Does Matrilineality Reduce Gender Inequality in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) Public Participation? Some Evidence from Malawi.

This paper reports on Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) public participation in Malawi with a focus on the role of women from matrilineal and patrilineal marriage systems. Six rural ESIA projects are explored of which three are in areas of patrilineal and three are in areas of matrilineal systems. Participation space was found to be consistently dominated by men, with no obvious differences between both systems.