In its continued effort to dare to be different, incmedia
is carrying out another project that is geared at bringing
a huge difference to the world of women in Malawi. Find
out more as the Project Editor Chipiliro Kansilanga gives
an overview of the initiative.
Background
Top women in Malawi is a brainchild project of incmedia,
publishers of Diversity Leader. The project has been in
existence for a year now. It is designed to honor and
celebrate achievements of women in Malawi in the social
and economic sectors. These are women whose vital
contribution to the nation goes largely unnoticed. They
may not have created great events but they perform
small acts of great works everyday. Incmedia therefore
wants to bring women out of obscurity at least once a
year, to remind the nation how much they owe to women
and to give value and credit to their work.
Influencing factors
Incmedia is a strong supporter of development and
growth of women and believes that Malawi has a
lot of women of great strength and vigor who continue
to perform excellently but with little or no recognition.
Too often, women’s contribution to the society is not
given due recognition. Talk of hundreds of unsung
heroes in Malawi who have dedicated their lives to
social and economic progress, voices that go unheard
and efforts that go unappreciated. But how many
know about them? So, incmedia was influenced by
such women who are independent thinkers and have
proved to be daring, courageous and enterprising.
Criteria
The “top women” will be nominated by the general
public through radio, TV and newspapers, they will
be asked to nominate women who have inspired
them in a way. Nominations will then be sent
through phone calls, text messages and email address.
After receiving all the nominations, a panel of judges,
will spend a reasonable time scrutinizing the nominees
and then select the finalists. These are the ones who
will be featured in the publication.
Transparency in the nomination process
The nomination process is very transparent, that is why
in the first place, the general public has been entrusted
with so much power and control on who becomes the top.
Also, Top Women crew has no part to play in the process,
as this committee to come up with the finalists is an
independent committee comprising of reputable figures
from various government and private institutions.
Institutions
We have institutions that we have partnered with. We will
feature their women in strategic positions and how their various
efforts have contributed to the growth of these institutions.
The response we have from the institutions is overwhelming.
Most of them do understand the need to support this project
because its impact can be felt even before the publication is out.
We feel featuring women in these institutions will encourage them
further to carry on with their work and motivate hundreds of others
throughout Malawi. We also hope it will fuel young women’s dreams
of assuming greater roles in public life. So we are also promoting
women in leadership from the highest to the lowest levels.
Difference
Top women is quite different in that our focus is not really on
empowering women but on celebrating what they have
already achieved. Their contribution is regarded as the
greatest value at incmedia. We believe the contribution of
Malawian women deserves a permanent platform like this
publication and that it will establish another platform of
interaction between government, individuals, NGO’s,
civil society groups, institutions and even donors.
Involvement of institutions also makes top women
unique. Contribution of women in these institutions is
outstanding and therefore adds more life to the project.
Top women is also interested to get nominations on
women who passed on but their work is still living amidst us.
That makes it different. Top women is also looking at the
possibility of working with men, to capacitate them to
deal with and support empowerment initiatives. We
encourage men to be part of the solution to the problems
facing women just as they would also want women to be
part of a solution to challenges facing their lives. It is
in the absence of such involvement that a lot of
empowerment programs are misunderstood by men
and other quarters. Top women has already set the
ball rolling, as majority of those working on the project
are men. So top women is different in everything.
Funding
No one is funding top women project and it has sailed
through every single step, purely through hard work.
We however are in partnership with the Ministry
of Women & Child Welfare Development, NGO Gender
Coordination Network and Malawi Watch, who often
offer guidance and direction, to ensure successful
completion of the project as well as the possibility
of doing more for women.
The motto “breaking the ice”
For a long time, women have traditionally been kept
out of the public eye and sometimes discourage themselves
even before anyone discourages them. You will also note
that women are afforded many freedoms, encouraged to
take part in public life and work harder but ultimately, this
is a traditional society for local women, where marriage and
family are still central to their lives. So we want them to
breakout of the traditional mold that prevents them from
exposing their talents and let them know that this is time
to rise to the challenges. They should remain women even
in a man’s world. Stamina and delivering have nothing to do
with gender, it’s just how you do it. So this is the ice that
we are trying to break.
Expectations
In top women, we will bring to the nation as much
information as we can collect, on issues of women.
The project is a tribute that will grow annually, as we learn
to appreciate more about the wonderful contributions
that women make to our civilization. The publication will
hopefully inspire the nation to celebrate the power of women
with us. We also hope it will increase awareness on the
need for women’s efforts to be recognized and for women
to be respected, to be granted justice and fairness. Day
and night, top women is thinking of how and what to change,
to better the lives of women.
