LILONGWE, Malawi — In 2009, the NGO Gender Coordinating Network in Malawi began the 50-50 campaign in attempts to increase the number of female leaders in the country. As its name suggests, the campaign aims to promote gender equality by getting the citizens of Malawi to elect an equal number of females and males into Parliament. Despite NGOGCN’s efforts to make this campaign a success, the number of females elected in May of 2014 was significantly smaller than previous years.
Since its start, the 50-50 campaign has supported female politicians. Aside from providing financial assistance and moral support for their individual campaigns, NGOGCN has trained female leaders in public-speaking and other ways to appeal to voters. Until this year, these efforts have proved successful, as female government leader rates were on the rise. The drastic drop in numbers this year, however, left many gender activists in shock.
In 2009, 43 Parliament seats went to women. After five years of campaigning for gender equality, only 32 were elected to Parliament.
National coordinator for NGOGCN Emma Kaylia has stated that she is confused by the results of this year’s election given all of the work that went into the 50-50 campaign. In response to the disappointment, Kaylia said, “I don’t think we have been able to establish the real reasons why women have performed dismally during the elections.”
In contrast, Mary Shawa, Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, believes that she knows the exact reason for the campaign’s unexpected results. She blames the patriarchal attitude among voters in the villages of Malawi.
When asked her opinion on the 2014 results, Shaw responded saying, “It’s not a question of the ministry doing something about it’s about every Malawian how do they view and look at women.”
The 50-50 campaign does not base its decision to support a political candidate on party affiliation at all. This is because it aims to get as many female politicians in office as possible until representation is consistently equal among females and males. NGOGCN supporters believe that greater female representation in positions of power will lead to improved considerations of women’s rights in Malawi.
Other countries in Africa have implemented proportional representation systems to ensure that an equal number of females and males are involved in government decision making. These countries include Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda. Kaylia says that Malawi could solve imbalanced gender representation by implementing a similar system.
Equal gender representation in Parliament could shift the attitude toward women in Malawi completely. With an increased number of female decision makers, women would have a stronger voice in the country and citizens would begin to respect women at a local level as well.
Gender activists and leaders of the NGOGCN are planning to meet in the near future to discuss how to improve the 50-50 campaign before the 2019 elections. The campaign is also accepting criticism and helpful suggestions from any Malawian with good intentions. The campaign must be a collective effort, but with enough support, its results can lead to worthy changes in the Malawian government.
– Emily Walthouse
Sources: Voice of America, The Malawi NGO Gender Co-ordination Network, The Malawi Oracle, The Nation
Photo: Malawi Hash