Director of Gender in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Peter Msefula said this on Thursday in Mzuzu during a capacity building workshop for trainers to lobby for more women in the country to take part in the forthcoming local government elections.

Msefula noted that all social indicators in the country show that women are behind in many socio-economic activities and that results in low social status of women.

"One of the ways to improve the situation is to have trainings like these to train women so that they take up leading positions in all social levels," Msefula said.

Msefula noted that if women are encouraged and supported they can make a very meaningful contribution to the development of the country.

He said once women are empowered and supported, they will shape development agendas that affect women and children.

Msefula said Malawi as a member of the United Nations needed to take part in the organisation's agreements one of which is to get rid of all social discrimination.

During the workshop, it was discovered that several political parties in the country have a provision in their constitution of about 30 to 33 percent female representation in all key leadership positions.

However, most of the members of the parties on the ground do not know this as such women in these parties are having tough time to get to key positions.

One of the participants from Dedza gave a testimony that one of the major parties in the country said no to women empowerment while their own constitution provides for 33 percent of key leadership positions to go to women.

The participants then called on all the political parties to include the provision to allow more women participate in next year's tripartite elections.

The workshop noted that despite prevailing challenges preventing women to participate in leadership positions, there are a good number of women doing well in key positions including legislators.

According to Susan Dalgety, a director at Active Learning Centre from Glasgow University said the project has been working in Malawi for more than a year and her organisation has so far trained 2,000 people whose job is to lobby for more women to take part in politics.

The workshop has been organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Women's Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) and Active Learning Centre with funds from the Scottish government under the Scotland Malawi partnership programme.