Malawi Case Study for the Global Disability Summit

Passage of the Malawi Disability Act in 2024

• Disability Rights Fund, and our sister organization, the Disability Rights Advocacy Fund have resourced Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi’s (FEDOMA) advocacy on a new disability act for 10 years, starting in 2014.  

• After four years of incremental progress, FEDOMA leveraged the GDS2018 Summit in 2018 to convene the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, drafted GDS commitments with OPDs and engaged government officials in the commitment development process. The passage of a new disability act was one of the Malawi Government GDS commitments.  

• FEDOMA then lead the development of a shadow report on the progress made by the government to implement Malawi’s GDS18 commitments and the government’s commitments in GDS2022. As a result in February 2022, the Malawi Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare made ambitious commitments at the GDS2022 in Norway.  

• FEDOMA then held joint advocacy meetings with the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM) to influence the legislatures, the executive and independent bodies. The Malawi Disability bill was passed by house in December 2023, published in Feb 2024, and the act gazetted in Apr 2024. 

Why This Matters

This is a great milestone for the disability movement in Malawi. The various GDS forums allowed the Malawi disability movement to continue to engage key policymakers in Malawi on acritical advocacy goals that will lead to more disability-inclusive change in the country.