The swearing in of Joyce Banda as the first female president of Malawi in April 2012 has been a major boost for gender activists, not only in the country, but also in the SADC region.
However, Malawi has a long way to go to meet the 28 targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development to be achieved by the 2015 deadline. Malawi has signed the SADC Gender Protocol, but is yet to ratify the instrument.
