The dynamics of citizen co-production: Engagement and participation in addressing socioeconomic vulnerability in Malawi

• Main Author: Alinsunurin, Jason P.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Public administration—Malawi—Citizen participation; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/10992
• Institution: De La Salle University

One of the biggest challenges in the design and delivery of public services involve the formation and the management of partnerships of citizens within their communities. Within the shift towards New Public Governance (NPG), trust and relational contracts have become an important governance coordination mechanism to attain improvements in service processes and outcomes. This is most specifically evident in the co-production of public services, when citizens' involvement and participation in the service delivery process becomes the most decisive element in the creation of the service itself.However, the most distinct characteristic of recent co-production studies in that they are set within countries and welfare systems with relatively stable political-economic conditions, i.e. developed and industrialized economies. Thus, we beg to ask, as to what kind of co-production is evidenced within service contexts where the public sector is in a position of constraint? Can we give more nuanced observations and characterizations of citizen coproduction within these communities? More importantly, what is the value of using indicators on citizen engagement and participation as critical tools of enhancing the public sector's responsiveness, especially in vulnerable communities?In this respect, this article pushes to advance our conceptualization of community co-production in emergency and vulnerable context. In the same vein of the present literature, we characterize the co-production of public services to be process-drive, inherently relational and involving multiple actors, These may also involve citizens at different levels which are embedded within different phases of the public service cycle. Unfortunately, much of theoretical and empirical literature addressing such issues fall short of recognizing specific and contextual differences.Our specific contribution is spelled out in two ways: first, our choice of empirical setting of a developing country in East Africa allows us to understand how communities respond to environments of high levels of resource constraints and cope with exogeneous shocks (i.e. droughts, disasters, epidemics, etc.); Second, we are interested in adopting a multi-period and nationally representative survey of communities and households. Such strategy allows us to surface the salient cross-sectional, as well as time-varying contextual factors which are likely to influence communities' ability and impetus to co-produce.As an ongoing exercise, we are mainly adopting a descriptive approach, in analyzing the typologies of co-production activities performed in response to community exigencies. In connection to the relational approach mentioned in this proposal, we also aim to illustrate patters of co-production partnerships, the corresponding levels and service phases involved, While our context-driven approach is paramount, our project provides theoretical contribution in terms of understanding how certain types of co-production activities are carried out within constrained and vulnerable environments such as Malawi.