Articles 2, 8, 9 and 12 – Equality and Non-discrimination 230 A woman’s right to participate in decision making begins at household or domestic level. The 2015-16 MDHS asked married women about their participation in three types of household decisions: her own health care, making major household purchases, and visits to family or relatives. Married women in Malawi are most likely to have sole or joint decision-making power about visiting family or relatives (78%) and their own health care (68%) and less likely to make decisions about major household purchases (55%). Overall, 47% of married women participate in all three decisions. Since 2000, married women’s participation in decision-making has steadily improved. 231 As observed during the review of our report in 2015, the number of women in political positions such as Members of Parliament significantly fell during the 2014 general elections. This was despite a 50-50 campaign which sought to increase the number of women representatives at local government and parliament levels. The programme was dubbed 50:50 campaign in order to increase the proportion of women to fifty per cent in the local government councils and the national assembly, thereby achieving gender parity. The programme had two specific objectives, namely, to increase number of female councilors from 9 per cent in 2000 to 50 per cent in 2014 general elections, and to increase the number of female Members of Parliament (MPs) from 22 per cent in 2009 to 50 per cent in 2014. 232 Official electoral results from the Malawi Electoral Commission indicate that the 2014 general elections brought only 16.5 per cent women in the National Assembly against 22 per cent in 2009 elections and 11 per cent against 9 per cent in 2000 local government elections. Thus, the proportion of women in Parliament reduced in spite of the programme. The proportion of women in local councils increased but the increase is not very significant in absolute terms as numbers of wards were arbitrary reduced for the 2014 elections on the basis of the 2010 amendments to the Local Government Act. In 10 of the 35 councils, there is not even a single female councilor. The failure to reach the intended target of parity in the 2014 led to serious self-reflection on what needed to be done in preparation for the 2019 general elections. Various recommendations were made and these include; 86