Effect of Stakeholders’ Involvement in Housing Policy on the Quality of Housing in Malawi

Flood disasters continue to annually wreak havoc on millions of people’s lives in Malawi mainly through collapsing housing, resulting in fatalities and significant financial losses (UN, 2019). The primary goal of this study was to determine if incorporating stakeholders in housing policy may address Malawi’s low housing quality issue. The researcher used a mixed research approach to address the study objective. Twenty participants were recruited for telephone interviews through purposive sampling method and one hundred and fifty-five participants were used for email surveys by the aid of stratified sampling techniques, totalling to one hundred and seventy-five participants. A total of one hundred and fifty-five participants responded to both emailed questionnaires and interviews representing 88,6% respondent rate. Adam (2020) computation technique was used to determine the sample size. Participants from both public and private institutions were drawn from fourteen floods prone districts of the country. Emailed questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data while telephone interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The research used SPSS to analyse quantitative data through: descriptive, factor and correlation methods while thematic process was used to analyse qualitative data. The research’s findings showed that: The make-up of the housing stakeholders in Malawi varies, and they don’t influence the country’s housing policies; housing stakeholders have no impact on quality housing; housing resources, stakeholders characteristics and management determines Malawi housing decision making process; and there is relationship between housing stakeholders involvement in decision making and policy formulation and quality housing. The study recommends promoting stakeholder governance in policy formulation and implementation for quality housing in the country.