National News

Parties commit to increasing women participation

 

A selected number of political parties in the country have made commitments to increase the participation of women in politics ahead of the 2019 Tripartite Elections with support of the 50:50 Malawi Campaign.

The 50-50 Campaign Management Agency, a consortium of civil society organisations (CSOs) running the campaign, on Tuesday held an interaction dinner with general secretaries of nine political parties including Malawi Congress Party (MCP), United Democratic Front (UDF), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), United Independent Party (UIP) and People’s Party (PP).

Malera: Politicians are custodians
of the campaign

The political parties admitted that their policies fell short of actual empowerment of women to take part in politics, be it at area, constituency or at national executive committee (NEC) level.

MCP deputy secretary general Eisenhower Mkaka said there was a need to have programmes that address people’s mindsets.

“There is a need to entrench the mindset that they should support women, in their capacity to deliver, not just because they are women,” he said.

DPP deputy director of women Yacinta Chikaonda said the party would aim to have a deliberate policy to have a quota for women in various positions.

She said retention of women currently in Parliament was the first step for Malawians to realise that women could make good political leaders.

On his part, UDF secretary general Kandi Padambo said the party as it prepares for its convention, a fundamental constititutional amendment would be proposed to ensure the women’s wing is autonomous.

In Aford, the party said it is due to propose an amendment to the Constitution at its next convention that would ensure a 40 percent representation in NEC and other leadership levels.

It was PP’s treasurer general Yusuf Matumula’s proposal that for political parties to increase women participation in politics, the 50:50 Campaign should start during primary elections for more women to be nominated to contest.

“Make sure political parties are approached before the elections, at the time that they are making policies not when candidates have been identified to contest because most will be men who won in the primaries,” he said.

Action Aid Malawi (AAM) executive director Grace Malera said political parties were custodians of the 50:50 Campaign because without their support, women participation in politics could not be increased.

The 50-50 Campaign Management Agency comprises Centre for Civil Society Strengthening and AAM, who have come up with a variety of innovations to ensure more women win in the 2019 elections.

The campaign has since planned to create an incubator for women to express themselves as they aspire to enter political leadership as well as offering trainings for women aspirants on  to enhance their profiles, communicate better and advocate for more spaces for women in decision making.

The 50-50 Campaign is due to be launched on April 6 2018 and has received a K1.1 billion financial support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy. n

Related Articles

Back to top button