UN concerned about public appointments

UN Women country representative Alice Shackelford has said her organisation will hold a dialogue to facilitate negotiations between government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in gender- related issue as one way to promote gender equality and women empowerment.

This comes amid concerns by civil society groups on recent appointments of commissioners for the Malawi Human Rights Commission and the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) which have one female representative each.

In an interview, Shackelford suggested that only dialogue between the appointing authority (President Peter Mutharika), the NGO Board and civil society groups could solve the concerns.

But NGO Gender Coordinating Network board chair Emma Kaliya has said it should not take UN organisations to school the appointing authority on what should be done to appoint more women into decision-making positions.

Delivering his speech during the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action, under the theme, ‘Planet 50- 50 by 2030: Step it Up for Gender Equality on the margins of the 70th United Nations (UN) General Assembly, Mutharika assured global leaders of his personal commitment to accelerated implementation of actions and activities which aim to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in Malawi.

But Kaliya said what Mutharika is preaching to the world runs counter to his actions back home.

She said Malawi was supposed to respect international instruments on gender to which it is a signatory.

“Appointing few women in decision-making positions is a disgrace to Malawi and to protocols it is a signatory to,“ said Kaliya. n