ADDRESS BY

HER EXCELLENCY MRS. JOYCE BANDA THE STATE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI

AT

THE SESSION ON DRIVING DEVELOPMENT THROUGH GENDER EQUALITY: ADVANCING THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

DURING TICAD TOKYO, JAPAN ON SUNDAY, 2ND JUNE, 2013

 Chairperson, Madam Helen Clark, Administrator, UNDP Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I feel greatly honored to present my address on the subject Driving Development through Gender Equality: Advancing The

Empowerment of Women.

I wish to thank the UNDP Administrator Ms Helen Clark for chairing this session and challenging us to think clearly and creatively on issues affecting women on the African continent.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen Women constitute the majority of our populations in Africa. Therefore when we talk about poverty, suffering and

underdevelopment, we are talking mostly of women who are in majority. The promotion of gender equality, women empowerment; improvement of maternal health and achieving education for the girl child is a transformational strategy to achieving development.
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The biggest threats to development in Africa are poverty, lack of opportunity and lack of hope. It is my considered view that there is a direct link between gender equality, good governance and women empowerment with sustainable development. These factors lay a foundation for societies to realign themselves for sustainable development. Good political governance guarantees fairness, equity and freedoms. Gender equality unlocks the potential of women and men to allow space for each other. And women empowerment proactively enhances the capacity of women to participate in decision making and in matters that affects them.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen The international community needs to redirect its policies from one that has seen Africa as a perpetual aid destination to one that works with Africa. Africa has now acquired skills, knowledge and a vast network across the world. This resource on the Continent and in the Diaspora provides connectivity to many cultures and opportunities in Africa.

It is pleasing and encouraging to note that there are success stories in Africa that we can boast about. Africa has successful business people, men and women, across the continent who have demonstrated that it is possible to succeed in Africa. Africa has successful governments that have demonstrated that it is possible to close the gender gap in Africa. Africa has decided to empower its women to achieve development. Africa has successful leaders that can be engaged, supported and promoted to set the development pace for Africa. Yes, Africa is a Continent on the rise!

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen Malawi is among such examples. The people of Malawi have joined me on the journey to leading the way on a new vision for leadership in Africa: one that focuses on empowering women wherever they are. We are investing in our hopeful and young population. And we will lead the way for the new Africa. Women are at the center of our hopes for Africa: we will build a new Africa based on good

governance, transparency and accountability of government, values of safety, security and equal opportunity.

As a Continent, we must invest in our human capital to take advantage of the demographic dividend of our large numbers of women. If we invest in health, especially womens health,

education, and skills building, we can use this people power to transform Africa into a medium income Continent with a flourishing middle class citizenry.

My goal, Madam Chairperson, is to take Malawi into a model African country where we drive development through gender equality by advancing the empowerment of women at all levels of society.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Now is a hopeful time for Africa, an opportunity to transform the continent by recognizing the interconnectedness of gender equality, agriculture, security, the environment, health, and a strong youth population. For a woman living in a village in Africa, the issues of food security, the challenges posed by climate variability, population pressures, and economic challenges all meet this woman on the doorstep of her home.
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As we look to new ways to implement programs to develop Africa, we must look at the interconnectedness of interventions in health, education, economy and population. This woman wants to ensure that her agricultural work provides enough food so that she can feed her family, and provide the much needed income. She wants her children to be able to get medical care when they are sick. She wants all her children to be able to go to school, and she wants schools and hospitals to be safe, accessible from her village and staffed by well-trained teachers and doctors.

This African woman wants to raise her children without the fear that she will die giving birth to the next child. She wants to be able to choose the size of her family so that she can provide each of her children with everything they need for success in life.

My government in Malawi knows this, and we are committed to addressing the development challenges of food security, education, womens reproductive health and other sectors as the intertwined

threads that they are, that meet on the doorstep of this African woman.

There is no better time for Malawi to make real meaningful changes in womens lives than now when a woman President is in the driving seat.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen Many people have argued that the best strategy to achieve Millennium Development Goal 3 is to send girls to school first and I beg to differ. I think that it is income into the poor household that must come first. The issues that affect population growth, malnutrition, girls access to education, maternal health and indeed poverty are all linked to lack of incomes into households. If we have to overcome these challenges we need to promote policies and programmes that bring decent incomes into households.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen To ensure that we drive development through gender equality and empowerment of women, I have just established a Mudzi
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Transformation Initiative where I want to modernise our villages and ensure that we stop a vicious cycle of underdevelopment and poverty. To realize this, we must invest in the village where our people are especially women. By the way, Mudzi means a village in my local language.

With this Village Transformation Initiative, I see a village with a clinic. I see a village with clean water. I see a village with a modern school. I see a village with a micro-finance bank. I see majority of my people becoming financial citizens. I see a village growing enough food and cash crops. I see a village whose people are empowered and take charge in shaping their destiny. Yes, I see a community that decides where they want to be and get involved in getting there.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen If we cannot uplift this village woman to earn decent income in the household, the vicious cycle of population growth, malnutrion, maternal health and poverty will remain with us. If we have to send women into Parliament, we need to go to the grassroot where these women are. If we have to educate our girl child, we need to engage
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the women where they are. If we have to address the core values of poverty and human security, we need to be where the women are. We must go to the village of Africa and there uplift our people. In Malawi 85 percent of the people are rural based.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen To emphasise this point, I wish to propose the following strategies in driving development through gender equality: advancing women empowerment on our continent.

1. Develop policies and programmes that bring incomes into household so that children are not considered as wealth for families. This income based approach will emancipate this woman to secure social, political and economic freedoms which are necessary for growth and development.

When a family has decent income, it can send the children to school for a better education. It can choose to live a healthy life style, and it can choose to have fewer children that they can afford to bring up. In fact, the moment women become income
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earners in the home, experience has shown that they stop having children for the sake of status. They are also able to overcome gender based violence. They are able to overcome an abuse marriage. (example of a young mother whose child died) 2. Invest to support education for the girl child so that girls can complete primary, secondary and tertiary education. This is critical in families where they have no reliable incomes. If we neglect the education of the girl child, we will create a second generation that is lost and trapped in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment and poverty. Here the focus should be to target child headed households and orphaned children. (example: hostel by Japanese to JBF and Dorothy)

When 85 percent of our people are rural based. We can now give them adult education but we will have lost a full generation. These are our sisters. These are our mothers who will remain trapped in poverty.

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Chairperson, we need a global campaign to keep the girl child through secondary and tertiary education. 3. Promote the involvement of traditional leaders as custodian of culture and traditions. Traditional leaders enjoy power and influence in society and if we can redirect this influence to positive energies, like we have done with maternal health, we can engage traditional leaders to ensure that every girl child goes to school and also remains in school; that no women gives birth in the home without the assistance of skilled birth attendant.

4. Provide economic empowerment as this leads to social emancipation. This among other things empowers women to make informed decisions that affect them including political participation, reproductive rights and education of their children. 5. Establish institutional framework that will support women to go Parliament, and while in Parliament we need capacity building programs to support them perform and stay in the house. (example. Royal Norwegian Government support).
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6.

Finally, Chairperson, we need to identify and encourage professional women to mentor young women and set them as role models to motivate young girls. (example. Young Leaders Network).

7. Establish networks of women to support fellow women, for example, to help women get reelected, help women stay in marriage, help fellow women stay in senior positions and even in State House so that Africa does not lose the gains made so far.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen As a woman leader, on my part I have made the following appointments of women into senior positions of power; nine Cabinet Ministers, Acting Chief Justice, Chief Secretary to Government, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Heads of Diplomatic Missions, Solicitor General, two Deputy Reserve Bank Governors, Justices of the High Court, Principal Secretaries for key ministries,

Chairpersons and CEOs of statutory corporations, and Deputy Secretary General of my party among others. I know that these
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positions will provide women with the necessary experiences that could advantage them if they entered politics.

Chairperson, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a compelling business case for us to reduce gender gaps and empower women on the African continent. I am encouraged that the report from this session will be used to inform the TICAD process in tailoring more policy and actions towards gender equality and womens empowerment as catalysts of development in Africa. I thank you all for your attention.

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