By Brenda Kayo:
The governing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and UTM have committed to promote the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents if elected into power during the forthcoming elections.
Tuesday, MCP and UTM officials engaged with civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) representatives to discuss the issue of how the parties will advance the cause of women, children and adolescents in their manifestoes.
Representative of the CSOs and NGOs, Amref Country Director Hester Mkwinda Nyasulu, said there was a need for political parties to, if elected into power, prioritise increasing health financing to 15 percent of the national budget, saying this would help the country reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality rates.
The CSOs have also called for a reduction in unmet family planning interventions, teen childbearing and child marriages.
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“Records show that 381 per 1,000 women die due to maternal health complications, with 20 percent of adolescent girls dying due to maternal deaths.
“Despite the family planning rate increasing to 49 percent in the country, women are still struggling to access proper family planning services. In addition, the rate of teenage pregnancies has increased by 31 percent, with 29 percent of girls under the age of 18 getting into marriage,” he said.
MCP spokesperson Jessie Kabwila said 60 percent of the MCP manifesto’s contents is focused on promoting the wellbeing of women and youths.
She said the party’s manifesto outlines initiatives such as the Patsogolo Fund, which has been designed to support youths in areas such as business, health education and others.
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Kabwila also said their manifesto aims to keep girls in school by providing school feeding meals, menstrual kits and other items to ensure that they are addressing issues related to early pregnancy and marriage.
“Sometimes, people talk about withdrawing young girls from marriages but they do not provide actual support to them. That does not yield results as young girls decide to go back into marriage. We, MCP, have put in place initiatives that will help the youth, especially young girls, to support them. We are talking about loans, supporting them with business capital and many more things,” Kabwila said.
On his part, UTM secretary general Willet Kalonga said although UTM yet has not launched its manifesto, the party has prioritised issues of gender and others in the manifesto.
“We are addressing a lot of issues in the manifesto,” he said.
Organisations that were present included Youth Society, Family Planning Association of Malawi, Youth Wave, among others.
