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Malawi

Empowering the marginalised poor

© Mikkel Østergaaard

In Malawi, DanChurchAid are addressing:

• Gender based discrimination
• Non-favourable policies and practice concerning the vulnerable
• Inadequate access to quality basic services
• Lack of human rights knowledge and skills of knowledge application
• Non-accountability and corruption.

Protection and empowerment of the rural poor

The development objective of the Political Space Programme work in Malawi is that the marginalized poor, especially rural women, are protected and empowered to exercise and uphold their right to participate for increased access and control of resources and services. The rights addressed in the programme work are: women's rights; the right to access to information and; the right to participation.

Intervention areas:

• Advocacy and Lobbying: DanChurchAid's engagement in advocacy matters is done by partners, just like for all the other activities.Lobbying related to individual struggles is done from grassroots levels, through the partner projects, and this is likely under human rights awareness and education activities conducted by the partners.
• Empowerment: As a first step, the rights holders need to have access to information relating to the rights to which they are entitled. Civic education is therefore critical. Following strategies are taken into consideration: Awareness raising on human rights and decentralisation; capacity building for local advocacy and monitoring of processes and; fundraising for community level projects and networking.
• Legal Protection: Efforts are made to monitor new laws. And through its partners the programme will work with local leaders, to ensure that the projects influence improvement of effectiveness of access to customary justice. Support will also be given to partners to promote women’s organization, and assertiveness and leadership training.

Focus on the vulnerable rural and marginalised poor

The primary targets of this programme are the vulnerable rural and marginalised poor with a focus on women and girls. With the lack of access to information, the defined vulnerable groups become passive members, because they do not have a basis for informed decision making. The most vulnerable households are disenabled from following the trends of events, as they are too poor and cannot access radio and newspapers. Illiteracy is another main excluding factor. Access to public information is also hindered because mechanisms have not been put in place to deliberately make public records available.Traditional practices which discriminate against women have further marginalized women from participation.

The rural areas

The location of the projects are in the very rural areas where access to service and information is poor and limited, and where gender patterns are more defined in excluding women’s participation. Nation-wide advocacy is undertaken through the platform network and other networks.

Across the programmes

The Political Space Programme works with the HIV/AIDS Programme on issues of human rights with specific recognition of problems faced by people living with HIV/AIDS, at the same time the programme works with the Food Security Programme to contribute towards access to nutrition and food security as a human right in relation to governance.