Exploring the entrepreneurship policy-making and outcomes undertaken by public institutions involved in entrepreneurship development in Malawi

Abstract

The article aims to assess the entrepreneurship policy-making processes and outcomes undertaken by public institutions involved in entrepreneurship development in Malawi. The specific objectives of the article were to identify the gaps in the entrepreneurship policy-making process currently being used in Malawi and to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the entrepreneurship policy in the country. A total of eight organisations were purposively sampled and only two accepted to provide an in-depth interview. These public organisations were SMEDI and TEVETA which are involved in entrepreneurship policy initiation and implementation. The interviewees were the management team members of the respective organisations. The study used content analysis and thematic analysis to analyse the interview results as it was qualitative in nature. The findings indicate that the policy process on entrepreneurship is still under review in Malawi and entrepreneurship development is not prioritised by authorities. Entrepreneurship development goals are regarded as secondary goals to national goals. To this day, there has not been much done to improve entrepreneurship education and training and (Small Medium Enterprise) SME development on the ground and this is dating back to 2008 in Malawi. There is no collaboration and coordination among the institutions involved in entrepreneurship development in Malawi. The collaboration and coordination are ‘ad-hoc’ and ‘event-driven’ which can be regarded as ineffective. The overall custodian of the SME policy is the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). The other quasi-governmental departments only oversee or undertake policy implementation on behalf of the MoIT. Efforts to interview the Director of SMEs in the MoIT yielded no result.