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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 5
(4 of 22 pages)
Finally, I see that I have only a minute to go, I would say the process of empowerment
of sectors of society who may not have the capacity to engage those who are in a privileged position. I would say
that the donor is in a privileged position as compared to our governments. In the case of Malawi, my government
is in a disadvantaged position to engage donors effective for the advantage of the citizens, because there are
donors who [inaudible] for six months just preparing for negotiation of one loan or grant, where in our governments,
you find one principal secretary who has many responsibilities. I mean, you only put five hours to that program,
which has a fundamental impact on the country and on the citizens.
So there is need for capacity of affirmative action intervening in those areas where there are gaps for more capacity.
This is equative for women's and [inaudible]. The Malawi civil society is very weak and very fragile and these
days they deliver a decision that program arrangement and capacity building go hand-in-hand. These sectors of society
will not be able to participate, because participate in the presence, in a meeting, being present in a conference
or in parliament does not help anyway.
Unless participation is able to influence policy and impact on policy, those who are in positions of influence
will not be able to respect participation.
And finally in closing, the possible ability of experience in Malawi is the ability to create community forearms,
where we have local [inaudible] group meetings. Every month society, the [inaudible] society, they come together,
traditional leaders, government officials, political parties and the civil society groups. They prioritize their
issues and they discuss those issues and they communicate effective through press release or radio discussions,
so that the other societies and those who are in power, they're able to understand and listen.
A remarkable development which happened during the elections which took place last week in Malawi was that through
the National Consolidative Group, where politicals, [inaudible], government, donors sit together to monitor the
ritual process and discuss and arise information. You see where society is adequately empowered to conduct the
research on the ground, civic education on the ground and monitor the electoral process. And periodical reports
were represented to the stakeholders meeting like this one and we are able to identify where the problems were.
For example, that the chairman of the [inaudible] commission was removed and it's not easy to remove a High Court
Judge. But the process in Malawi was able to remove the judge and also to demand that the process is conducted
according to law.
And because of high awareness of demand of our legal process, the judiciary also were motivated to attend to those
issues promptly and also decide in the manner that will be free and according to justice.
So in summary, I would say that it is important that for people to participate, they must have their freedom of
expression and association guaranteed. Where people are afraid of government machinery, they're afraid of secret
bodies, they're afraid of arrest, they will not be able to release their anxiety and their fears to government
and make their feelings known.
In my country there is a culture where people would not talk in a meeting like this one. When the meeting is finished,
you are around the bar, just waiting for the key decision-makings to start reviewing information, which should
have been fundamental in making a decision during the conference. So the [inaudible] to going for a meeting out
of a meeting and that distorts the decision making and direction of a country. Why do people do that? Because they're
afraid that when they express themselves, they will be demoted, they will be dismissed, or they will be arrested.
Even if they will not be arrested, well, there's that notion. So they must [inaudible] to move to empower their
people to speak.
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