Building Malawi's data workforce: FemAnalytica's Data Science Internship Programme
Malawi does not lack talented young people who want to work with data. What many of them lack is a first opportunity to use their skills on real problems, with someone experienced beside them. At the same time, many organisations across the country collect health records, survey data and administrative data that they have neither the time nor the staff to analyse. Our Data Science Internship Programme was set up to close that gap from both sides.
The programme is a paid, structured placement of up to three months. It is open to postgraduate students, recent graduates and early-career professionals, with a particular focus on women and underrepresented groups. We match each intern with a Malawian organisation that has a real data project to offer. FemAnalytica pays the intern's stipend directly, so the cost of taking on an intern does not fall on the host. In return, the host provides a defined project, a named supervisor for the full placement, and a working environment where the intern can learn as well as deliver.
Interns are not left to find their own way. Every placement starts with a programme induction, and throughout the three months interns join cohort training workshops, receive mentoring from FemAnalytica, and meet others working in data across Malawi. Host organisations therefore take on interns who arrive prepared and have support beyond their supervisor.
So far we have placed three interns, and all three are success stories from our DataCamp Donates data science scholarship programme, through which we gave Malawians licences to DataCamp's online courses in data science, artificial intelligence and programming. Bauleni and Edith were our first interns, placed in 2024 with CIHEB Malawi, the Malawi office of Maryland Global Initiatives Corporation's Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity, where they worked with HIV laboratory data. Matilda, our current intern, is placed with YouthWave following the call for host organisations we opened in March 2026. Our interns describe their placements as valuable, practical preparation for a career in data, and those who have completed them have built on the experience to advance their careers in data science. Their route from online scholarship to paid placement is the pathway we want to open to many more young Malawians.
Left to right: Bauleni and Edith (CIHEB Malawi, 2024) and Matilda (YouthWave, 2026).
Hosting an intern does not require an organisation to call its work data science. We look for organisations that are formally constituted and operating in Malawi, and that have a project involving real data and working in the social sector. The work can include analysis, modelling, visualisation, data quality, responsible data use or ethical AI. Hosts must commit a supervisor with relevant expertise for the whole placement, invest in the intern's learning rather than only their output, and have appropriate ethical and data governance arrangements in place.
This programme sits at the centre of FemAnalytica's mission. We use data to advance the Sustainable Development Goals in Malawi, and we want women to lead that work. Training on its own is not enough if graduates cannot find their first role. By funding placements, we give emerging data scientists paid experience on real projects. We also give Malawian organisations analytical capacity they might not otherwise afford. Because hosts must have their data governance in order, interns also learn from the start that working with data means protecting the people behind it.
We want to grow the programme, and that depends on more organisations opening their data projects to emerging talent. If your organisation has a data project and would like to host an intern, or you would like to know more about the programme, email us at admin@femanalytica.org.
