WCI Malawi reports: Upcoming Elections Hold New Competition but also Promise for Women Candidates

By aileene | 2009.04.21 

In 2004 Women’s Campaign International (WCI) helped strengthen Malawi’s democracy by doubling the number of women elected to the National Parliament.  This achievement was attained through providing campaign trainings and technical support for women candidates interested i serving as competent and transparent  representatives.

Post-election, WCI helped the newly-elected women form a National Women’s Caucus, create a platform for action, develop a national HIV/AIDS Media Campaign and sign-on to critical committee posts within the Parliament.  Two of the women WCI trained moved on to become the National Minister of Health and the National Minister of Tourism.

In May of 2008,  WCI headquarters and field office staff met with the National Women’s Caucus to assess the need for a program aiming to increase women’s representation through the May 2009 elections. All members of the Women’s Caucus reported that they lack the skill sets and knowledge to organize a cost-efficient political campaign in this new and far more competitive election environment.  In contrast to their male counterparts, the vast majority of women MPs in Malawi lack staff, supplies and funding to support their campaigns.  Women seeking office for the first time have even fewer resources at their disposal, especially those who are campaigning to represent the needs of their constituents in poor, rural districts.

Malawi is now in the middle of its official 2009 campaign period leading up to the general elections on May 19^th, and, despite new challenges,  women are among the candidates vying for top posts in the government.  Two women with the newly formed Rainbow Coalition party are running for president and vice-president, and the current president Bingu wa Mutharika has chosen a woman as his running mate.  The 50:50 Campaign, a national program supporting women’s participation in politics, has offered support to all female candidates.  WCI supports the 50-50 Campaign and, through its program connections with UNICEF-Malawi, has joined forces with the initiative. WCI-Malawi consultant, Luke Malembo, writes, “It is very difficult to predict the outcome of the parliamentary elections because there are so many candidates in one constituency. However, The 50-50 campaign is progressing well. The National Ministry of Gender is coordinating the program and a number of trainings for women candidates have been organized by the Gender-NGO network.”

2004 Women's Caucus

These women face a difficult challenge in a country whose political system has traditionally been reserved for men, and whose 193-member Parliament has only 27 female representatives.  However, the program coordinator for 50:50, Bertha Sefu, sees changes in the public’s attitude towards women in politics and is optimistic that women’s representation will increase after the May elections.