Malawi's board appointments are out, where are the women?

 

The appointment of 38 percent women into Malawi President Lazarous  Chakwera’s 31-member cabinet, a first for the Southern African country gave gender rights activists what they thought was a glimpse into a new world of greater inclusion.

But the announcement of new board compositions for parastatals, took them aback as an analysis of the appointment showed that women had been grossly underrepresented.

The analysis by this reporter only focused on the names announced and did not include those co-opted in as ex-officio members, representatives of government ministries and departments and other associations and professional bodies.

The appointments announced in a press release signed by the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Zangazanga Chikhosi, showed that nine of the boards most of them education institutions are chaired by women. These are the Malawi Institute of Education with Professor Address Malata, the MUST Vice Chancellor at the helm, Mzuzu University which has Hawa Ndilowe, Malawi's first female Secretary to the President and Cabinet.

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The President has appointed not more than 10 women to chair boards, the rest 57 are men

Others are the Malawi College of Accountancy chaired by The Polytechnic’s Dr. Rhoda Bakuwa while the National Council of Higher Learning has Professor Beatrice Mtimuni. Other boards chaired by women are the National Youth Council, COSOMA, the Malawi Bureau of Standards, SMEDI and the Pharmacy, Medicines and Regulatory Authority.

University of Malawi political science lecturer Dr. Tiyesere Chikapa is of the view that while some of the appointments might indeed have been merit based, it impossible to rule out appeasement.

“I still feel loyalty to the Tonse Alliance cause might have also determined who to be appointed. For example, during the 23 June, 2020 Fresh Presidential Elections, I had an opportunity be an independent observer. I saw a lot of professionals participating in monitoring and counting or tallying of votes. Mostly, these were working for MCP/UTM. 

 

“I have seen names of some of those professionals in the boards. So, I think we are not very far yet from what has been happening in the past: being given positions as a reward   for the support rendered during dark days,” she observes.

Glaringly some of the most strategic boards have no women at all in their ranks. They include the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority, ESCOM, MACRA, the Green Belt Authority, the Roads Authority and its sister Roads Fund Administration, Power Market Ltd, the embattled Malawi Institute of Management, the Accountants Board, the National Water Regulatory Authority and the Central Medical Stores Trust.

But why could women have been left out of some of the most strategic boards?

 Prof. Address Malata who Malawi Institute of Education board chairperson

“There is generally a tendency to leave appointments to key positions in society to men. In terms of organisational hierarchies, women are generally underrepresented in higher levels of the bureaucratic ladders due to among others, biases associated with promotion practices. Men tend to be the ideal first choice candidates for any higher-level position.

“Following the same understanding, it would also explain why men have been prioritised in key organisations. In general, such kind of political appointments are more likely to be made in favor of male political cronies who will be placed in key organisations,” adds.

The appointments also show some extremities with some boards having more women than men while a majority of others have huge percentages of men with a nominal representation of women.

For instance, the Malawi National Council Nurses has an obvious predominant number of women as has the MIE, Mzuni and MCA while some such as most Water Boards have seen men far outnumbering the women.

“Women are associated with roles that facilitate nurturing like nursing and education and in the context of Malawi’s formal employment, these industries have slightly more women than the case is in other industries. As such, since the pool to draw from is slightly bigger, that would explain why more women would find their way into boards in those industries,” elucidated Dr Chikapa.

In its own analysis, the NGO Gender Cordination Network has found similar trends.

“Of the 54 parastatals analysed whose appointments were officially announced on September 23, 2020, 11 (20.37%) are compliant with section 11 of the Gender Equality Act (2013). That means appointments into 43 state owned entreprises (79.63%) fall completely short of complying with GEA [Gender Equality Act]. Of particular worry is zero representation of women in a good 11 parastatals,” noted the board whose chairperson Barbra Banda has made into a board.

The GEA proposes gender quotas of 40:60 for either sex in public appointments.

“While we appreciate the diverse backgrounds from which appointees have been picked, we would like to register our concern with the failure to comply with the legal framework. We raised concerns on the recent appointments of women into the cabinet (which stands at 38 percent female representation) and as presidential advisors one out of nine (representing 11 per cent). Therefore, we reiterate our appeal to the appointing authority to fully comply with the legal framework in the appointments and recruitments into the public sector,” observes the NGO GCN.

Adding her voice, Maggie Kathewera Banda, Worlec Executive Director observed that the exclusion of women is worrisome.

“I think we are not making progress as a nation. Despite the dialogue we have had with the President as Women's Manifesto but we have not seen improvement in Women's representation."

An explanation of some of this lack of progress should come from the context while there is a bigger pool of men from which to choose from, the women are still lagging behind.

“The current underrepresentation of women in parastatal boards and complete non-representation in key parastatals indeed reflects a wider societal problem, where women’s position in society is subordinated to that of men,” adds Dr Chikapa.

With women comprising over 51 percent of Malawi’s population, Dr Chikapa is of the view that they deserve a seat at the table.

“For a long time, men have dominated the public arena like parastatal boards and neglected women’s issues and interests in the discussions. Coming from a background where women’s interests took a subordinate position in discussions dominated by men, it is assumed that women issues are best represented by other women.

“Therefore, it is expected that an increase in numerical female representation in such boards working hand in hand with men will generate an effect on policy processes and outcomes that take into account interests of both men and women in Malawi.   So yes, we need to have more women in parastatal boards as this also magnifies women’s voices among men.”