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Women empowerment programs in Malawi

There are several programs and projects on women empowerment in Malawi. These programs are implemented by the government as well as NGOs. The government has an overarching program on women economic empowerment which is managed in the Ministry of Gender Children, Disability and Social Welfare.

Extension workers have been trained in various business management and other business-related skills through different projects that were being implemented by the ministry over the years. Some of the programs with a specific focus on women empowerment in Malawi are highlighted below.

angle-left Women Economic Empowerment Programme

Women Economic Empowerment Programme

The Women Economic Empowerment Programme has evolved over a space of four decades, having started in the 1970s with a focus on welfare approaches where women used to do mostly household interventions that were largely not keen on economic empowerment. 

The Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare however rolled out the program to cover all districts in the country and to serve all Malawian people using government resources and interventions. The program is however not women exclusive, in some cases there are mixed groups of males and females, which is an acceptable practice as long as there are more females than males in the group/cooperative (70:30 ratio favoring women).

 

Enrolling onto the program

 

To benefit from, the program, women who wish to start business/entrepreneurship activities are supposed to express interest through their extension workers in rural areas. There is no registration fee required. Groups should just show interest and commitment to be available when the extension workers visit them for service delivery.

The interested groups only need to visit the extension workers at area level or district officer at district level. The dissemination of information is through the local district council structures; District Executive Committee (DEC), Area Development Committees (ADCs), Village Development Committees (VDCs) and Village Action Committees (VACs).

The program carries out the following activities:

  • Community sensitization and mobilization for entrepreneurship groups
  • Conduct training to business groups in group dynamics, business and credit management, training in value addition skills and credit management.
  • Mentoring and coaching business groups in business management skills
  • Linking business groups to financial institutions

Contact information

Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare
Private Bag 330
Lilongwe 3
Capital Hill
Tel: 0770826
Web: www.childaffairs.gov.mw