Virtual Seminar by Dr Lana Chikhungu: Geographical Trends and Patterns of Girl-child Sexual Abuse in Malawi

Abstract:

Most girls in Malawi drop out of school due to teenage pregnancies and child marriage which negatively impacts the country’s human capital. To become an inclusively wealthy and self-reliant industrialized upper-middle-income country by 2063, Malawi needs to make significant strides in sustainable development goals: 3 (Good health and well-being), 4 (Quality education) and 5 (Gender equality). Sexual violence towards women and girls is common and normalised in Malawi but there aren’t any comprehensive published national studies on the topic. This study employs administrative data from the Malawi police and public health facilities to explore national, regional and district patterns of girl-child sexual abuse in Malawi. The findings indicate an increasing trend for girl-child sexual abuse across all four regions in Malawi. The patterns of girl child sexual abuse from the administrative data align with Population Census and Survey data.

Bionote:

Dr Lana Chikhungu is a Senior Lecturer in International Development Studies and a Research Excellence Framework Coordinator for the Area Studies Unit of Assessment at the University of Portsmouth. Her educational qualifications are in the disciplines of economics, demography social statistics and she teaches international development, research methods and gender. Her research falls within the disciplines of public health, gender, demography and international development but her strong footing lies in population health and gender-related research focusing on maternal health and child health in the Global South. She has been PI to collaborative research, and she has published several papers on violence against women and girls and is currently researching girl child sexual abuse in Malawi.