Let’s support 50:50 Campaign ahead of 2025 polls
Folks, just before the 2020 Fresh Presidential Election, the NGO Gender Coordination Network (GCN) unveiled a framework to advocate for result-oriented action in the implementation of gender equality efforts in Malawi, including on women’s participation in elections.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Gender Protocol is a tracking tool for the implementation of the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development that was initially launched at the regional level in 2019.
This is an important instrument for improving women’s participation in decision-making although there is still more work to be done for Malawi to reach its gender equality aspirations as many indicators, including on employment agreements in the public sector, are far from being achieved amid frequent touting of the concept in the local media and elsewhere.
The existing Gender Equality Act looks at a 60-40 ratio of representation in leadership positions, but evidence shows that Malawian women still struggle to match up with their male counterparts and such gaps need more collective action now than ever before as the country draws close to next year’s general elections.
However, this is not to say there have not been improvements on gender in the country over the years. I can cite access to education for girls, the enactment of the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Law and other laws that promote gender equality and increased coverage of the effects of gender-based violence on national development.
Through the 50-50 campaign, the gender equality or equity concept has also motivated many local women to join active politics, participate and stand for political offices. The only thing remaining is more lobbying and more checks and balances to ensure that more women are supported so that Malawi can attain gender targets linked with the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s 2063 agenda for development.
Fortunately, many experts have said that so far no country has achieved 50 percent gender equality in the region amid hopes that certain countries will have achieved some level of gender equality in the next six years.
The fact that Malawi re-launched the 50:50 Campaign recently is in itself good news because the majority of our population is made up of the women and girls who need good foundations to take up future leadership positions in government and the private sector and actively support this country’s development agenda.
It is, therefore, important that as we draw closer to the September 2025 Tripartite Election, we all must embrace public awareness campaigns that seek to boost equal representation and participation of men and women in elected positions.
This can even incorporate leadership training for female aspirants to prepare them mentally and psychologically, thereby enhancing their decision-making capabilities in readiness for the elections.
I say this fully aware that poverty and inadequate finances have previously hindered many women from participating in politics. However, through mentorship and financial support, many female candidates will get motivate to vie for challenging top-level positions in politics and other sectors of our economy and the good thing is that we have scores of them with necessary qualifications and experience.
Thus, failure to support our women financially ahead of 2025 will compromise national efforts to realise the 50:50 Campaign goal, once again making the whole initiative a mere fallacy.
Again, it is my hope that come next year, many women will have access to subsidised election participation fees to boost their participation in the polls. However, attitude change is the only prerequisite for Malawi to realise the tangible fruits of the 50:50 Campaign as some people still view women as failures, weak, and second-fiddle players in our society who lack any leadership skills.
This is the major setback campaigners for the 50:50 initiative encountered previously and they face the same problem ahead of the 2025 elections.
