Gender equality can propel development—PS
Malawi’s Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare Mary Shawa says there can never be meaningful economic and social development without understanding and accepting gender equality.
Shawa said this in Blantyre yesterday during the opening of a three-day conference on the national gender machinery.
“It is unfortunate that some banks still ask women to bring their husbands when they want to get loans. We need to change this culture if we are to move forward economically,” she said.
Shawa expressed concern about continuing cases of women marginalisation in the homes where they do not partake in the farm proceeds after working with their husbands in gardens.
She asked the conference to discuss the White Paper, which government, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), developed to strengthen the gender machinery in the country.
Participants to the conference have been drawn from a cross-section of the society and have been tasked to network in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.
One of the participants, Patricia Kaliati from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said Malawians know the problems hampering women empowerment.
“We know the source of the problems and it is easy to find their solutions. It is a matter of changing our mentality and finding a common understanding,” she said.
