Salima district gender officer Friness Samaliya has called for support from civil society organisations (CSOs) to empower women to get elected into political offices and attain leadership positions in local structures.
She was speaking on Monday in the district during a stakeholders meeting on gender transformative and youth inclusive democracy project organised by Women’s Legal Resource Centre (Wolrec) and Oxfam in Malawi with support from the European Union.
The project seeks to empower civil society organisations and support their efforts to deepen democracy and strengthen women’s voices in the district.
Said Samaliya: “We need to strengthen party, community, leadership structures, including traditional leaders and women forums in the district so that they should be the voice for their fellow women.
“We should also engage males and have male champions to advocate for women leadership in all structures.”
Wolrec executive director Maggie Kathewera Banda said the project seeks to enhance inclusion of women, youths and marginalised groups to meaningfully participate in political and decision-making structures and processes.
“We expect increased commitment and action to adopt and enhance legal and policy frameworks related to women, youths and other marginalised group to enable them participate in politics and decision-making positions,” she said.
Muslim Association of Malawi representative Sheikh Shadreck Hamis Chiwaula highlighted the importance of breaking barriers to enable women win in elections.
“Let us give opportunities to women to lead because, we are living in another era where many things have changed and women have capabilities to lead,” he said.
