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Malawi believes in women empowerment—VP

Malawi Vice-President Khumbo Kachali said on Saturday Malawi has always been a strong supporter of women empowerment.

Kachali, who represented President Joyce Banda at the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit at the AU headquarters, was speaking at a fund-raising luncheon the African Women’s Decade hosted for AU delegates in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Also present at the luncheon was Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Kachali said with the coming to power of Africa’s second female president in the Malawi leader, African women were assured of total support.

He told the luncheon that Malawi would donate $25 000 (about K6.2 million) to the Africa Women’s Decade. He assured the initiative of greater support at the highest level now that Africa has two female presidents.

In her remarks, Johnson Sirleaf said her work would now be easier because she had a “sister” in Joyce Banda.

The idea of a Women’s Decade was hatched in 1975 by the United Nations at the First World Conference on Women held in Mexico City, according to the background on the initiative.

The decade is being implemented in two phases. The first phase is from 2010 to 2015 and the second phase will be from 2015 to 2020. There will be reviews in 2015, back to back with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Review and at the end of the decade in 2020.

The luncheon raised $500 000 in pledges.

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