Operationalizing governability: a case study of a Lake Malawi fishery

Governability is seen as an adjustment process between governing needs and governing capacities. Understanding these two aspects and the interplay between them in a governance setting would pave a way for managing the pervasive difficulties confronting fisheries. In this study, we demonstrate how to operationalize the concept of governability by applying governability assessment framework to an inland fishery in the Southeast Arm of Lake Malawi. First, the needs and the demands of the natural and socio-economic aspects of the lake fishery system are examined according to four properties - diversity, complexity, dynamics and scale. Similarly, the capacities of the governing system are assessed. The characteristics of the governing interactions between these systems are next explored to provide a basis for improving governability. Assessment findings produce a systematic and holistic image of the fishery, and offer some insights into key governance issues and processes. In the Southeast Arm fishery, these include taking a close look at the internal, normative drivers of illegal fishing to ease the socio-economic complexity and streamlining the institutional structure to boost governing capacity.