The drought policy bureaucracy, decentralization, and policy networks in post-apartheid Namibia

In Namibia in 1990, apartheid was ended, and a democratic form of government was installed; 2 years later, the national government established a system of partially decentralized regional governments. At the same ti,ne, the government reacted to the severe drought of 1992 by instituting a national drought relief bureaucracy with particular attention to the predominantly Black African communal areas, which incorporated the new regional councils. This, in turn, created the opportunity for those councils to serve as organizational nodes within widening policy and informational networks related to the drought relief process. These networks incorporated village leaders, ministry officials, and the regional councillors and helped to assure the effective implementation of the drought relief program. This suggests a strong (although not determining) link between informational networks and policy outcomes. This article also makes clear that provided sufficient behavioral responsibility subnational governmental bodies can play crucial roles in drought relief processes in developing-world settings.