STATEMENT BY

HON. MRS. MARY KAPHWEREZA BANDA, M.P;

MINISTER OF GENDER, YOUTH AND

COMMUNITY SERVICES

AT THE SPECIAL SESSION OF

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON BEIJING +5:

"WOMEN 2000: GENDER EQUALITY,

DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE

FOR THE 21 ST CENTURY

NEW YORK

ISSUED BY THE PERMANENT MISSION OF MALAWI TO THE UNITED NATIONS

Mr. President,

On behalf of the Malawi delegation and indeed on my own behalf, I wish to join those who have spoken before me in congratulating you, Mr. President and your entire bureau for being elected to chair this Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Further, I wish to congratulate the Secretary-General of the United Nations and his officials for an encouraging statement.

Mr. President,

Before I deliver my statement, please allow me to extend sincere apologies from the State President of the Republic of Malawi, Dr. Bakili Muluzi, who was invited to attend this Special Session but is unable to do so. Instead he has appointed me to represent him at this auspicious occasion.

My statement will be devoted to a brief discussion of what Malawi has done and is doing by way of implementing the Beijing Platform for Action, and also to highlight the major challenges and obstacles encountered in the implementation process.

Mr. President

As a follow-up to the Global Platform for Action adopted at the 1995 Beijing Conference, Malawi conducted awareness raising meetings on the outcomes of the Conference. The Government of Malawi also came up with its own Platform for Action in 1997 and a National Gender Policy in March 2000 through a consultative process with NGOs, the private sector, the civil society and donors. The Malawi Platform for Action is a clear testimony of Government's commitment for achieving equality and equity between women and men in the 21st Century. To demonstrate the Government's political will, the Malawi Platform for Action was launched by the State President, Dr. Bakili Muluzi. The Platform for Action is, therefore, a powerful instrument for the empowerment of women as it calls for the integration of gender perspectives in all national development policies and programmes.

The Malawi Platform for Action has identified four priority areas of concern for Malawi out of the 12 Thematic Areas of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The four priority areas are:

1. Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment which encompasses women's participation in agriculture, access to economic resources, employment, women's reproductive health, food security and nutrition, environment and natural resource management.
2. The Girl Child which covers harmful traditional and cultural practices that negatively affect the girl child's right to proper growth, protection and development.
3. Violence Against Women which covers gender-based discrimination against and marginalisation of women and girls in private, public and domestic arena.
4. Peace which covers women's rights, international conventions, protocols and treaties that promote peace, plight of the Malawian women, children and persons with disabilities in relation to their shelter conditions, and women's participation in politics and decision making.

Mr. President

With regard to Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment, the Government of Malawi has created a conducive policy environment for formation and operation of gender specific NGOs dealing with women and gender issues. Financial lending institutions for micro and medium

enterprises have been encouraged to target mostly women in the rural areas, hence making the informal sector to be recognized as a major source of employment for women.

Reproductive health services have been liberalized to ensure easy access for both women and men of reproductive age. The Government has also instituted adolescent reproductive health programmes which provide adolescents with information, counselling and contraceptive services. This has contributed to an increased contraceptive prevalence rate from 7% in 1992 to 14% in 1996. In keeping with the commitments relating to women's reproductive health in the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Malawi Population Policy has been reviewed to mainstream gender.

As a follow up to the International Conference on Nutrition, Malawi has formulated a National Plan for Nutrition whose emphasis is on dietary diversification, food security and utilization. Unfortunately, despite this progress, the Malawian population still faces rampant and chronic malnutrition. For example, stunting is at 48%, wasting is at 7% and underweight is at 30%. This unacceptable nutritional status poses a big challenge for the country's development efforts.

Mr. President

On the Girl Child, through the Girls Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education (GABLE) Programme, the Malawi Government has intensified social mobilization campaigns to change cultural and societal negative attitudes towards girls' education. Government introduced free primary education in 1994/95 academic year which led to the doubling of girls' enrolment rates in primary school. The provision of scholarships to successful primary and secondary school increased girls enrolment from 53% in 1992 to 95% in 1999. Furthermore, the rate of retention for girls in school has increased from 12% to 27% during the same period. Malawi Government has also increased its budget allocation to the education sub-sector from 46% in 1992 to 69% of the social sector budget in 1999/2000 fiscal year.

In addition, the policy on pregnancy has been reviewed to enable the girl and boy child to be readmitted into the school system after child delivery. The girl child who fails to go back to school is also given an opportunity to enroll with the Adult Literacy and Education Programme.

With regard to Violence Against Women, a number of organizations and institutions such as the Law Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission have been established to offer victim support mechanisms and counselling services. In addition the Government, has instituted various measures for dealing with perpetrators of abuse. However, since most violence cases go unreported, a nationwide campaign on Violence Against Women was conducted in 1998 to create awareness. The campaign reached over 30,000 community members who have since formed action committees to combat violence against women at community level.

At the national level, the Government has reviewed some discriminatory laws such as the Marriage Act, the Affiliation Act and the Wills and Inheritance Act especially the property-grabbing component.

At the regional level, Malawi signed an addendum to SADC Gender and Development Declaration on eradication of violence against women and children, in 1999.

Mr. President

On Peace, the Government has ensured that cross border peace making missions, trade negotiation missions and trade fairs include both women and men. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is a fundamental human right which enables women and men, girls and boys to participate effectively in decision making processes. The Government has thus taken steps to increase the number of women participating in politics and decision making positions particularly in the Legislature, Civil Service and the Judiciary.

Mr. President,

Malawi is pleased to report to this august forum that, apart from sensitising our Armed forces on gender this year, for the first time in the history of Malawian nation, 59 female soldiers have been admitted into the ranks of, the hitherto male-dominated, Armed Forces.

Mr. President,

Notwithstanding the above achievements a number of challenges have hindered the implementation process of the Beijing Platform for Action. The challenges include:

• Negative effects of globalisation due to lack of technological capacity for Malawi which undermines the country's competitiveness on the global market.

• Overemphasis of economic gains of structural adjustment, programmes have been at the expense of desired social gains of the Malawian population especially women and children.

• Inadequate financial resources that hinder the implementation of well intentioned programmes.

• The HIV/AIDS pandemic which continues to, impact negatively on the Malawian population, particularly on women who are also expected to take care of the rising number of orphans.

In conclusion, Mr. President, the Government of Malawi has placed gender issues high on its development agenda because it recognizes that sustainable development with a human face can not be achieved unless women, men, girls and boys work together as partners in development into the new millennium.

I thank you for your attention.