A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aspirant for Nsanje South West constituency, Helen Buluma, has asked 50-50 campaigners to consider changing the way the program is implemented.
In an interview, she said the current design where the campaign starts just a year before elections fails to address women’s challenges hence reducing number of women who could have otherwise managed to make it into political positions.
“50-50 campaign should not start in times of elections, it should start when we have just been voted into power, say three years before elections, to be able to groom women so that by the time they start campaigning they should be way ahead and compete competently,” said Buluma.
She also claimed that most finances that are meant to help women in the districts have not reached the beneficiaries although the crucial time of primary elections is now.
“How do you expect women to win primaries when they don’t have proper funding? They should start investing in the primaries because if they fail at primaries level, there will be no way they will reach out to them,” said the DPP shadow Member of Parliament.
According to Buluma, there is a gap that has been left and it needs the 50-50 campaigners to be prompt in their response to aspiring women’s woes.
She said women should support their fellow females because they know the importance of a woman in the society.
Buluma said once voted in power as Member of Parliament, she would prioritize availability of potable water and food so that the country should have healthy people and children for development of the country.
Commenting on the 50-50 campaign, Action Aid Malawi Executive Director, Grace Malera, said the organization has already started rolling out activities supporting women in rural areas.She assured that the campaign will bear fruits.
“So far what has been happening on the ground we provided funding to 21 NGOs to go to all 28 districts in the country doing capacity building and community mobilization,” said Malera.
