Mulanje is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi, known for its vast tea estates and a paradise for wildlife enthusiasts, with the highest tallest mountain in south-central Africa. The district is also one of the border districts, with the Republic of Mozambique to the East. Being a border district, Mulanje has unique challenges that threaten the levels of security and social cohesion within the communities.

Challenges including widespread poverty, unemployment, and social inequalities threaten the overall peace and fuels cases of political violence, chieftaincy disputes, ethnic intolerance, and many others.

To help strengthen conflict prevention mechanisms in the area, UNDP in partnership with UNFPA, UN Women, UNODC, and IOM, Ministry of National Unity, Ministry of Local Government, The District Councils of Mulanje and Mangochi, Malawi Police Service, and Public Affairs Committee; launched a 12-month project on conflict prevention and border security that is being implemented in Mangochi and Mulanje Districts.

The project is being funded by the Governments of Ireland and Iceland, under the SDG-Accelerator Fund, a basket fund for development partners to pool resources in tackling challenges for achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Malawi

The achieve the objectives, the project is conducting training sessions on immigration, conflict prevention & peacebuilding and gender at the national, district and community levels to strengthen capabilities of borderland districts and communities to mitigate existing and projected conflict.

In Mulanje District, the project has trained over 180 community representatives to enable them to address small scale conflicts and prevent such from escalating in their communities.

The training sessions has targeted Child Protection Officers, Peace and mediation representatives, Women’s groups, traditional leaders, faith-based leaders, Taxi Operators, teachers, and other community structures.

 Arnold Silungwe is a Security Specialist from the Malawi Police Service and one of the facilitators training the structures under Traditional Authority Mwasungani-Nzeru and explains how issues of security can easily affect countries like Malawi, especially for border districts.

“Community structures need to be fully aware of the things that bring in conflict and how they can identify potential incidents that could possibly cause disruption in their communities. We must therefore ensure that these community structures have received adequate information on how to address conflict in their communities”, said Silungwe.

In recognizing the key role that women also play as catalysts of peace building, the project is also tackling issues of gender and women’s rights as part of strengthening the peace mechanisms in the targeted districts.

One of the training participants, Hanifa Kassim is a community-based Coordinator for Public Affairs Committee, a grouping of religious representatives that advocates for transformative leadership and bemoans how women are still subjected to multiple forms of discrimination and violence, without the space for them to contribute to discussions that help create peace in their communities.

“Through the training, we have been taught to be vigilant in our communities in making sure that there are no external forces that threaten our communities. We have also learnt on some of the challenges that women are facing beyond physical abuse. Most of us were not aware on the existence of emotional abuse that women are also going through, and this training has opened our eyes,” said Hanifa.

UNDP Malawi is working to build and strengthen local capacities for peacebuilding, conflict prevention; whilst ensuring inclusive dialogue platforms, to help sustain peace, democracy, and good governance in the country.