Duty and Diligence in Disasters: civil servants and the climate change crisis in Malawi

This research project focuses on the aspirations, motivations and obligations of Malawian civil servants, exploring how they understand and perform their duties in contexts of disaster. Malawi is an aid-dependent and disaster-prone country in southern Africa, among the worst affected by the climate change crisis: floods and droughts have become near-seasonal occurrences, negatively impacting on food security, development and wellbeing. As agents of the disaster-affected state, civil servants are located at the heart of the humanitarian-development nexus, continuously present and working alongside both development and humanitarian actors all year round. Yet despite their central role in development and relief interventions, little is known or understood about civil servants' sense of duty. How do they deal with claims for assistance in a context of profound scarcity and crisis, with their ability to (re)distribute resources heavily reliant on the ways in which they navigate networks of dependencies and (political) power. Expanding the anthropology of the state, disaster governance and humanitarianism, this research project breaks new ground by not just challenging the persistent image of African civil servants as indifferent, incompetent or otherwise hindering development and progress, but by shifting the focus to their own conceptualizations of their professional responsibilities and obligations, their diligence and sense of duty in times of disaster and climate crisis.