NICE decries under-representation of women in leadership, decision-making positions

National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Public Trust has decried the declining numbers of women in positions of leadership and decision-making in many key institutions, including political parties, parliament and local councils.

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NICE Board Chairperson Lingalireni Mihowa has also bemoaned the existence of social norms that hinder women and young women from participating in political life despite the many commitments Malawi has signed to empower and promote women.

Mihowa made the sentiments last Wednesday when she presided over the launch of a USD100, 000 Inclusive participation of women/young women in Malawi politics’ (Nthawi Yawo Project), which the organization has initiated to increase and improve women participation in the 2025 general elections.

United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is financing the project, which will be implemented in Karonga, Salima and Neno districts.

Mihowa said it is sad that women continue despite that Malawi signed and ratified several international and regional instruments that promote and protect the rights of women and young women, the terrain remains bumpy for their active participation in politics.

She cited the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development.

“These instruments recognise that women and young women’s participation in politics and governance is not only a matter of justice and equality, but also a prerequisite for sustainable development, peace, and democracy. [However], women and young women remain under-represented and marginalised in political leadership and decision-making at all levels, from the national to the local and community level,” she said.

Apparently, Malawi has failed to achieve 30 percent of women representation in the National Assembly as in 1999,  it was about nine percent, 15 percent in 2004, 21 percent in the 2009 election, but suddenly dropped to 16 percent in the 2014 elections.

For local government councils, in 2000, women constituted only eight percent of all the councillors in Malawi.  In 2014, it was only at 11 percent.  There was a marginal increase to 13 percent in 2019.

Mihowa therefore thanked UNDP for providing financial support to enable NICE mobilize more women to contest in the 2025 general elections.

The project will also mobilize registered voters to support female politicians.

“NICE remains ever-grateful for giving us a chance to show what we are capable of doing through the first-ever national ID registration when all awareness and mobilisation tasks were entrusted to NICE by UNDP in 2017. Considering that this is a one-year project, that ends almost nine months before the 2025 General Elections, I humbly request UNDP to consider extending it with additional resources so that the implementation takes us to the actual polling and end with a post-elections reflection on the performance of women candidates after the results are announced,” she appealed.

In her remarks, the Principal Secretary (PS) for National Unity, Dr. Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu lamented that despite having many laws and policies in place to protect women’s rights; the same tend to be poorly implemented due to the fact that society and social institutions are slow in supporting these efforts.

Gomani-Chindebvu therefore called for concerted efforts to deal with the vice and notion that women cannot be leaders and particularly in politics, fearing that the persistence of the nation would affect the realization of the aspiration of inclusive wealth creation and attainment of self-reliance.