Fighting economic GBV against women

As the world grapples with multiple crises, including economic meltdown, climate change, Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, developing countries such as Malawi bear the brunt.

Malawians, especially women and girls living in poverty suffer poor access to basic services in health and education, worsened by a spike in commodity prices.

This occurs on the back of government’s yawning budget deficit and unsustainable debts amidst calls for public expenditure cuts from major lending institutions such as the World Bank and IMF.

But such public expenditure cuts are not without consequences.

ActionAid Malawi executive director Pamela Kuwali describes public service expenditure cuts as a form of gender injustice.

She says when public services are under-funded, it is women and girls who suffer loss of services and opportunities for decent work and take on the burden of unpaid care work.

“It is time we united and demanded for policies and actions that centre on the wellbeing of people,” says Kuwali.

Taking action

In response to gender injustice brought about by macro-economic policies, ActionAid Malawi and local partners in Mzimba are championing the Audacity to Disrupt Gender-Based Violence project with a major focus on mobilizing survivors of sexual and gender-based violence into economic empowerment.

The project is part of the Spotlight Initiative funded by the European Union.

ActionAid Malawi is implementing the project with financial support from UN Women.

Geared towards accelerating efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls ,including sexual gender-based violence (SGBV) and harmful practices, the Spotlight Initiative is built around six inter-connected and mutually reinforcing pillars focusing on laws and policies, institutions, prevention and social norms, response services, data, and the women’s rights movement.

Molly Mvula of Chinozga Ng’oma Village, Traditional Authority Mtwalo in Mzimba, is one of SGBV survivors currently benefitting from the economic empowerment through the village savings and loans (VSL) initiative, one of the key interventions under the project.

She is a member of Tikoleraneko Women Forum and says running a business from VSL proceeds is enabling her meet basic family needs and render support towards ending SGBV in the area.

Mvula once fell victim to her husband who would physically assault her for  attending development activities and being in women’s groups in the area.  The development later forced Mvula, after being empowered by the project, to divorce her abusive husband who later migrated to South Africa. 

Being a sole breadwinner of the family, VSL became her viable means for earning an income to support her five-member family.

Through the VSL initiative, which started in 2021, Mvula has managed to establish a grocery shop which enables her to support five dependents with necessities.

She explains: “I started the shop with K80 000 which I shared out from the group. It started slow, but now it is doing well. On a good day, I make sales of about K25 000, which is encouraging for me.

“The goal is not just fighting violence, but empowering women economically because we noted that poverty among women make them more vulnerable to violence.”

Financial inclusion

Under the project, ActionAid Malawi has facilitated the establishment of 25 women forums and oriented them on SGBV, movement building, human rights and economic empowerment.

 In addition to the VSL initiative, ActionAid Malawi together with the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Generation Equality partners and Airtel Malawi recently launched Zayera.

The gender-transformative women’s economic empowerment initiative seeks to expand opportunities for women micro, small and medium entrepreneurs to access digital financial services. The initiative targets 2000 women under the women forums in Mzimba.

Speaking two months ago after the campaign launch marked by the handover of K40 million to women forums, Kuwali said women’s economic empowerment is essential to achieving gender equality and addressing the structural barriers that restrict their ability to break the cycle of violence.

Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Patricia Kaliati said the Zayera initiative complements other social protection and women empowerment programmes.

She said: “This is a model programme that will promote up-take and scaling-up of best practices and innovative approaches for promoting gender responsive digital transformation.

“The platform takes advantage of effective digital and innovative approaches and infrastructure in the fourth industrial revolution to boost financial and economic inclusion of vulnerable groups.”