Biodata of Ms. Jane Asani, the Vice Consul Administration | ||
Vice Consul Administration (VCA) Jane Asani, is a seasoned career Diplomat and a Development Practitioner with 33 years plus hands on work experience in the Civil Service, parastatal and private sector. The first two years of her career she taught Agriculture and Physics at a Private Secondary School. She changed jobs to join a Parastatal organization called Development of Malawian Traders Trust (DEMATT) as a Business Promotion Consultant work of which involved extending business and technical advisory services aimed at trouble shooting and business growth for the client businesses, New Business Development including training in Business Plan write up. From April 1992 she served Government of Malawi in various capacities in the Ministry of Gender and Child Development and the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. In the Ministry of Gender, besides supervising the front-line extension workers dealing with Community Development, she coordinated the gender agenda through supervision of implementation of Ministerial Projects and Programmes. The major highlight was when she successfully coordinated Malawi Governments’ preparatory Committee for the for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women that was held in Beijing, China in 1995 and its Preparatory Conference (PrepCom) held in Dakar, Senegal in 1994. Her duties were relocated to the Ministers office as Special Assistant to the Minister where she served for almost three years. Due to reshuffles of Cabinet, she got relocated alongside the Minister to the Ministry of Health and later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her diplomatic career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spans for twenty-one years, starting in 2001, when she got her first posting to New York, United States of America to serve as First Secretary Social at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Malawi to the United Nations. Five years down the road, she was promoted to Counselor Social where she served for 4 years. She returned to Home Service in 2010. Her line of work at the Permanent Mission in New York involved attending meetings and conferences of the UN in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) entitled “Social Humanitarian and Culture”. In that position it was normal to double up and attend the social aspects of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This involved drafting statements on behalf of the Malawi delegation in liaison with the relevant sectors of Government, negotiating resolutions and ensuring that Malawi’s perspectives are taken into consideration in all social related UN outcome documents. Also covered were the Functional Commissions of ECOSOC specifically the Commission for Social Development and the Commission on Status of Women. In addition, she served on the Executive Boards of the Funds and Programmes of ECOSOC including UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and WFP focus of which was the formulation of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) and its implementation. Focus was on the social dimension of development touching on specific pertinent groups of women and the girl child, the youth, persons with disabilities the aged and indigenous issues. As the UN is a bedrock for diplomacy, Ms. Asani was privileged to participate in the negotiations for the UN reforms initiated by the former UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan, ensuring that Malawi’s perspective is included. The reforms led to the establishment of various Principal bodies in the UN including the UN Women, Human Rights Council, and the reforms of the ECOSOC. During her term of tour, she was also responsible for processing candidatures for elections to various bodies of the UN. She also represented Malawi on all matters of SADC, African Union, Group of 77 and China, Non- Aligned Movement among others with regard to the social development agenda. Ms. Asani also interfaced with delegations from capital to ensure smooth flow of information and coordinated reporting to Committees for various Conventions. This included the Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which contains the Universal Bill of Rights for Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) covering the Universal Bill of Rights for children, as well as the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In 2010 home service for Ms. Asani entailed serving as Principal Foreign Service Officer in various capacities including UN desk officer, African Union Desk Officer, SADC Desk officer. She got trained as elections observer and observed the Referendum in Juba, South Sudan that led to the separation of the two countries and existence of South Sudan as a country. Further she observed elections in Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia as a SADC observer. She also served as Desk Officer for the Peace and International Security matters where she coordinated Malawi’s implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention with the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague in the Netherlands and the Biological Weapons Convention under the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). With the reorganization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into Directorates Ms. Asani moved to the Asia and Pacific Directorate. While there, she was seconded to the International Organisation for Migration for a short term of ten month to coordinate all formalities that led to the start -up of the Malawian Diaspora Mapping and Profiling Project start up on pilot basis in the Republic of South Africa (RSA), Britain and the United States of America. In January 2021 she was posted to the Consulate General of Malawi in Tete, Mozambique on relief as Charge D’ Affaires that lasted for One Year Eight Months. Upon the posting of a substantive Consul General, she was formerly posted to the Malawi Consulate General in Tete as Vice Consul Administration, her current position. She is a holder of a Masters Degree in Economic and Social Studies obtained from the University of Manchester in Great Britain in 1998; Bachelor of Science in Agriculture (Rural Development Major) (1991)and a Diploma in Agriculture (1986) both obtained from Bunda College of Agriculture.
|