Promise Msampha holds a Bachelor of Science in natural resources management and is an advocate for gender equality. She serves as a program manager at Umunthu Plus, a local NGO dedicated to promoting women and girls’ rights in Malawi. In this role, Promise has been instrumental in developing staff capacity in project management, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. Promise has also contributed to spearheading the “HeForShe” Initiative that endorses positive masculinity, and the ‘Skills for Her’ initiative which focuses on strengthening women’s capacities in economic empowerment, advocacy, and negotiation skills.
Promise has also championed women’s land dispute resolution, business management training, and environmental management through the SMART CLIMATE initiative. In this domain, Promise has been proactive in addressing energy poverty’s impact on women and girls and advocating for clean energy to mitigate health risks associated. Her efforts led to the development of a briquette prototype from agricultural waste that scaled up to 2000 households in the Mkwinda Extension planning area (EPA). Furthermore, Promise has established the ‘Vocal Ladies’, a women’s movement advocating for women’s rights and conflict prevention in the Nkhotakota district and surrounding communities.
During the 2024 Nkhotakota flood disaster, Promise played a crucial role in providing life-saving support, coordinating protection clusters, and delivering training to prevent gender-based violence among women in the affected areas. Her contributions have increased women’s participation in land allocation, and improved awareness of women’s rights among over 2000 women.
