Mwai Mtumodzi

Briefly the program engages communities into a debate on how they understand gender, their knowledge on the sadc gender protocol and their assessment on whether Malawi as a country has made progress in achieving the 28 targets of the gender protocol. It further probes on what challenges the communities feel are attributed to the slow progress registered in some of the 28 targets. The thirty-minute program also discusses the views that people have on the post 2015 agenda as to what should be done as a way forward in addressing the gaps. According to the SADC Gender Monitor, the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development aims to empower women socially, economically and politically, eliminate discrimination, achieve gender equality through gender responsive legislation, policies and projects. The SADC Gender Monitor further indicates that the protocol caters for constitutional and legal rights, governance, education and training, productive resources and employment, GBV, health and HIV AIDS, peace building and conflict resolution as well as media, information and communication among other issues that affect women. The worrying thing is that it is now almost three years since the signing of the protocol, but such an imperative document with an ability to reshape the anatomy of the structure, modus operandi and status of communities from household to national levels and from national levels to regional levels is yet to be ratified. Though the SADC protocol enshrines various important clauses on gender development and the eradication of socio-economic imbalances between men and women in our societies, its full strength, impact and gains can only be recognised upon ratification by member states. The process of approval of a SADC regional legal instrument requires, first, signing and thereafter, ratification. The protocol will only become law when signed ratification instruments are deposited with the SADC Secretariat in Botswana by at least two thirds (2/3) of SADC member states. Only then will the protocol become effective and seize to be a bunch of intended clauses, but as it stands, time seems to be running out for SADC to achieve its gender-related 2015 objectives. But as we go towards the Botswana conference-this is the right time to take stalk on what we have achieved towards gender, the protocol itself and other issues by involving locals to voice out their issues. This is the time that we take a different approach in our assessment before we take a new step towards the 2015. We need a bottom-up approach in order to ensure inclusiveness in our programs post-2015. This is the time that we take a different approach in our assessment before we take a new step towards the 2015. We need a bottom-up approach in order to ensure inclusiveness in our programs post-2015. it is the right time to engage locals in the debate of post 2015 agenda and put their voices in the agenda. in so doing we will be able to address the existing gaps that have been exposed in our approach as to why some of the targets have

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