Recently, a draft report prepared by the University of Malawi together with UNICEF-Malawi on the project: ‘What Every Adolescent has a Right to Know’ has been commended by many who have read it. The project aims at finding out the information gaps of adolescents on HIV/Aids prevention, which will assist in the development of an information package for the youth and put in place programmes of interventions in the fight against HIV/Aids for them.

Gender Co-ordination Network vice-chairperson Emma Kaliya says it is disappointing to note that while Malawi has preached about the 30 percent inclusion of women in government by 2005, the percentage of female Ministers had dropped from 24 percent to 17 percent due to a recent cabinet reshuffle.

The Vice Chairperson for Non Governmental Organisation Gender Co-ordination Network Emma Kaliya says it is disappointing to note that while Malawi as a nation has preached about the 30 percent inclusion of women by 2005, during the recent cabinet reshuffle, the opposite has happened. Kaliya said the percentage of female Ministers has dropped from 24 percent to 17 percent due to the new appointments, which have only targeted men while most appointed female ministers have been deputised.

Splits in Malawi's United Democratic Front (UDF) began to emerge this week as another senior official announced his resignation from the ruling party. Last Thursday, Jan Sonke, a UDF lawmaker for the commercial capital Blantyre, cited the party's failure to "reduce poverty, strengthen democracy and improve the economy" as reasons for his resignation.

Just a year before he leaves office, Malawi President Bakili Muluzi has broken all records and appointed the tiny southern African country's largest cabinet in 39 years of independence. Using absolute constitutional powers to appoint a 46-strong cabinet, Muluzi last week more than doubled his predecessor's average size government.