Paper short abstract:

This study argues that bureaucrats in the Malawi Ministry of Health use standard bureaucratic tools, like policies and processes, as a means of resistance against external power. Using ethnographic methods, I show how the inherited colonial bureaucracy is used to drive self-determination in Malawi.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I argue that bureaucracy can act as a means of resistance to donor pressure, using Malawi’s Ministry of Health (MOH) as an illustrative case. While most studies of bureaucratic resistance are about civil servants shirking, reshaping, or mismanaging their duties, this study rethinks everyday uses of standard bureaucratic tools, such as documents, policies, and processes, as forms of resistance. In this paper, I draw on ethnographic data, including participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document review, from 16 months of research in the Malawian community health system between 2018 and 2021. I explore how seemingly benign bureaucratic tools are actually being wielded by MOH officials to assert their power. I find that bureaucrats in Malawi have learned to use the tools that donor agencies most respond to—and which were put in place by the colonial administration—to create a formal mechanism for resistance to donor power. By quietly adapting policies and processes to suit their needs, MOH officials maintain power over the development process in ways that are customary to external actors like donors and NGOs. In this way, donors are unable to oppose formal bureaucratic policies and processes, creating a safe and noncontroversial mechanism for the bureaucracy. Thus, as governments push for greater self-determination in development programs, bureaucratic channels become clear avenues for formalizing policies that curtail the ability of external actors to assert domination.