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Documents

Overview

Background

Malawi Electoral Support Project (MESP) 2022-2025 has been established with key national authorities and development partners in anticipation of the next Presidential and Legislative elections due in 2025. The proposed project is within the current United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2019-2023 (UNSDCF), Pillar 1 on “Peace, Inclusion and Effective Institutions” and the UNDP CPD Output 4.1: “Parliament, Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC), Centre for Multi-Party Democracy (CMD) and selected non-State actors are enabled to perform core functions for inclusive participation and representation”. The project is based on the premise that technically capable, transparent, and inclusive institutions are essential for conducting credible and peaceful elections – a key output in the UNDP Strategic Plan.

The MESP project will be centered around the following three main strategic areas:

Priority Area 1 – Capacity: Strengthened capacity and preparedness of MEC, CMD and the MPS to effectively manage activities regarding the electoral processes in a credible manner through capacity-building and technical assistance.

Priority Area 2 – Inclusion: Improved participation and representation of women, youth, the elderly, People with Disabilities, and People with Albinism through activities intended to foster participation and ownership of the electoral processes.

Priority Area 3 – Peace: Reduced tensions and disputes regarding the electoral process through the establishment or strengthening and of existing mechanisms contributing to conflict prevention and mitigation.

The MESP Project Document provides for the position of Capacity Building Advisor (CBA), which is a senior technical expert position. The Capacity Building Advisor will provide technical support in the form of strategic and institutional strengthening of the key partners (Malawi Elections Commission [MEC], Centre for Multi-Party Democracy [CMD] and the Malawi Police Service [MPS], as well as engagement with civil society organizations [CSOs]), to enable these institutions to discharge their respective mandates and thus collectively contribute to peaceful, free, fair and credible elections.

 A key and catalytic area for Malawi’s political process is the meaningful inclusion of women and youth. Currently, women represent 54% of the voter register. 52% of voters in 2019 and 2020 were women. However, their access to political office remains low. Of 193 MPs, currently only 42 are women representing 21% and there are only 67 women councilors out of a total of 450 representing 14%. Clearly, there are negative social norms that stand as significant obstacles to more women gaining access to political office. Some of these include patriarchal assumption that women are incapable of taking leadership or political roles; (VAWIE/P), gender blind governance systems within political parties, a non-favourable electoral system which is based on winner takes all other than inclusive considerations, among others.[1] These challenges are exacerbated when a high percentage of girls who are of school going age are denied secondary and higher education thus depriving them of access to decent jobs, as well as to education that would help their political/electoral candidature. There are also impediments within the political parties as few women are appointed to high profile positions within political parties with others fielded out to compete in difficult constituencies. Also observed has been the frequent abuse women receive from their male colleagues, even from within their own party. This would explain why so many women candidates feel they have to stand as independents. Although this issue will take several generations of socio-cultural shifts, through constant and determined sensitization and changes to relevant legal frameworks, there is much that could be done through the political parties themselves in galvanizing healthier attitudes towards their female colleagues.

Bearing in mind Malawi’s very young population (80% below the age of 35 and with a median age of 17), much needs to be done to equip youths with the prerequisite skills and information to effectively and constructively engage in the political life of the country. Again, political parties need to play important roles in making this happen.

Negative impacts as experienced in past elections need to be curtailed through the mobilisation of all actors at central and decentralized levels to contribute to such a process. As has been the case in other countries, social media continues to play both a positive role in increasing civic participation, and a negative one in undermining social cohesion through misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. Efforts to prevent electoral violence are therefore critical with a focus on early action including through the use of existing infrastructures of peace.

[1] Perception Study and Political Economy Analysis (PEA) on Women’s Political Participation at National and Local Levels in Malawi, 2017, UN Women Malawi