By Patricia Kapulula
Lilongwe, October 19, Mana: First Lady Madame Monica Chakwera has emphasized on the need for the campaign against Gender based violence to incorporate men and boys as allies as a strategy to win the fight against GBV and realise gender equality.
Madame Chakwera made the remarks in Lilongwe on Wednesday when she officially opened a High Level Advocacy meeting on Positive Masculinity for traditional and religious leaders from Mzimba District.
The meeting, which has been organised by Shaping Our Future Foundation (SOFF) with financial support from Spotlight Initiative, provides an opportunity for traditional leaders, their spouses, and religious leaders to discuss issues of social norms, negative masculinity and education in Mzimba District and advocate gender justice and transformative masculinities.
She said viewing men as perpetrators of violence hinders realisation of gender equality.
The First Lady said despite a majority of women and girls experiencing violence which is perpetrated by men and boys, a majority of them have goodwill towards women.
She, therefore, said emphasis has to be made on the role of men and boys in the promotion of gender equality and protection of young women and girls.
“Within the category of men, it is equally important to highlight the role of male traditional and religious leaders in ensuring that they shape the future in a direction towards progress and inclusive wealth,” she said.
She said the challenges affecting Malawians require shared leadership hence the need for traditional and religious leaders to come in as they are primary influencers of the population in setting the most civilized social norms.
She expressed concern that social development indicators still remain negative for women and girls in Mzimba District with some social indicators within the district being dismal across the gender divide.
Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati concurred with Madame Chakwera saying men and boys should be taken as partners in the fight against GBV.
She expressed concern that GBV has contributed to a lot of women not participating in decision making positions especially politics.
She, therefore, said traditional and religious leaders are important in ensuring that the vice is eliminated from the communities.
“Traditional and religious leaders are doing a lot in ending GBV but we have an issue with law enforcers such as the police and judiciary as sometimes they let perpetrators of GBV walk scot free through police or court bail,” she said.
She appealed to law enforcement agencies to hold hands with other stakeholders by speeding up cases in order to arrest the situation.
Shaping Our Future Foundation (SOFF) and its partners with financial support from Spotlight Initiative have considered traditional and religious leaders from Mzimba in areas of societal transformation and advancement in recognition of their role in shaping the national agenda as well as in ensuring that communities live with positive values and spur community and national development.
