By Feston Malekezo
Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Minister Jean Sendeza has urged financially stable women not to be abusing men.
She made the remarks in Mzimba District during the official closure of the Spotlight Initiative and the launch of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence (GBV) on Saturday.
Sendeza said cases of more men than women committing suicide could be attributed to abuse.
In July this year, the government launched the National Male Engagement Strategy on Gender Equality, GBV, Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights that runs up to 2028.
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It is designed to guide the implementation of all male engagement interventions to ensure that men and boys play a role in promoting positive masculinities and addressing GBV.
Sendeza said if families are free from GBV, they can become economically stable, such that the upbringing of children would become easy, thereby propping up chances of reducing the number of street-connected children in the country.
“We have seen that men are both perpetrators and survivors of gender-based violence. When women sometimes have resources more than their husbands, they do things you cannot believe. A man should always be respected by a woman even if he does not have money. If this does not happen, you see more men [than women] committing suicide,” she said.
In his remarks, European Union (EU) Ambassador to Malawi Rune Skinnebach said the Spotlight Initiative has had a number of positives.
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Skinnebach said they are now launching a 59 million euros Gender Responsive Cash Transfer Programme targeting resource-constrained families beginning 2024.
“We still have a lot of girls engaging in early marriage. We still have lots of [cases of] domestic violence; sexual-based violence is still widespread. So, we supported the Spotlight Initiative since 2019 with 28 million euros and we have learnt a lot of lessons. We have seen how important it is to focus on gender, youths and vulnerable groups and we will continue a series of programmes drawing from the lessons learnt in the Spotlight Initiative,” he said.
Commenting on the 16 Days of Activism against GBV launch, United Nations Country Coordinator Rebecca Adda-Donto said districts should start putting resources together at council level for channelling to the fight against GBV.
“Sixteen Days of Activism [against GBV] is meant to ring the bell louder that we still have gender-based violence. So, I am encouraging all of you to ‘orange’ the world because the colour orange means we are all together in fighting against gender-based violence.
“However, the 16 days are not enough. We need to do this all year round and must take a stance against gender-based violence,” he said.
At the event, patrons also witnessed the launch of the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) In-Country Network, whose role would be to coordinate activities against abuse in humanitarian, development work and peace-keeping missions in Malawi.
The EU has been implementing the Spotlight Initiative programme in six districts of Nsanje, Machinga, Dowa, Ntchisi, Nkhata Bay and Mzimba since 2019.
