The process has started with a three-day internal Ministry of Labour workshop at BICC in Lilongwe to review the draft safety and health in agriculture regulations. The workshop was organised to allow Ministry of Labour an opportunity to refine the content of the draft safety and health regulations which will pave way for all stakeholders’ consultative meetings scheduled to start in March 2025. These workshops will cover all the three regions Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu bringing together stakeholders from Government ministries, departments and agencies, Employer representative bodies, Employee representative bodies, OSH practitioners, HR practitioners, representatives from public and private agricultural enterprises and the academia
The development of the regulations is aimed at ensuring the full domestication of Malawi’s ratified ILO convention C184, which aims to improve the safety and health of workers working in the agriculture sector. According to an OSH survey that was conducted in the agricultural sector during the onset of the Zantchito skills for jobs programme, workers in the agriculture sector are exposed to various OSH hazards that range from mechanical, non-mechanical, physical, biological, posture related, psychosocial and environmental hazards.
Exposure to these hazards has a huge negative impact on the physical, social and mental wellbeing of country’s labour force as the agriculture sector employs about 85% of the working population. The current OSH and Welfare Act of 1997 does not comprehensively cover hazards and risks associated with agricultural operations thereby creating numerous legislative gaps in the coverage of risks associated with agricultural operations . The development of the safety and health regulations is therefore critical as it will not only go a long way in domesticating the Malawi ratified ILO C 184 on safety and health in agriculture but also strengthen OSH legislation in Malawi to ensure comprehensive coverage of hazards and risks in agricultural sector that are a source of great human loss and suffering.
Besides domesticating the ILO C184, the regulations will also align Malawi’s labour practices in agriculture to regional best practices and other related international labour standards and best practices that are responsive, relevant and effective in addressing current, emerging and future labour challenges in the agricultural sector.
Zantchito Skills for Jobs programme’s is providing technical and financial support to the intervention as part of its overall objective which is to create an enabling environment for the MSMEs and strengthening of labour related laws in Malawi so as to ensure the attainment of decent job creation and sustainable economic growth in the country. This will go a long way in improving the regulatory environment and the promotion of decent working conditions in agricultural enterprises in Malawi thereby contributing positively to the developmental milestones of Malawi 2063.
