NGO Gender Coordination Network (GCN) chairperson Emma Kaliya says the organisation’s current campaign to ensure a 50-50 gender representation in next year’s parliamentary and local government elections will be politically unbiased.
Kaliya made the observation in Blantyre last week during a media orientation meeting where she urged for more exposure of women aspirants for positions in next year’s tripartite elections in the media.
“We have made a commitment that we will not be partisan in the way we are going to do the 50-50 campaign. We will not favour female aspirants of any particular political party. Journalists should help us report on this campaign in a fair way,” said Kaliya.
She said they have made several arrangements to help female aspirants win next year’s elections, including capacity building meetings and campaign support.
“We would like to engage different stakeholders including the media so that the 50-50 campaign goes forward. I am confident that we can achieve the 50 percent target,” said Kaliya.
Chancellor College senior lecturer and researcher Ngeyi Kanyongolo said female aspirants face various challenges such as limited access to media platforms, limited visibility and ignorance on effective strategies to engage the media.
NGO-GCN network coordinator Victor Maulidi said their previous 50-50 campaign only achieved 22 percent female representation in Parliament in 2009, saying the network is now geared to take the figure up to 50 percent with support from development partners, especially Norway.
He said they have engaged different NGOs including Civil Liberties Committee (Cilic) to implement the campaign across the country.
During the recent 50-50 campaign launch, Norwegian Ambassador Asbjørn Eidhammer said there is hope that increased female representation will lead to better politics that represents the plight and views of the common man.
