Fake Qualifications and the Challenge of regulating Higher Education in Southern Africa

This article examines the prevalence and implications of fake qualifications and the need for an effective regulatory regime to contain fake higher education qualifications. Fake qualifications by definition refer to false academic and professional credentials, regardless of the source, which means they may be acquired from illegitimate institutions, superficially legitimate institutions or through illegitimate means from legitimate institutions. The qualifications are in this sense illegitimate both in the manner in which they are obtained and also in terms of what they signify. The research for this article shows that the clandestine nature of the production and issuance and its global reach make it difficult to quantify, but also to control the use of fake qualifications and to manage their impact locally, nationally and globally. Drawing from several cases, it is apparent that the phenomenon of fake qualifications defies the integrity and legitimate expectations from an education system and is a serious challenge to education and ethical standards. It is further argued that given the challenges presented by the proliferation of fake qualifications generally, and in southern Africa in particular, it is imperative for higher education institutions, regulatory bodies, employers and the general public to develop a keen interest in the subject of fake qualifications and to cooperate in order to contain the menace

Negotiated economic opportunity and power: perspectives and perceptions of street vending in urban Malawi

It is least acknowledged in daily discourses that street vending is a very important phenomenon. Little wonder that street vending involves negotiating for space in all its manifestations: physical space, economic opportunity and power. The vendors are coerced by both local urban and national authorities and sometimes the public at large to justify or negotiate acceptance. Very often such intentions are blind to the most basic and yet fundamental aspect that street vending is a pragmatic grassroots response to bleak socio-economic and changing political realities that have not of late spared anyone. Street vending appears in all fairness a means to legitimate ends. Hence, access to vending spaces should be perceived as a human rights issue. Otherwise, intentions to the contrary overlook the needs and capacity of street vendors to communicate, reorient and police each other in various and meaningful ways. Any discussion of the place of street vending in the urban economy of Malawi should therefore consider why and how individual street vendors become what they are - vendors. These perspectives can enrich our defective understanding and parochial pursuits of idealized versions of regulation that are hardly appropriate for a pressurized and underdeveloped country and also for a negotiated idea of the social consumption of space that we should always aim at. Africa Development Vol. 30(4) 2005: 35–5

Urban appropriation and transformation: bicycle taxi and handcart operators in Mzuzu, Malawi

This book is about emerging informal responses to unemployment in Malawi. To the bicycle taxi and handcart operators who are at the centre of the book, informality is a means for negotiating newer experiences and challenges associated with urbanisation. Jimu richly documents how informal economy activities continue to represent grassroots responses to widespread poverty, unavailability of meaningful employment opportunities and the failure of the state as well as the private and the non-state sectors to respond to escalating demand for formal sector jobs. Multiplicity of activities and straddling urban and rural opportunities are strategies employed to deal with opportunity impermanence and maximize returns from various low paying tasks and jobs. While these activities have grown without state support, state involvement is necessary to regulate and promote the welfare of the workers in the sector as well as that of the users of their service and the general public. This will require constructive engagement among the operators, users of their services, local government, and various state agencies

Targeting Practices and Biases in Social Cash Transfers: Experiences in Rural Malawi1

Social cash transfer (SCT) programmes involve direct financial support to vulnerable households. Vulnerability, as a social condition, is often correlated with low income and food insecurity. Cash transfers augur well with neoliberal welfarism in contrast to the traditional relief approach associated with foodbased safety nets. The aim of this article is to examine targeting processes and its challenges in Malawi. Proxy indices of ultra-poverty used in the design of SCT programmes are correlated in some way to parameters such as gender, education, structure of livelihoods and type of durable assets owned by beneficiaries. The data demonstrates that beneficiaries tend to be women and persons with very little or no formal education. The authors argue that gender and education are critical parameters that are easier to determine and apply with reduced scope for bias for identifying vulnerable groups and with valuable lessons for replication of success nationwide. Les programmes de transferts monétaires sociaux (SCT) impliquent un soutien financier direct aux ménages vulnérables. La vulnérabilité, en tant que condition sociale, est souvent liée au faible revenu et à l’insécurité alimentaire. Les transferts monétaires vont bien avec le «welfarism » néolibéral, contrairement à l’approche traditionnelle d’assistance associée à l’assistance alimentaire. L’objectif de cet article est d’examiner les processus de ciblage et leurs enjeux au Malawi. Les indices de substitution d’extrême pauvreté utilisés dans la conception des programmes SCT sont corrélés d’une manière ou d’une autre à des paramètres tels que le sexe, l’éducation, la structure des moyens de subsistance et le type de biens durables détenus par les bénéficiaires. Les données démontrent que les bénéficiaires sont généralement des femmes et des personnes ayant très peu ou pas d’éducation formelle. Les auteurs soutiennent que le genre et l’éducation sont des paramètres importants, plus faciles à déterminer et à appliquer, avec une possibilité réduite de biais pour identifier les groupes vulnérables et avec des enseignements précieux en cas de reproduction à l’échelle nationale.