LocationsWomen MPs in Malawi gain practical tools to lead, legislate, and serve
June 15, 2026
Members of the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus pose for a group photograph with officials from UNDP and the Public Relations Society of Malawi following the completion of the final workshop in the Caucus’s orientation and capacity-building programme.
At 32, Khadija Leah Chunga carries both the weight and promise of a new generation of women in politics.
Member of Parliament for Lilongwe City, Kamphuno Constituency, entered Parliament with the confidence of a young woman who had grown up watching the challenges in her community and decided she wanted to be part of changing them. For her, politics was not abstract. It was about girls dropping out of school, young people needing role models, and communities looking for leaders who understand their daily struggles.
“As a young woman and a youth, I wanted to empower other young people and women and show that women can do what men can do,” she said. “That is why I decided to contest as a Member of Parliament for Lilongwe City, Kampuno Constituency.”
Khadija is one of the women parliamentarians who participated in the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus orientation and capacity-building programme, supported by the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa in partnership with the African Union Commission, the African Women Leaders Network through the Africa facility for Women in Political Leadership, and UN Women. The programme was designed to strengthen the Caucus’s role in advancing gender equality through legislative work, oversight, advocacy, constituency engagement, communication, leadership, digital safety, and well-being.
For Khadija, who is serving in Parliament for the first time, the sessions offered something practical: confidence.
She had campaigned, won, and earned the trust of the people of Kamphuno. But once inside Parliament, she quickly understood that representing people also required skills and knowledge on how to speak in the chamber, engaging with the media, communicating with different audiences, and turning constituency concerns into parliamentary action.
“These trainings have helped us understand how to work as Members of Parliament,” she said. “We have gained experience, confidence and knowledge through these trainings.”
Hon. Khadija Leah Chunga, Member of Parliament for Lilongwe City, Kampuno Constituency, speaks during the final session of the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus orientation and capacity-building programme.
The communication session stood out most for her. As a public figure, she said, people now look to her for answers, guidance, and leadership. Since the training, she has taken part in interviews with media houses, including Zodiak Broadcasting Station and the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and thanks to the training, she can see the difference in how she interacts with the media.
For Khadija, that growth matters because she wants young women and girls in Kamphuno to see that leadership is possible.
While Khadija represents the energy of a new generation, Esther Jailosi Jolobala, Member of Parliament for Machinga East and Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, represents the courage it takes to break barriers that have stood for decades.
Her story is deeply personal. She comes from an area that had never elected a woman MP until she came forward. In 2014, she did not wait for people to ask her to contest. She went to local and religious leaders herself and asked them to give her a chance.
“It came from deep within my heart,” she said. “I believed I could do something as a woman and as a daughter of the soil.”
Esther had seen the gaps in her community: children walking long distances to school, villages without clean drinking water and transport challenges. Before politics, she worked as an accountant and supported people where she could. But she knew that public office would allow her to serve on a larger scale.
Hon. Esther Jailosi Jolubala, Member of Parliament for Machinga East Constituency and Second Deputy Speaker of the Malawi Parliament, speaks during the final session of the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus orientation and capacity-building programme.
Today, serving her third term in Parliament, she sees her role not only as representing Machinga East, but also as carrying the voices of women beyond her constituency.
“In the Malawi Parliament, there are currently 229 seats, but only 48 are held by women. Yet women make up almost 52 percent of Malawi’s population,” she said. “When I am in Parliament, I represent women out there.”
For her, the training was useful because it connected women MPs to the information they need to legislate from an informed position. She spoke strongly about gender-related laws, including the Gender Equality Act, and the need to address gaps in implementation. She also pointed to cyber security as an area where women MPs can work together to champion reforms that better protect women.
Across the room was another personality with a different kind of public presence: Grace Kwelepeta, Member of Parliament for Zomba Malosa Constituency.
Her story is one of determination and public endorsement. She decided to contest because she was tired of only complaining about leadership from the outside. She wanted to take responsibility and try to change things from within.
Her constituents appear to have noticed. In the recent election, she won by a landslide, receiving 20,500 votes out of about 26,000 voters in a race that had nine candidates, including what she described as political heavyweights.
For Kwelepeta, leadership is not as simple as it may look from the outside.
“It is easy to criticise from outside, but leadership is different when you are the one carrying the responsibility,” she said, comparing it to being a passenger on a plane who does not know what the pilot is facing in the cockpit.
It was the final session, which focused on online harassment, mental health, and well-being, that touched her most.
As a politician, she said, people often assume public figures are unaffected by criticism or online abuse. But behind the title is a human being.
Hon. Grace Kwelepeta, Member of Parliament for Zomba Malosa Constituency, speaks during the final session of the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus orientation and capacity-building programme.
“Cyberbullying is a serious problem. As politicians, we sometimes act like we do not care about what people say, but we are human beings,” she said.
The final day of the programme focused on personal and physical security, digital literacy, online harassment, well-being, and practical ways for women in public office to manage risks and protect themselves while serving the public.
For Grace, the session was a reminder to remain authentic. She spoke about being encouraged to be herself, whether that means singing, laughing, swimming, or even crying when she needs to. It was a rare moment of honesty about the emotional weight of public life and the need for women leaders to care for themselves while caring for their constituents.
Together, the stories of Khadija, Esther, and Grace show that the Parliamentary Women’s Caucus is not only an institution. It is made up of women with different journeys, different constituencies, and different battles, but a shared responsibility to represent women and girls in spaces where decisions are made.
The orientation programme sought to strengthen that responsibility by helping women MPs sharpen their skills in budgeting, law-making, advocacy, communication, leadership, constituency engagement, and digital safety. It also encouraged the Caucus to identify priorities for 2026 and translate learning into practical action.
For UNDP, the work of the Women’s Caucus is urgent because women’s representation in political decision making remains low, despite Malawi’s commitments to inclusive governance and gender equality. Throughout the training session, it was acknowledged that when numbers are limited, coordination becomes power, and when political space is competitive, unity becomes leverage.
For the women themselves, the work is even more personal. It is about women parliamentarians using their lived experiences to shape laws, policies, budgets, and public debates in ways that speak to the realities of women across Malawi.
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