Stalled gender policy renewal and the effects of the policy gap on Malawi government’s gender agenda

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abstract The Beijing Platform for Action stipulates in its strategic objective H2 (sec. 204b), that governments have to regularly review national policies, programmes and projects to ensure that women are direct beneficiaries of development and that their full contribution is considered in economic policy and planning. However, when the Malawi gender policy expired in 2005, it took six years to produce an updated version in 2011 and another four years for the updated version to be approved by the government. The article explores the shortfalls in the institutional mechanisms that stalled the renewal of the policy and the reasons for the reactivation of the policy review process. The article argues that most of the factors contributing to the delay of renewal reflect the fact that gender issues are not a political threat and are therefore not given much emphasis by the government. The research highlights that despite 25 years of the Beijing Platform for Action’s operation, the concept of gender equality remains largely foreign in the Malawi Government and gender responsiveness is only a result of external pressure, mainly from development partners. The alignment of interest of development partners and civil society organisations on one side and the government on the other facilitated the reactivation of the review of the Malawi gender policy. The article draws its findings from key informant interviews with personnel from the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, civil society organisations (CSOs) and different non-governmental organisations that have taken a key role in the advancement of gender equality in Malawi.