Gender and Poverty Reduction in Malawi

This paper looks at the nature and progress of planning and implementing engendered development in Malawi: it provides a cursory review of the gendered situation in key sectors and what can be done to accelerate progress. The odyssey of planning and implementing gender and development programs has been a winding and tortuous one, but recalling it provides lessons for how to do gender and development work going forward. After gaining political independence from Britain, the Government of Malawi (GoM) formulated the Statement of Development Polices: 1971À1986. The strategy made no mention of gender or women’s issues. So the earliest programs that dealt with women’s issues were handed over from the colonial government, lodged in the ministries of agriculture, community development, and also education. Farm home assistants, female community development assistants and teachers specializing in home economics were trained at Magomero community development training college, various Farm institutes and teacher training colleges. They taught needlecraft, and home care skills, cookery and nutrition the hallmark of which was teaching people to eat the ‘three food groups.

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