1. Women Development

• Participation and Involvement of Women in Decision Making

Through the objective of attaining gender equality, women rights and economic empowerment of women, the proportion of decision making positions that are filled by women has increased from 12.9 percent to 19.2 percent during the period. This follows a deliberate government commitment to entrust women with key leadership and decision making positions. The positions include Ministerial, Principal Secretary, Ambassadorial, Attorney General, and Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank, Chairperson of Malawi Human Rights Commission, Clerk of Parliament and Chairpersons of several Statutory Corporations.

The Ministry in collaboration with civil society and the donor community developed a programme aimed at increasing women participation in both the national and local assemblies. The ministry entrusted the civil society with the responsibility to implement the programme. Accordingly, leadership portfolios that are held by women have increased both in the national and local assemblies. The programme focuses on 50:50 ratio of male to female representation in the assemblies. The climax of the campaign was the appointment of the female presidential running mate by His Excellency the President, Ngwazi Professor  Bingu Wa Mutharika during the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.

• Legal Protection of Women and Children

The Ministry in consultation with women rights advocates developed a Domestic Violence Bill which was enacted by parliament in 2006. Although the ministry has not yet undertaken a study on the impact of the Act, it is evident from the media that there is increased awareness of what constitute gender based violence.

On the other hand, a number of bills have been submitted to cabinet for presentation to parliament and these are: The Deceased Estates (Wills, Inheritance and Protection) Bill, Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Bill, and Child (Care, Protection and Justice) Bill. Currently, the Malawi Law Commission is in the process of developing a Gender Equality Statute and Anti Human Trafficking Bill.

• HIV/AIDS Interventions among Women and Girls

Under the Women, Girls and HIV and AIDS program, the Ministry trained over 740 women and girls peer educators who have been going in communities to conduct civic education among women and girls on HIV/AIDS in order to minimize the impact of the epidemic of their social and economic lives.

• Women Economic Empowerment

Under women economic empowerment program, an average of 500 business groups have been formed and trained per year (1,996 groups by 2008) in business management and various production skills and a majority of them are now engaged in various business ventures. The business groups had by 2008 managed to accumulate over MK14 million in savings, over MK90 million in working capital and over MK72 million in capital assets. In terms of access to financing, 600 rural business groups (with 20+ members), obtained grants worth MK80 million from UNDP Malawi while others got MK60 million from the African Development Bank as loans.

2. Child Development

• Early Childhood Development

Under the program of Early Childhood Development, the Ministry in collaboration with community based organizations has trained 5,639 care givers, increased the number of Early Childhood Centres from 4,529 in year 2004 to 7,000 in year 2009. It has also recruited and trained over 800 Community Child Protection workers who are charged with the responsibility of looking after the safety of children in the communities. Currently there are 8,398 operational ECD centres across the country (53% of the target) catering for 710,000 children 45% of them are boys.  There is a total of 24,000 caregivers, of which 10,000 (42%) have undergone training. There are about 101 Trainers of trainers in ECD 35% of which are trained.

• Diversion Programme

The Ministry is also implementing a Diversion Programme where convicted children are diverted from going to reformatory institutions for their rehabilitation. 31 children have been reached. Alongside this program, 250 children have been removed from prisons and placed in child reformatory institutions of Chilwa and Mpemba. 42 children have been removed from the street and are being hosted at the Ministry's Social Rehabilitation Centre.

• Support to Needy Students

The Ministry has also been providing education support to a number of needy students in various secondary schools across the country to alleviate vulnerability of children orphaned through HIV and AIDS. In 2006/07, 3833 students were reached under the education support program. This increased to 10,698 in 2007/08. On average, 6000 students are supported every year and cumulatively as of 2008, over 25,000 students had been supported since 2004.

3. Community Development

• Social Cash Transfer

The Ministry has also been implementing a Social Cash Transfer Scheme whose objective is to reduce poverty among the ultra poor. The scheme started as a pilot in Mchinji in 2006 and expanded to Likoma, Mangochi, Machinga, Phalombe and Salima. A total of 18,180 households have benefited from the scheme out of which 10,296 households are headed by elderly persons, 12,549 are female headed and 224 are child headed. The total number of beneficiaries to date is 70, 125 out of which 46,971 are children of whom 34,671 are orphans, 12, 588 are elderly and 1,481 are disabled, 1,441 are HIV positive, 703 have TB and Cancer and 119 have Asthma.

• Literacy Initiatives

The Ministry has been conducting annual Literacy Campaigns as part of celebrations marking the International Literacy Day. Cumulatively, 19,500 classes were supposed to have been opened from 2006 to 2009. Between 2006 and 2008, about 443,859 learners were enrolled in the government-run literacy classes. In the 2009/10 fiscal year, government has opened about 8,000 classes with an average of 30 learners per class. This represents 152 percent of the target number of classes of 5, 250 for 2009/10. The trend shows that since 1997, about 55 percent of learners enrolled in literacy classes are declared literate at the end of the cycle.

After graduating from literacy classes, the learners are encouraged to use their new literacy skills in promoting their livelihoods and this is re-enforced by the provision of post literacy materials. On average, over 100,000 sets of these post literacy materials have been provided by the Adult Literacy Program every year.

4. Research and Planning

The Ministry has facilitated the review of National Gender Policy and developed monitoring and evaluation systems for Orphans and Vulnerable Children and Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS programmes. It also established a registration system of Orphans and other Vulnerable Children (OVC) that has been rolled out across the country.

As a way of improving access to information at both headquarters and district levels, the Ministry has installed internet and email network services in all the 28 districts of the country. It has also developed a web based OVC database. To build the capacity of the primary stakeholders of these services, the Ministry provided training to District Social Welfare Officers, Community Child Protection Workers and Community Volunteers on data collection, analysis and reporting.

5. Administration

Between 2004 and 2009, a functional review of the Ministry's establishment has been done. The new establishment illustrates a clear career path stipulating minimum requirements for recruitment, development and progression of officers within the Ministry and the profession of community and social work at large. Clear job descriptions for all senior positions in the ministry have been developed.

Coordination between departments has improved within this period. This has been achieved through intensification of management meetings that take place every Monday.