Political parties have been a major let down-50-50 Campaign

The campaign period is over. Malawians vote in Tripartite Elections on Tuesday, May 21 2019. Fifty six percent of the 6,859,570 registered voters are women. There is no woman contesting for the presidency as was the case in the previous 2014 elections. But in the battle for Parliamentary seats, of the 1,333 contestants 304 are women representing 23%. If previous trends are anything to go by women’s success rate will hover at around 20-30%. This despite the 50-50 Campaign mounted to increase women’s participation in politics. I [Chisomo Ngulube (CN)] engaged Viwemi Chavula (VC) of the 50-50 Campaign Management Agency on the 2019 campaign. 

CKN: Firstly, what did you as the 50-50 Campaign Management Agency set out to do?

VC: The 50:50 Campaign Management Agency were given external and internal deliverables. Internally, the agency was assigned to recruit experts in the following fields: Monitoring and Evaluation; Gender and governance; communication; team leadership; digital and connectivity. Externally the agency was tasked to develop strategies and mechanisms that could adequately fight persisting gender cultural norms and patriarchy that continue to contribute to women’s marginalisation from politics. The Agency was also tasked to improve the existing capacities of female candidates, tailoring the programming of the project on the understanding that women in politics are not a homogeneous group (i.e. some women are entry level, while others simply need to enhance their profiling and visibility. The 50:50 Campaign Management Agency worked closely with the mandate holder (Ministry of Gender), to coordinate all the other 50-50 campaign donors, outside of the Royal Norwegian Embassy support. Finally, the Agency was tasked to monitor incidences of Violence Against Women in Elections (VAW-E), and develop mechanisms to prevent and respond to incidences of VAW-E. Malawi has noted targeted violence towards women as voters, candidates and electoral administrators, which has had a negative impact regarding women’s political participation.

CKN: Did you really set out to achieve 50-50 representation?

VC: Yes, however, it is important to note that achieving 50:50 [representation] is a process. Critical achievements have been made in the short term, but there are essential medium term and long term factors that need to be considered in order to achieve 50:50 representations. For example, patriarchy is a long term process as it borders on behavioral change. Ultimately, legal reforms (affirmative action) need to be enacted, particularly within party frameworks/processes, before moving to making changes within the national legislation. We need political will around this issue in order to register and entrench meaningful gains.

CKN: It appears that some 42 constituencies will not have a woman representing them what happened in those areas?

VC: Achieving the representation of women in every district will continue to be a challenge. However, it is essential that there is women’s representation in every district, in order to ensure that the voices, interests and needs of the majority of the population, actually form part of the national discourse. 

CKN: Why in your view were women not as scared to compete against fellow women, regardless of their perceived strength?

VC: It would be every subjective of me to comment on this. In order to provide you with a comprehensive and well-founded response, I would need to engage in a contextual analysis of the localities and constituencies in question. Access and control of resources is a major hindrance to women’s political participation in Malawi. Women constitute 56% of the voting population and that already provides women with a significant starting point. However, depending on the area there could be other factors contributing to the behavioral patterns noted.

CKN: I also observed for instance, that political parties in their strongholds featured less female candidates?

VC: Political parties have been a disappointment. There is a lot of rhetoric, but little action. As you have rightly observed, they field a majority of women, but not in their strong holds. Charity begins at home-more women in leadership and decision making positions needs to begin at the party level, before moving to national processes. Parties need to develop code of conducts for increasing women participation. Parties need to develop specific strategies and training programmes for women in politics. I always have these basic questions for our parties:  How many parties have directories of educated women in Malawi? What pull factors are in place to attract an educated woman to a Malawian political party? If you look within the time span of 1994-2019, we have seen how the private sector in Malawi is attracting women of a high professional caliber.  However, this does not seem to be the case with regards to politics/ the political arena. Countries such as Kenya, have made considerable advances on the topic. Who is directing this conversation within political parties? This investment needs to start at political party level.

A record number of women have resorted to contesting as independents, what hurdles did you observe that they faced in political parties?

VC: Contesting as an independent candidate is one of the guaranteed routes to ascending to leadership positions in Malawi. You may recall that in 2009 elections, we had 7 women who stood as independent candidates, and who successfully attained a seat in the National Assembly as a member of parliament.  Similarly, in 2014, there were 11 female independent candidates who managed to secure a seat in the national assembly as a Member of Parliament. However, it is important to note that, the political party processes are muddled with challenges. For example; (1) Political party primaries are characterised by large amounts of intimidation and insults (derogatory songs) against female aspirants, (2) Communication and preparation of delegates on procedures to be followed (identification of areas/delegates) appear to be left to the day of the primaries. As a result, the primaries are prone to dispute and conflict. A significant amount of time is taken to agree on these procedures, and frequently leads to the cancellation of the primaries. The cost of holding another primary is a huge cost for women, who have little to no access and control of resources. It is a significant hindrance to women’s political participation.

CKN:  The campaign also involved changing attitudes, perceptions etc. are the time, resources enough?

VC: Behavioral change is a process. It requires a lot of time. You cannot change something that a family or community has embraced in a period of two years. There must be continued engagement with gatekeepers (He4She champions); “why women in politics’ discussion has to start right from our homes before moving to schools; churches; mosques etc. We need to include new beliefs and attitudes on the importance of inclusivity, among the young generation. The process is resource and investment heavy and requires concerted efforts.