Authorities are heaping praise on efforts that Chiefs in the country are making in promoting human rights, as well as sexual reproductive health rights.
This has been said at a chiefs conference at Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre, an interaction sanctioned under the Spotlight Initiative.
Speaking during the conference, Clara Anyangwe-UN Women Country Representative-emphasized a great role the chiefs are playing in promoting rights of vulnerable groups including women and girls.
“As the United Nations we have been working in close collaboration together with the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Gender to support the chiefs in terms of ending violence against women and girls and ending harmful practices-especially child marriages”. Said Anyangwe
According to Anyangwe, Malawi has been a great champion of the Council of Traditional leaders of Africa-COTLA which was established to spearhead efforts in ending harmful practices towards women and girls.
Anyangwe however cited lack of Chiefs policy as a major challenge affecting efforts by chiefs whose work are currently unstructured and uncoordinated thereby not meeting maximum outreach potential.
Meanwhile Catherine Makoni-Team Leader for the Zimbabwe delegation has described the visit to Malawi as informative and very crucial in improving efforts by Zimbabwe chiefs in the fight for the rights of the vulnerable and ending harmful social norms.
“Malawi and Zimbabwe we come from a shared culture and this also means shared challenges such as gender based violence.
We came here to learn how chiefs in Malawi are operating in addressing these challenges and we have this amazing work on the ground from the chiefs, so we take these lessons back home with us”. Said Makoni.
Guest of honor for the event Halima Daud-Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Local Government has underscored the critical role traditional leaders in the country are taking in ending gender-based violence
Daudi also applauded the UN through the Spotlight Initiative which is facilitating efforts of ending harmful cultural practices and improving chiefs contribution towards developmental activities among traditional leaders in the continent.
She has since called on local leaders to draw success lessons from their Zimbabwe counterparts in improving their works towards elimination of violence against women and girls
The Spotlight Initiative is a global initiative being implemented in partnership with the European Union, United Nations and other partners with an aim to eliminate gender-based violence and harmful practices.