According to the Spotlight Initiative Malawi Country Programme Document (ProDoc) (December2018), despite advances in gender equality over the last decade, Malawi ranks 145/188 on the Gender Inequality Index (GII), reflecting high levels of inequality in reproductive health, women’s empowerment, and economic activity.
Additionally, violence against women and girls (VAWG) and harmful practices (HP) remain serious issues. The gender advances over the last decade include the enactment of key legal frameworks and development of policies which have contributed Substantially to the strong policy and legal framework on VAWG and harmful practices (HP) that Malawi now enjoy.
This limitation reflects the general weakness and capacity gaps that exist in institutions responsible for gender equality, empowerment of women and girls, and prevention of harmful practices
SGBV REPORT
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In addition, the Government has recently amended the Constitution by providing that a child is a person below the age of 18 years. This has clarified the previously conflicting definitions of a child as contained in the Constitution and the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act.
The National Strategy on Ending Child Marriages 2018–2023 has also been developed to guide national efforts to fight against child marriage. Despite all the advances in the legal and policy frameworks, a number of challenges exist as some laws still contain discriminatory provisions in specific areas such as HP, intimate partner violence, marital rape, sexual violence, abortion, same-sex sexual relations, and child marriage.
Further according to the Spotlight Initiative Programme Document, the implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of the laws remain limited, causing slow progress and continued challenges for women and girls that relate to discrimination and exclusion. This limitation reflects the general weakness and capacity gaps that exist in institutions responsible for gender equality, empowerment of women and girls, and prevention of harmful practices.
These challenges are manifested through weak oversight and accountability systems on gender-related issues, and are exacerbated by inadequate human, financial, and organizational resources, which lead to weak, underfunded
delivery systems and inadequate information at household and community levels. Such a state of affairs is further compounded by lack of consistent collection of disaggregated data and interoperable data systems to inform evidence-based inclusive planning and targeting of beneficiaries to ensure no one is left behind and to support informed and inclusive policy decision