Malawi has registered a marginal increase in the number of women elected to Parliament following the September 16 elections, but the figures still fall short of the 50-50 target the country has committed to under both regional and international gender equality frameworks.
Malawi Electoral Commission (Mec) statistics indicates that 49 women have secured parliamentary seats out of 229 constituencies. This represents 21 percent of the chamber, compared to 45 women out of 193 in 2019, which translated to 22 percent.
While the absolute number of female MPs has gone up, the proportion remains low due to the increase in the total number of constituencies.
Civil society organisations working on gender and women’s rights say the outcome is a mixed picture.
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NGO Gender Coordination Network (GCN) Chairperson Magie Kathewera Banda said, numerically, the number has moved from 45 to 49.
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“That is progress but, percentage-wise, we are still at 21 percent, which shows that we, as a country, are not yet making the transformative strides we aspire to,” Kathewera Banda said.
NGO-GCN, alongside other organisations such as the 50-50 Campaign and Girls Empowerment Network, has been running advocacy and support programmes aimed at promoting women’s participation in politics. These include leadership training, financial support for female aspirants and community awareness campaigns to challenge cultural stereotypes.
However, Oxfam Country Director Lingalireni Mihowa said there have been errors on the list as other candidates who were male were being recognised as women.
She said the data was being cleaned up.
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She has, however, called for a deliberate policy and legal framework to accelerate women’s participation in politics.
“We, as a country, should put in place concrete policy and legal frameworks to push women forward. The playing field is still uneven, and women continue to face social, political and financial barriers,” Mihowa said.
Malawi is a signatory to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Protocol on Gender and Development, which sets a target of 50 percent representation of women in decision-making positions.
Regionally, countries such as South Africa and Namibia have made stronger progress, with women occupying over 40 percent of parliamentary seats. Rwanda continues to lead globally, with more than 60 percent female representation.
Malawi Human Rights Commission Executive Secretary Habiba Osman has warned that without deliberate quotas or legislative reforms, Malawi risks stagnating around the current 20 percent mark for years to come.
“This election has shown us that relying on goodwill alone is not enough. Unless there are institutional mechanisms, such as reserved seats or proportional representation, the 50-50 goal will remain elusive,” Osman said.
