ABSTRACT
This chapter looks into gendered electoral financing in the form of campaign cost relief as a strategy to increase the number of women holding political office in Malawi. More specifically, the chapter examines which factors affected the outcome of the 50–50 funding campaigns that were launched ahead of the 2009 and 2014 general elections. In 2009, the cost relief strategy was deemed successful due to an increase in women elected; but in 2014, the number of women legislators decreased, and the usefulness of the strategy was put into question. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, we critically examine a number of internal and external factors that likely influenced the different results in 2009 and 2014. We conclude that gendered electoral financing schemes should be evaluated against measures beyond the number of women elected to office. While such interventions do not guarantee the election of a certain number of women representatives, they may nonetheless motivate more women to run for office.
