April 1 marks the beginning of quarter two of 2025 and about 169 days to the 2025 General Elections which are slated for September 16, 2025. We see escalating intra and inter party political violence with some language that does not resonate with a democratic culture. We are seeing a lot of intolerance within political parties and between political parties. Young people continue to be objects for violence, and this is a worrisome situation. We therefore need to tame this. We continue to ask the political parties, general population at large and young people in particular to desist from these behaviours. There is only one Malawi which we will call home, and we have to guard and protect it heavily.
The economic situation is currently biting, and the cost of living is skyrocketing like a plane taking off into the sky with no one having the power to stop it.
The prices of basic commodities have significantly increased. For instance, the price of cooking oil has risen from approximately MK 3,000 per liter to around MK 9,000 per liter. Similarly, a five-litre bottle now costs about MK 45,000, up from MK 15,000. Interestingly, there has been silence on these matters as we only talk about them on social media. We have not had serious civil society engagement on the matters affecting the people of Malawi. Does it mean that our civil society does not see the issues in the country anymore? However, an emerging issue recently which was highlighted in December 2024 is that either the civil society is compromised, or its space has shrunk. Whichever the case, technically civil society is also afraid of each other, and this is shrinking the space. We need to revisit our approach if we are representing the people as things are getting out of hand.
We should not just focus on the political atmosphere, we also need to relook at people’s right to good food, decent living standards and access to basic health and education services. It is clear from all this that our human rights activism has been thrown to the dogs. Maybe we are doing political human rights. The unfortunate part is that human rights are interdependent and therefore failure to enjoy one has repercussions. Organizations in the human rights space need to revisit the scope and ask each other questions about whether we are still relevant or not.
We just concluded the 69th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW69) in New York and I was excited to see the participation of various state and non-state actors at the event. While this was the case, we also did not reflect on what was the benefit for Malawi. Can we translate what we learnt to our constituents here in Malawi? Are we stuck with New York Phobia and failing to implement programmes? As we comeback from New York, we were greeted with the full page of the issue around adoption of children in Malawi and girls are the greatest numbers. As a country we need to reflect seriously on these findings from the Malawi Human Rights Commission and put up strategies to respond to the same. We need to ask questions especially for care institutions that are dealing with this and possibly revoke some licenses.
April has two critical days for the protection of children worldwide. Firstly, this is the time we celebrate with children connected to the street on 12 April. The theme this year is participation of street connected children to matters that affect their lives. As we commemorate the day, we also need to recognize the critical nature of responding to the plight of the street connected children. Secondly, we have the “Blue Umbrella Day” which falls on the 16 April. This is the day to recognize the sexual abuse of the boys worldwide. While this has not been given attention, there is more emerging evidence about the silent epidemic of sexually abused boys whose voices are not heard. Join YONECO in celebrating the “Blue Umbrella Day” and support the campaign to make the day recognized by the United Nations by signing a petition on https://familyforeverychild.org/bud-signature campaign/en/
It would be naïve if we don’t comment on the population issues in Malawi. The Commission on Population and Development under the theme tag of ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing of all at all ages. As a country we need to reflect on the population growth against the matters relating to environmental pressures and engagements. We need to think critically of engaging young people in population and development agenda.
We wish you happy month of April
