The Path to Paris: Malawi Drafts its Commitments

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In the month of April, CARE International began to accelerate the progress of drafting commitments under Action Coalition 2, by putting a roadmap of activities that need to be carried out in order to have the government and other relevant stakeholders make commitments to advance Economic Justice and Rights in Malawi. The month of May saw several interface meetings and field visits to get contributions from VSLAs, and possible collaborations to popularize the Generation Equality Forum.

Collaborations under GEF:

CARE and UN Women held several meetings throughout the month to collaboratively organize the commitment-making process. UN Women’s approach to the GEF is focused on women’s leadership particularly women at the grassroots, Members of Parliament, and community leaders. Their team has so far worked with For Equality, the Ministry of Gender and Her Liberty. All organizations are determined to draft commitments under the sixth action coalition, Feminist Movements and Leadership.

CARE and UN Women planned to exchange their concept notes and to develop a work plan to organize events to promote the commitment-making process and to popularise the GEF. UN Women also pledged to financially support said activities.

One particular activity on the work plan was the launch of the Gender Journalism Awards Competition on 19th May 2021. UN Women invited CARE and other stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Gender from Malawi and Tanzania, to the virtual event. The competition aims to promote gender-sensitive reporting and to address issues within the region, with the hope that journalists can be part of the movement. 

“Media fostering stronger partnerships in gender advocacy with Feminist Movements has great potential to yield game-changing results that can stir a major shift in the narrative.”  – Hon. Patricia Kaliati, Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare.

CARE also plans to join the Feminist Macro-Economic Alliance to participate more actively in Financial Inclusion Programming.

Stepping Closer to the Commitments: Action Coalition Commitment Technical Meetings

The first technical meeting was on 21st May 2021. The meeting saw UN Women, CARE Malawi, Her Liberty, Ministry of Gender, Ministry of Finance, Action Aid, NGOCCN, and Plan Malawi in attendance.

Clara Anyangwe, the UN Women Representative for Malawi, co-chaired the meeting alongside Ministry of Gender’s representative Fred Simwaka.

“GEF’s focus is turning words into action. The action coalitions are the world’s roadmap for gender equality. This is a critical moment which could lead to delivering concrete results in six thematic areas, which stakeholders will make commitments under. Commitments are essential to accelerating investment and implementation.” – Clara Anyangwe, UN Women Representative for Malawi.

By 17th May 2021, there had been 956 commitment makers who had expressed interest in becoming commitment makers and 557 had confirmed.

The main outcome from this meeting was the drafting of 11 possible commitments that included:

  1. Compliance with the 60/40 recruitment quota
  2. Implementation of Gender Responsive Macro-Economic policies
  3. Granting access to markets for women cooperatives and women-owned businesses
  4. Implementation of high impact financial inclusion programs
  5. Establishing a women’s economic empowerment fund
  6. Increase of social protection schemes, gender-responsive infrastructure

The second technical meeting involved a revision of the drafted commitments to flesh out more concrete commitments with UN Women, Her Liberty, Action Aid, Plan Malawi, and CARE. This meeting took place on 26th May 2021 at the UN Women's office in Lilongwe.

It was agreed to split the commitments under the coalitions that they fit under.

Rapid Assessment Trip: GEF to the Grassroots

CARE Malawi felt it was necessary to validate the draft commitments with VSLA members in Kasungu, T/A Chilowamatambe. The members, alongside their spouses, provided insights on how the GEF could cater to their different needs.

 The findings from rapid assessment trip to Kasungu in May were used to supplement commitments under AC2:

VSLA members brought up issues concerning

•       A care economy

•       Gender responsive infrastructure

•       Gender equality and culture

•       Direct markets

•       Upscaling of women-led businesses

 What’s next? Inching Closer to June 15th

CARE plans to actively participate in the finalizing of the commitments under action coalition 2 and 6 and to popularize the Paris Forum and the proposed commitments with For Equality and UN Women in the country, as the two organizations have expressed interest.

 

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