawi's social welfare organizations formed the Council for Social Welfare Services in an attempt to strengthen the delivery of social welfare services to the underprivileged. This was to be achieved through a more formalized, coordinated functioning of the NGOs and a better system for assessing the technical, financial and training needs of the organizations and the population. This paper examines the viability of the Council. It focuses on problems such as the heterogeneity of the social welfare organizations involved in terms of their origin, objective guidelines and operational cultures, as well as the feasibility of getting the necessary cooperation to strengthen the Council's resources and authority and hence its capacity to meet its objectives. The overall view is that the Council has a long way to go before it achieves its aims, if that is at all possible, given the idiosyncratic nature of social welfare organizations. Notes, ref., sum.