Mutharika highlights Malawi women empowerment drive at HeForShe Impact Summit

Malawi President Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, who was appointed global champion for the HeForShe campaign under the Impact 10X10X10 in recognition of his commitment to advance the promotion and support of women empowerment and gender equality,  has asked people around the world to jointly put a gallant fight to push for the betterment of women lives across the globe.

Mutharika speaking at the HeForShe IMPACT Summit in New York

Mutharika made the remarks at Cipriani Hotel in New York where he was invited to address the gathering on  the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.

The Malawi leader said for a long time in human history, gender has been used as a reason for inflicting violence on women.

“We must secure the participation of local leaders and various stakeholders who influences beliefs in our social fabric. Then both men and women must be convinced that the laws against gender-based violence are in their own interest to follow,” Mutharika said.

The HeForShe Champion said he committed that women are protected in Malawi.

He said to ensure that women are protected and empowered in Malawi, his government has increased the national budget with 14 % for child protection.

The Malawi leader said his government is also moving towards establishment of women empowerment fund so that women should be empowered economically.

Mutharika shared a success story of a young girl who was impregnated and dropped out of school . She was forced to look after herself as the man denied responsibility of the pregnancy and the unborn child but she was rescued from the jaws of poverty through community colleges; a program which Mutharika started in 2014.

Through the programme, Mutharika said, the girl was offered training in vocation skills, and that after completions,  she found herself a good job and enabled her to be self-reliance financially.

In addition, Mutharika said his government is putting up a legal frame work which will seek to protect girls from any forms of discrimination and make sure that all girls have good access to education.

“We have a campaign to make sure that all girls go back to school and attain high education as far as they can go, by so doing we will make our girls self-depended, ” he emphasised.

The HeForShe IMPACT Summit convened world leaders, global CEOs, university presidents, and public sector leaders to share groundbreaking practices and concrete solutions towards the achievement of gender equality.

Other speakers at the event included the presidents of Finland and Iceland, as well as actress and UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Anne Hathaway, and actor and activist, Winston Duke.

Since its launch in 2014, the HeForShe solidarity movement has mobilised 1.7 million men as advocates for gender equality, and generated more than 1.3 billion conversations on social media.

UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka listed some of the progress since 2014, including Iceland pledging to end the gender pay gap by 2020 and Malawi outlawing child marriage to help girls stay in school.

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Mchacha the Terrorist
Mchacha the Terrorist
5 years ago

The same women your party calls prostitutes because they hold divergent political views from your party’s . Hypocrite

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Mchacha the Terrorist
Mchacha the Terrorist
5 years ago

The same women your party calls prostitutes because they hold divergent political from your party’s . Hypocrite

Charlie
Charlie
5 years ago

Black empowerment is racism and women empoerment is discriminaton.
Choose on merit, not on who you are.
He came in for Jotce Banda. That was HeforShe.

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