Debate on: Should Abortion be legalized in Malawi? – Malawi (UMMSA)

Name of the activity: Debate on: Should Abortion be legalized in Malawi?

Country/NMO: Malawi (UMMSA)

Program: Maternal Health & Access to Safe Abortion

Contact information: n[email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

General description:

The debate will consist of 6 youths in total from 3 different tertiary institutions (College of Medicine, Blantyre International University and Polytechnic). These will debate on their views as to why or why not we should legalise abortion in Malawi. There will also be experts whose role is to provide information where necessary that consist of a medical doctor, a public health specialist and a youth representative. The audience will also be given the opportunity to ask questions and give in their views.

Focus area:

Access to Safe Abortion

Problem statement:

The current laws in Malawi only allow for termination of pregnancy to occur if the life of the mother is at risk. Different schools of thought have aruged that to allow women to have abortions without control will increase the cost on the health service. On the other hand, the Maputo protocol tthay Malawi agreed to allows for human rights that are unconditional in itself. Despite all this, nobody has asked for the view of the youth with regards to this and our role is to give them a voice.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Our target group are the youth from different tertiary institutions and also those that are not enrolled.
In the long run we hope to influence the decision makers and for them to take into consideration when debating the law so that the outcome will be of maximal benefit to the youth at large.

Objectives and indicators of success:

To influence stakeholders that will take an active role in debating this law in the parliament

To increase the number of youth participants in issues that affect them directly

Indicators: the acknowledgement of our views and consideration when parliamentary sessions open
The increase in number of youths that actively participate in activities.

Methodology:

Through a debate that is led by youth for the youth with experts only there to provide information.

By inviting different media houses to cover the event and in turn bring more awareness of our views

Plans for evaluation:

This will be done through short questionaires that will target randomly sampled youth that will focus on whether they believe this experience is encouraging them to play more active roles

This will also be through consideration of our views when they go to parliament