The country’s major political parties and other stakeholders in Nkhotakota have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aimed at promoting aspiring female councillors in the 2019 polls.
This follows lack of female contestants in the 2014 General Elections that resulted in the district having only male councillors in all the ten wards.
Party officials from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), People’s Party (PP), United Democratic Front (UDF), Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and Alliance For Democracy (Aford) therefore came together on Tuesday and signed the agreement to address gaps and challenges that deter women from taking part in active politics.
UDF’s chairperson for Nkhotakota Central Constituency, Annah Mkanda, said it is high time the district gains from women’s contributions.
“Our party has agreed to support this initiative because women also have a role to play in politics. This district is losing out from contributions of women. I recall the last time our area had a female councillor, we benefited a lot and there are developments we can point at even today,” Mkanda said.
Chairperson for Nkhotakota Civil Society Organisation, Tifa Ngoma, said promotion of women should begin at the village level.
“You will note that representation of women is poor right from village development committees. Even in our full council meetings, the number of women is very low and it is high time we changed the mindset of people who think that women cannot be in positions of leadership,” Ngoma said.
The meeting was initiated by Governance, Gender, Justice and Development Centre (GGJDC), an organisation that is promoting issues of gender through a Women Empowered for Leadership (WE4L) project.
The Organisation’s District Coordinator, Precious Labson, said through the MoU, they have outlined a number of activities to be carried out between now and December 2018, aimed at mobilising communities to support women aspirants in 2019 elections.
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