PAC’s History on Public Dialogue and Consultations
Malawi lacks debate on contentious issues. PAC’s interventions therefore aims at enhancing public dialogue in order to develop a shared minimum agenda on contested issues. Previously, public dialogue was being enhanced through what was known as “Roundtable Conferences” on Electoral, Political and Economic issues – an idea that UNDP-Malawi bought and supported PAC in 1995. Since then PAC held such public dialogue meetings to allow stakeholders discuss contentious issues under one roof. In 2012 PAC rebranded the Conferences as “ All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conferences” with three main objectives – to hold authorities and ourselves accountable; to generate issues for advocacy and lobbying; and popularizing ideas on contentious issues such as third term constitutional bid of 2001 and calls for federalism. Since then PAC has generated various recommendations and resolutions. Most notable ones are those documented in 2016 which led to PAC-Government Technical Team dialogue exercise. As a result of the latter, an agreement was secured to reform the electoral law in particular to bring to bear 50%+1 electoral law but also change the Local Government Act.
This component entails enhancing public dialogue in order to develop a shared minimum agenda on contested issues for advocacy and lobbying. So far the following have been carried out:
- First All-Inclusive Stakeholder Conference , Limbe Cathedral March, 2012
- Second All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference , Mount Soche, October, 2012
- Third All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference, Mount Soche, February, 2014
- National Stakeholders Forum on Inclusivity and Federalism, November, 2014
- Fourth All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference, January 2015
- Regional Fora on Inclusivity and Federalism , 15-24 June, 2015
- Firth All-Inclusive Stakeholder Conference
- 5+1 All-Inclusive Stakeholders Conference