Dan Church Aid Malawi’s three-folded objective of the conference was:
-
To place renewed focus on economic empowerment of women
-
To facilitate a multi-sector platform for main stakeholders to discuss pressing challenges, explore strategic synergies, and discover new opportunities of collaboration on the road ahead towards economic empowerment of women and gender equality in Malawi.
-
To formulate a catalogue of needed interventions and solutions in the way forward towards economic empowerment of women in Malawi to feed into a “Lilongwe Declaration” on Economic Empowerment of Women.
The conference was attended by a multi-sector audience of stakeholders composed by experts and practitioners within Government, the non-governmental organizations, representatives from the financial institutions, faith-based organizations, academia and the donor community.
Among the 140 participants the conference was privileged to host remarkable opinion leaders and Excellencies; as the Minister of Women and Child Development, Vera Chirva, Dr. Mary Shawa, Principle Secretary for Nutrition and HIV/AIDS, CEOs from banking institutions and not least Dan Church Aid’s own Secretary General Henrik Stubkjaer.
A strategically composed group of experts and advocates initially provided the participants with a glance and insightful perspective on economic empowerment of women, through their keynote addresses on economic rights in the context of political empowerment, the socioeconomic landscape of Malawian women, a perspective on opportunities and challenges in the microfinance sector, a perspective on economic empowerment of women in rural Malawi and a glance on the subject by the financial institutions.
This painted the multidimensional and complex picture of the theme at stake and supported by testimonies by three Malawian women who shared their powerful stories of how their lives have transformed positively through the provision of appropriate financial services and income-generating activities in the rural communities of Malawi, it equipped the participants with proper inspiration and knowledge for the discussion in the interactive workshops.
One of the momentous highlights at the conference was when Henrik Stubkjaer, Dan Church Aid’s Secretary General at the end of his Opening Speech handed over a letter of recognition and gratitude to the Minister of Women and Child Development on behalf of Denmark’s Minister of Development Corporation, Ulla Toernaes for the initiation of the MDG 3 National Call to Action Campaign. Inspired by Denmark’s MDG 3 Global Call to Action Campaign, Malawi is the only country globally which successfully is making an effort to inspire accelerated actions across sectors, and across all walks of life in Malawi towards gender equality and women empowerment through this campaign which the Danish Minister of Development Corporation complimented Malawi for on this occasion.
The support and enthusiasm for the theme of the conference by the multi-sector audience of participants were noticeable through out the day, and it sheds a very promising light on the road ahead towards improving the landscape of women’s economic empowerment in Malawi. Eight new organizations became new MDG 3 Torchbearers by pledging their concrete and ambitious commitment to “do something extra” within their sphere of influence towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 3.
At the three interactive workshops the vivid and practical discussion on needed interventions and innovative approaches to move the agenda of economic empowerment of women forward in Malawi further left promising footsteps behind in respect to the conclusion of a “Lilongwe Declaration” on economic empowerment of women.
Next steps in the aftermath of this milestone conference are the drafting of the “Lilongwe Declaration” which will be shared with all participants by mid June, and then upon his finalization be submitted to the Government of Malawi for its ownership and leadership.
Written by Helene Christensen
Liaison and Partnership Consultant, Dan Church Aid – Malawi
e-mail: helene@globemw.net
mobile: (265) 5848952
Read more:
Read about the MDG3 campaign on the website of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark
Read about the election in Malawi, where a woman for the first time is a candidate for the presidency.