UNIMA HOSTS WCNREG MA CHECK IN MEETING

On Friday, 10th May 2024, the Public Law and Clinical Education Department in the School of Law, Economics, and Government held a check-in meeting for the Women’s, Children’s, and Nature’s Rights in Environment Governance (WCNREG) Regional Master’s students from Malawi. The WCNREG is a regional Master’s program jointly taught by the University of Oslo, the University of Nairobi, the University of Zimbabwe, and the University of Malawi. The University of Nairobi is the program’s host and the degree awarding institution. The WCNREG Master’s programme has 41 students from the three countries - Malawi, Kenya, and Zimbabwe – with 13 Malawian students. The Regional Master’s is part of a Research Project funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD)’s NORHED II program.

The program is based on grounded theory and is set to disrupt dominant understanding focusing on engendering, greening, and decolonization. It takes a cross-cutting, multilevel, multidisciplinary, and socio-legal approach, exploring how the rights of women, children, and nature are protected and put into practice in environmental governance processes.

The in-country check-in meeting is a requirement for the programme, which is offered 100% online. The purpose of the check-in meeting is for staff and students to interact, sharing updates on academic progress, challenges, upcoming events, and support services.

During the meeting, students and staff interacted with their counterparts from the University of Maryland on their exchange visit to Malawi. The University of Malawi and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (USA) have a partnership in a collaborative course on Environmental Justice, Human Rights, and Public Health. It is a legal theory and practice course. In the course of this partnership, two institutions have jointly worked on the deforestation around Zomba, the Lake Chirwa Climate Change Project, and the Mudi River in collaboration with the UNIMA Environmental Justice Clinic.