Political Participation & Leadership
Source: Malawi News Agency
Non-governmental Gender Coordination Network (NGOGNC) said will implement a program to contribute towards in achieving increased representation and participation of women in politics and decisions making position.
According to the press release issued in the daily papers of Monday by Chairperson Emma Kaliya and Network Coordinator Victor Maulidi said that NGOGNC is implementing the program with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy alongside other players.
The statement reads that Royal Norwegian Embassy has provided a total grant of K335 million for the program that will run for 10 months.
"Among other programs the grant will support the following activities such as identification of women aspiring candidates, training of women Member of Parliament (MP) aspirants, advocacy meetings with district political party leaders, advocacy meetings with traditional and religious leaders in the district.
"Orientation meetings with journalists, profiling of women aspirants in the media, community sensitization meetings, gender sensitive monitoring of primaries, the campaign period and the poling day and provision of campaign materials to women aspirants," reads the statement.
Kaliya and Maulidi said the program will be implemented in all districts by NGOGCN through organizations under the Women in Politics and Decision Making thematic area such as Association of Progressive Women (APW), Civil Liberties Committee (CILIC), and Gender Support Programme (GSP).
National Women's Lobby Group (NAWOLG), National Elections Systems Trust (NEST), Mbaweni Women's Group (MWG), Pan African Civil Educators' Network (PACENET) and Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR).
The two said that a clear mapping has been formulated to ensure all district are covered by these organisations.
They said that following the 2009 campaign women representative in parliament increased to 22 percent from 14 percent in 2004.
It is envisaged that this program will yield better results than those obtained in previous years in the quest to progressively achieve the 50 percent presentation targeted as provided by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) protocol on Gender and Development, the African Union protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa.