Malawi: 5050 women in politics seminar on the cards

The Malawi Alliance Focal Network in partnership with Gender Links led Gender and Media Diversity Centre programme will this June host a seminar on the 5050 campaign for women in politics in Malawi. This follows the ascendancy of her Excellency, Joyce Banda to the Presidency in April following the death of the former president Binguwa Mutharika.

The seminar will bring together government, civil society and ordinary citizens to discuss what this positive development in Malawi means to gender equality efforts as espoused in the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. Malawi will in 2014 hold its last presidential and parliamentary elections before the 2015 deadline of the SADC protocol.

Discussions at the seminar will centre on the current administration and what all other political parties in the country can do to embrace gender sensitive policies. This would ultimately ensure that women are given equal opportunities to participate fully in politics.

Malawi is a good in the region on the successes of the 5050 campaign as over the past two decades the proportion of women in parliament has increased from 6 % in 1994 to 21.2 % in 2009.

The campaign spearheaded by gender activist Emma Kaliya in her role as Chairperson of the NGO Gender Coordinating Network was documented as a best practice in the 2010 annual SADC Gender Barometer and is being used as a model in other countries in the region.

“A well-orchestrated 50/50 Campaign implemented through a tripartite partnership involving government, civil society and development partner partners since 1999 has been instrumental in strategic interventions to convince the electorate to vote for women as well as promoting and encouraging women to participate”, reads an excerpt from the 2010 SADC Gender Barometer .