Boniface Dulani
Biographic Data
| ID | 379979 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Boniface Dulani |
| GIVEN NAMES | Boniface |
| FAMILY NAME | Dulani |
| SIGNATURE | DULANI B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Malawi |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0281-3000 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Estimates of Under-Five Mortality From a Mobile Phone Survey During the Covid-19 Outbreak
Under-five mortality estimates for low- and middle-income countries are primarily derived from detailed birth or pregnancy histories collected through in-person household surveys. Such surveys are, however, resource intensive and vulnerable to interruption during epidemic outbreaks and other crises. Remotely deployed mobile phone surveys can circumvent these disadvantages, but their suitability for measuring population-level mortality has not bee…
Measuring adult mortality from mobile phone surveys in Burkina Faso, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
In many low and middle-income countries, adult mortality estimates are derived from surveys and censuses conducted through face-to-face interviews. These interviews can be time-intensive and are often impractical during health crises or humanitarian emergencies. The expansion in cellphone ownership and network coverage has created new opportunities for collecting demographic data through mobile phone surveys, but our understanding of selection bi…
Public Service Provision and the Virtuous Circle
Many governments struggle to obtain the resources they need to govern effectively. In the virtuous circle model of state development, tax revenue allows governments to provide public goods and services to citizens, and citizens comply with taxation when governments provide sufficient levels of goods and services. The model, however, also suggests a vicious version of the circle, where citizens do not pay taxes, governments lack revenue to provide…
Representation increases women's influence in climate deliberations
Women's inclusion is now the norm in global and local initiatives to combat climate change. We examine how women's representation affects climate deliberations using the case of community‐managed forests in Malawi. We run a lab‐in‐the‐field experiment randomly varying the gender composition of six‐member groups asked to deliberate on policies to combat local overharvesting. We find that any given woman has relatively more influence in group delib…
The Oxford Handbook of the Malawi Economy
This volume is the first ever publication to try to assess the performance of the Malawi economy since independence in 1964, by examining how the underpinning political and economic history and the associated policies and strategies have affected the country’s long-term socio-economic development. Part I deals with the political economy of Malawi’s development, examining the importance of good governance practices and effective institutions that …
Lived Poverty and the Fate of African Democracies
In comparative politics, economic development is a requisite to democracy (Lipset, 1959). Democracy is deemed to fail in less developed countries as poverty has proven to be detrimental to democratic performance. This study offers a perspective on the effects of poverty on the fate of democracy in Africa. Models are estimated for the Poverty-Democracy linkages using variables derived from merged Afrobarometer survey data (2002-2018). The results …
Power, Politics, and the Supernatural
Belief in evil and hidden supernatural forces, generally referred to as witchcraft, is widespread in many parts of the African continent. In addition to affecting individual health, perceived security, and social relations, witchcraft allegations may be used as covert political instruments, resulting in governance challenges such as lack of trust, transparency, administrative delegation, and political accountability. Since witchcraft is commonly …
Resisting Executive Power Grabs
We examine how Malawi's presidents have attempted to undermine the nation's democracy between 2000 and 2022, analyzing the ways in which key institutions and actors have resisted executive overreach and power grabs. After a long history of authoritarian rule, Malawi's 1994 constitution envisioned a robust separation of powers, yet power remains concentrated in the presidency. Presidents have repeatedly attempted to consolidate power but have been…
Elite Party Formation amid Fragmentation
Post-‘third wave’ Africanist literature has focused on the highly elitist characteristics of political parties that compete for power in electoral contexts, and the tendency of party systems towards instability and fragmentation as elite manoeuvrings and factionalism translate into ‘fissions and fusions’ in the party system itself. This article considers the case of the People’s Party (PP) in Malawi, founded in 2011 by Vice President (and later P…
Interrogating the quality and completion of mortality mobile phone interviews conducted in Malawi during Covid-19
BACKGROUNDMobile phone surveys (MPSs) have gained traction as a tool for gathering survey data, especially following the emergency of COVID-19.However, our understanding of MPS data quality in contexts with limited mobile phone penetration is still modest. OBJECTIVEThis study evaluates (1) the circumstances under which mobile phone survey interviews were conducted and how these might influence the completion and quality of interviews, and (2) whe…
Assessing the relationship between digital divide and citizens’ political participation in Africa
The proliferation of access to digital technology has raised remarkable interest regarding its various effects on everyday life, with recent studies largely focusing on financial inclusion. This study examined the influence of digital inequalities on political participation in Africa’s nascent democracies using the sixth wave of Afrobarometer data covering 36 countries and involving 49 896 respondents. The descriptive analysis shows that nearly 7…
Identity Entrepreneurs and Cultural Framers in Contemporary Ethnic Identity Mobilisation in Malawi
After the re-introduction of multiparty system of governance in Malawi in 1993, ethnic associations have become popular for mobilising and re-asserting identity. Some of the most notable ethnic associations are Chewa Heritage Foundation, Mulhakho wa Alhomwe, and Mzimba Heritage Association. These associations mainly claim that their establishment is mainly to promote and preserve their culture while some go further to add that they also aim at fa…
Symptoms and Stereotypes
A large literature documents Covid-19’s health and economic effects. We focus instead on its political impact and its potential to exacerbate identity divisions, in particular. Psychologists argue that contagious disease increases threat perceptions and provokes policing of group boundaries. We explore how insider-outsider status and symptoms of illness shape perceptions of infection, reported willingness to help, and desire to restrict free move…
Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys
Despite the urgent need for timely mortality data in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, mobile phone surveys rarely include questions about recent deaths. Such questions might a) be too sensitive, b) take too long to ask and/or c) generate unreliable data. We assessed the feasibility of mortality data collection using mobile phone surveys in Malawi. We conducted a non-inferiority trial among a random sample of mobile phone users. Parti…
Malawi at the Crossroads
Stigma, Trust, and procedural integrity
Do women face a different standard? The interplay of gender and corruption in the 2014 presidential elections in Malawi
Electoral Preferences Among Multiethnic Voters in Africa
Intermarriage is transforming Africa’s ethnic landscape. In several countries on the continent more than a fifth of all marriages now cut across ethnic lines. As a result, there is a growing population of multiethnic citizens who descend from diverse family lineages. The growth of Africa’s mixed population has the potential to affect politics in a variety of potentially far-reaching ways. In this article, we focus on one possible implication by e…
Big Man Rule in Africa
Despite the flurry of democratic transitions in the 1990s, the African political arena continues to be dominated by Big-Man rulers who have appropriated and embraced many of the personalistic traits of their predecessors. This is demonstrated, among others, by leaders who seek to circumvent the new constitutional rules to prolong their hold on power. The perpetuation of personalism and deep-rooted presidentialism has led numerous observers to con…
The ABCs of Covid-19 prevention in Malawi
Why the Gender of Traditional Authorities Matters
Traditional leadership often coexists with modern political institutions; yet, we know little about how traditional and state authority cues—or those from male or female sources—affect public opinion. Using an original survey experiment of 1,381 Malawians embedded in the 2016 Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI), we randomly assign respondents into one of four treatment groups or a control group to hear messages about a child marriage reform…
Detecting manipulation in authoritarian elections
Presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections in Malawi, May 2014
Constitutional provisions and executive succession
Four African leaders died in 2012. This article explores the constellation of factors that together led to a constitutional succession after President Bingu wa Mutharika's death in Malawi, despite plotting by the late President's allies to circumvent the constitution and install their own candidate over Vice-President Joyce Banda. We present data on executive deaths in office since 1961 and executive transfers of power 2010–12 in order to situate…
Why the Gender of Traditional Authorities Matters
Traditional leadership often coexists with modern political institutions; yet, we know little about how traditional and state authority cues—or those from male or female sources—affect public opinion. Using an original survey experiment of 1,381 Malawians embedded in the 2016 Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI), we randomly assign respondents into one of four treatment groups or a control group to hear messages about a child marriage reform…
Presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections in Malawi, May 2014
Detecting manipulation in authoritarian elections
Electoral Preferences Among Multiethnic Voters in Africa
Intermarriage is transforming Africa’s ethnic landscape. In several countries on the continent more than a fifth of all marriages now cut across ethnic lines. As a result, there is a growing population of multiethnic citizens who descend from diverse family lineages. The growth of Africa’s mixed population has the potential to affect politics in a variety of potentially far-reaching ways. In this article, we focus on one possible implication by e…
Constitutional provisions and executive succession
Four African leaders died in 2012. This article explores the constellation of factors that together led to a constitutional succession after President Bingu wa Mutharika's death in Malawi, despite plotting by the late President's allies to circumvent the constitution and install their own candidate over Vice-President Joyce Banda. We present data on executive deaths in office since 1961 and executive transfers of power 2010–12 in order to situate…
Malawi at the Crossroads
The ABCs of Covid-19 prevention in Malawi
Do women face a different standard? The interplay of gender and corruption in the 2014 presidential elections in Malawi
Stigma, Trust, and procedural integrity
Representation increases women's influence in climate deliberations
Women's inclusion is now the norm in global and local initiatives to combat climate change. We examine how women's representation affects climate deliberations using the case of community‐managed forests in Malawi. We run a lab‐in‐the‐field experiment randomly varying the gender composition of six‐member groups asked to deliberate on policies to combat local overharvesting. We find that any given woman has relatively more influence in group delib…
Symptoms and Stereotypes
A large literature documents Covid-19’s health and economic effects. We focus instead on its political impact and its potential to exacerbate identity divisions, in particular. Psychologists argue that contagious disease increases threat perceptions and provokes policing of group boundaries. We explore how insider-outsider status and symptoms of illness shape perceptions of infection, reported willingness to help, and desire to restrict free move…
Power, Politics, and the Supernatural
Belief in evil and hidden supernatural forces, generally referred to as witchcraft, is widespread in many parts of the African continent. In addition to affecting individual health, perceived security, and social relations, witchcraft allegations may be used as covert political instruments, resulting in governance challenges such as lack of trust, transparency, administrative delegation, and political accountability. Since witchcraft is commonly …
Resisting Executive Power Grabs
We examine how Malawi's presidents have attempted to undermine the nation's democracy between 2000 and 2022, analyzing the ways in which key institutions and actors have resisted executive overreach and power grabs. After a long history of authoritarian rule, Malawi's 1994 constitution envisioned a robust separation of powers, yet power remains concentrated in the presidency. Presidents have repeatedly attempted to consolidate power but have been…
Constitutional provisions and executive succession
Four African leaders died in 2012. This article explores the constellation of factors that together led to a constitutional succession after President Bingu wa Mutharika's death in Malawi, despite plotting by the late President's allies to circumvent the constitution and install their own candidate over Vice-President Joyce Banda. We present data on executive deaths in office since 1961 and executive transfers of power 2010–12 in order to situate…
Presidential, parliamentary, and local government elections in Malawi, May 2014
Detecting manipulation in authoritarian elections
Why the Gender of Traditional Authorities Matters
Traditional leadership often coexists with modern political institutions; yet, we know little about how traditional and state authority cues—or those from male or female sources—affect public opinion. Using an original survey experiment of 1,381 Malawians embedded in the 2016 Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI), we randomly assign respondents into one of four treatment groups or a control group to hear messages about a child marriage reform…
Big Man Rule in Africa
Despite the flurry of democratic transitions in the 1990s, the African political arena continues to be dominated by Big-Man rulers who have appropriated and embraced many of the personalistic traits of their predecessors. This is demonstrated, among others, by leaders who seek to circumvent the new constitutional rules to prolong their hold on power. The perpetuation of personalism and deep-rooted presidentialism has led numerous observers to con…
The ABCs of Covid-19 prevention in Malawi
Malawi at the Crossroads
Stigma, Trust, and procedural integrity
Do women face a different standard? The interplay of gender and corruption in the 2014 presidential elections in Malawi
Electoral Preferences Among Multiethnic Voters in Africa
Intermarriage is transforming Africa’s ethnic landscape. In several countries on the continent more than a fifth of all marriages now cut across ethnic lines. As a result, there is a growing population of multiethnic citizens who descend from diverse family lineages. The growth of Africa’s mixed population has the potential to affect politics in a variety of potentially far-reaching ways. In this article, we focus on one possible implication by e…
Collecting mortality data via mobile phone surveys
Despite the urgent need for timely mortality data in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, mobile phone surveys rarely include questions about recent deaths. Such questions might a) be too sensitive, b) take too long to ask and/or c) generate unreliable data. We assessed the feasibility of mortality data collection using mobile phone surveys in Malawi. We conducted a non-inferiority trial among a random sample of mobile phone users. Parti…
Assessing the relationship between digital divide and citizens’ political participation in Africa
The proliferation of access to digital technology has raised remarkable interest regarding its various effects on everyday life, with recent studies largely focusing on financial inclusion. This study examined the influence of digital inequalities on political participation in Africa’s nascent democracies using the sixth wave of Afrobarometer data covering 36 countries and involving 49 896 respondents. The descriptive analysis shows that nearly 7…
Identity Entrepreneurs and Cultural Framers in Contemporary Ethnic Identity Mobilisation in Malawi
After the re-introduction of multiparty system of governance in Malawi in 1993, ethnic associations have become popular for mobilising and re-asserting identity. Some of the most notable ethnic associations are Chewa Heritage Foundation, Mulhakho wa Alhomwe, and Mzimba Heritage Association. These associations mainly claim that their establishment is mainly to promote and preserve their culture while some go further to add that they also aim at fa…
Symptoms and Stereotypes
A large literature documents Covid-19’s health and economic effects. We focus instead on its political impact and its potential to exacerbate identity divisions, in particular. Psychologists argue that contagious disease increases threat perceptions and provokes policing of group boundaries. We explore how insider-outsider status and symptoms of illness shape perceptions of infection, reported willingness to help, and desire to restrict free move…
The Oxford Handbook of the Malawi Economy
This volume is the first ever publication to try to assess the performance of the Malawi economy since independence in 1964, by examining how the underpinning political and economic history and the associated policies and strategies have affected the country’s long-term socio-economic development. Part I deals with the political economy of Malawi’s development, examining the importance of good governance practices and effective institutions that …
Lived Poverty and the Fate of African Democracies
In comparative politics, economic development is a requisite to democracy (Lipset, 1959). Democracy is deemed to fail in less developed countries as poverty has proven to be detrimental to democratic performance. This study offers a perspective on the effects of poverty on the fate of democracy in Africa. Models are estimated for the Poverty-Democracy linkages using variables derived from merged Afrobarometer survey data (2002-2018). The results …
Power, Politics, and the Supernatural
Belief in evil and hidden supernatural forces, generally referred to as witchcraft, is widespread in many parts of the African continent. In addition to affecting individual health, perceived security, and social relations, witchcraft allegations may be used as covert political instruments, resulting in governance challenges such as lack of trust, transparency, administrative delegation, and political accountability. Since witchcraft is commonly …
Resisting Executive Power Grabs
We examine how Malawi's presidents have attempted to undermine the nation's democracy between 2000 and 2022, analyzing the ways in which key institutions and actors have resisted executive overreach and power grabs. After a long history of authoritarian rule, Malawi's 1994 constitution envisioned a robust separation of powers, yet power remains concentrated in the presidency. Presidents have repeatedly attempted to consolidate power but have been…
Elite Party Formation amid Fragmentation
Post-‘third wave’ Africanist literature has focused on the highly elitist characteristics of political parties that compete for power in electoral contexts, and the tendency of party systems towards instability and fragmentation as elite manoeuvrings and factionalism translate into ‘fissions and fusions’ in the party system itself. This article considers the case of the People’s Party (PP) in Malawi, founded in 2011 by Vice President (and later P…
Interrogating the quality and completion of mortality mobile phone interviews conducted in Malawi during Covid-19
BACKGROUNDMobile phone surveys (MPSs) have gained traction as a tool for gathering survey data, especially following the emergency of COVID-19.However, our understanding of MPS data quality in contexts with limited mobile phone penetration is still modest. OBJECTIVEThis study evaluates (1) the circumstances under which mobile phone survey interviews were conducted and how these might influence the completion and quality of interviews, and (2) whe…
Measuring adult mortality from mobile phone surveys in Burkina Faso, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
In many low and middle-income countries, adult mortality estimates are derived from surveys and censuses conducted through face-to-face interviews. These interviews can be time-intensive and are often impractical during health crises or humanitarian emergencies. The expansion in cellphone ownership and network coverage has created new opportunities for collecting demographic data through mobile phone surveys, but our understanding of selection bi…
Public Service Provision and the Virtuous Circle
Many governments struggle to obtain the resources they need to govern effectively. In the virtuous circle model of state development, tax revenue allows governments to provide public goods and services to citizens, and citizens comply with taxation when governments provide sufficient levels of goods and services. The model, however, also suggests a vicious version of the circle, where citizens do not pay taxes, governments lack revenue to provide…
Representation increases women's influence in climate deliberations
Women's inclusion is now the norm in global and local initiatives to combat climate change. We examine how women's representation affects climate deliberations using the case of community‐managed forests in Malawi. We run a lab‐in‐the‐field experiment randomly varying the gender composition of six‐member groups asked to deliberate on policies to combat local overharvesting. We find that any given woman has relatively more influence in group delib…
Estimates of Under-Five Mortality From a Mobile Phone Survey During the Covid-19 Outbreak
Under-five mortality estimates for low- and middle-income countries are primarily derived from detailed birth or pregnancy histories collected through in-person household surveys. Such surveys are, however, resource intensive and vulnerable to interruption during epidemic outbreaks and other crises. Remotely deployed mobile phone surveys can circumvent these disadvantages, but their suitability for measuring population-level mortality has not bee…
Political science (20 works) · Politics (16 works) · Law (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Economics (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Phone (6 works)