6

Women and children in the Smallholder and Estate Subsectors in Malawi.

• The study compared and contrasted the situation found on the estates with current literature in the smallholder sector. This desk study involved interviews with officials from Ministry of Agriculture, ADDs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Community Service, Ministry of Education, World Bank, University of Malawi and Centre for Social Research. The study used the secondary data from a variety of sources. The information collected covered smallholder characteristics such as income levels, sources of food supply, labour tasks, assets and sources of income particularly as they relate to women and children. The results of this study indicate that both smallholder and tenant women work very long hours. The majority of tenant wives are involved in almost all the tasks of tobacco production as well as their domestic and food production activities. There is an indication that increased involvement of women in smallholder tobacco production may be at the expense of children, health care and community service activities. This is also associated with decreased time allocated to subsistence food production. The study has further revealed that employment of children occurs in many sectors in Malawi. However, data on children's participation in the labour force are limited. There is evidence that tenant children are twice as likely to be in full-time employment at the estates as their agemates in the smallholder and other paid employment sectors.

Location: BCA, Bunda College of Agriculture, P.O. BOX 219, LILONGWE, Tel: 277 222, Fax:277 403, email: bundalibrary@unima.wn.opc.org,infortech@sdnp.org.mw

Female Employment Opportunities in the Public, Private and Parastatal Sectors in Malawi: Blantyre City.

• Examines the situation of women in paid employment in the public, private and parastatal organisations of agroforestry, manufacturing and social services categories in Blantyre City. The 277 women interviewed for this study represented less than 0.32% of Blantyre City's total number of paid employees. Purposive sampling was used to select the business and organisations that employ women in each of the three sectors: public, private and parastatal. A systematic random sampling procedure was used to select the organisations and businesses from this group for the study. The sample of 277 female employees represented 6.7% of Blantyre City's total female employed population of 4,084 in the selected three categories. Official documents on employment, and interviews were the major sources of data for this study. There were two interview schedules prepared:- one was administered to female employees and the other to personnel managers or administrative officers. The study has revealed common characteristics of women employees and their employers in agroforestry, manufacturing and social services categories. The largest number of women are employed in the public sector and the least work in the parastatals. The majority of women employees are concentrated in the personal and social service. Overall, the largest number of women interviewed were in 25-34 age group with few of them being younger or older. Married women with families were a majority amongst the employed women who were interviewed. The social service category had few divorced women without children. Female employees with secondary school education are the ones mostly employed across all the three categories. Most of the female employees interviewed felt that employers practised gender preference in hiring.

Location: CCL-MC, Chancellor College, P.O. BOX 280, ZOMBA, Tel: 265-524 222, Fax: 265-522 046, 265/522 578, email: ccadmin@unima.wn.apc.org

Prospects for Promoting Growth of Women's Business in Malawi: Analysis of Needs Assessment Survey Data for NABW.

• The objective of this research was to find ways of promoting growth of women's business in Malawi. The sample comprised of members of NABW business women. The majority of them (75% were married. Eighteen percent of the women entrepreneurs were aged 30 years or below, 14% above the ears. A total of 1,059 questionnaires were administered to business women country-wide. Through this questionnaire data on various issues were collected on each business woman. Some of the details included age, whether married or not, whether had children or not, level of education, etc. The survey also enquired as to whether the woman was employed, apart from running business and what other responsibilities they held in society. The type of business that the women were running was also recorded. Over 50% of the women had been in business for up to 5 years only, with 10% having more than 15 years of business experience. The Central Region had more than half the number of respondents (58.9%), with the south with only just over a quarter and 15% in the northern region. Seventy-five percent of the business women were married at the time of the survey. At regional level, 71%, 76% and 79% of the women in the South, Central and Northern regions respectively were married. The percentage of the married women was highest in the north and lowest in the southern region. The Central Region had higher percentage of business women. Sixty-three percent of women entrepreneurs had some primary school education, 20% had some secondary education and only 1% had university education. At the time of the survey, 31% of the women were employed, and another 30% had, at one time or another, been employed.

Location: CCL-MC, Chancellor College, P.O. BOX 280, ZOMBA, Tel: 265-524 222, Fax: 265-522 046, 265/522 578, email: ccadmin@unima.wn.apc.org

Family Composition and Wage Employment in Small-scale Economic Activities in Malawi

• Examines unexplored issues in the relationship generation, that is, the effect of family labour between market and non-market activities, and to examine sectoral change in Malawi. Data for this study were obtained from the R.E.A.D.I Project Survey data and the WEFA Group. The evidence from the study suggests that unpaid family labour and wage employment are not perfect substitutes in small-scale production. There are advantages, but also limits, to using family labour in preference to wage labour. Family labour is limited by the number of available household members, whose opportunity costs of working outside the labour market increases with age. The study also found some important policy implications. It is argued that small-scale non-farm activities have the potential for making important contributions to employment.

Location: CSR, Centre for Social Research, box 278, Zomba, Malawi. Email;csr@malawi.net, csr@sdnp.org.mw, csrbasis@malawi.net

contents page | previous page | next page