This is the second of two blog posts about the recent trip to Malawi taken by the International PRIDE Centre and our partner, Refugee Entrepreneurship Association Limited . In the first blog (link), I shared some of our key takeaways from our meetings with LGBTQI+ activists and organisations in the country, including the impact of the USAID stop orders and the challenges of doing human rights advocacy in an increasingly hostile climate. This second post focuses on how LGBTQI+ activists in Malawi envisage the pathway forward, and what role they see for international actors on that journey. It will focus on three main areas raised continuously during our interviews: countering the argument that queerness is un-African; the need for economic support; and calls for a renewed commitment to the localisation agenda, on HIV programming and beyond.
“We’re here! We’re queer!”: Challenging the perception of LGBTQI+ identities as foreign
The activists we met are continually combatting the accusation that they, as LGBTQI+ Africans, do not actually exist – that those purporting to be queer Malawians are agents of foreign powers, or have been brainwashed by evil forces; and that queer refugees are lying about their SOGIE to jump to the front of the resettlement queue (an incredulous allegation, given the extreme hardship and everyday violence faced by those we met with in the camp).
The prevalence of this belief in Malawi is palpably frustrating to the LGBTQI+ individuals who form part of the organised and highly visible queer rights movement active across the country. Malawian LGBTQI+ organisations have achieved incredible successes – from securing the release of imprisoned individuals, to training humanitarians on how to engage with queer refugees, to holding the country’s first pride parades. And yet, these efforts – often mounted on string budgets with limited external support – are often dismissed as being driven by international actors. Several organisations we met with, for example, took pride in describing how their advocacy between 2010 and 2012 resulted in former President Joyce Banda announcing a moratorium on prosecuting same-sex relations. But in national and international media, this move was widely attributed to the President capitulating to the demands of foreign donors – and this is the way it has often been written about, as historical fact, ever since. When I asked one of the activists who had been involved in the advocacy about this, he told me: “I would push back on the suggestion that it was only external pressures that made President Banda announce that moratorium… We engaged different stakeholders, including development partners and donors. We talked to them about what kind of engagement they could do… I think the biggest pressure was coming from inside the country.”
The question of how international actors can support local advocacy efforts without being seen to be driving them is a tricky one. The suggestions of the Malawian activists and organisations we spoke to included:
- First and foremost, talking to Malawian LGBTQI+ organisations about how to navigate this – following the lead of local activists, and not imposing their own advocacy priorities or strategies.
- Refraining from trying to introduce terminology or frameworks from their own countries when discussing LGBTQI+ rights in Malawi, and instead learning about local terms and frameworks that resonate with Malawian and refugee communities.
- Acknowledging the extraordinary work being done locally and finding ways to support and amplify these efforts – including through more flexible and accessible funding for activist groups.
Economic and livelihood support for LGBTQI+ individuals, especially refugees
Another common refrain from the organisations we met with was the need for better economic empowerment programs for LGBTQI+ individuals, with the most urgent needs being amongst the refugee population. LGBTQI+ individuals – especially trans folk and those who do not “pass” – already face significant employment discrimination; and for LGBTQI+ refugees, the situation is dire. Since 2023, the Malawian government has aggressively enforced an encampment policy, through which all refugees living in urban or rural areas had to relocate to the country’s already overcrowded Dzaleka Refugee Camp. The 52,000+ people living in Dzaleka include a group of around 25 queer folk who live openly, and who have come together to form a support network. We met with this informal association in a tiny room tucked away at the back of the camp – where they “hide”, as the group leader told me. Most of the 25 are trans. They told us that even when they tried to fit in – to dress in a way that repressed their identity and caused them emotional distress – it didn’t work to protect them, because they are such a small group that everyone in the community knows exactly who they are.
Many members of this group told us versions of the same story – that they were denied humanitarian assistance by other refugees, or those distributing it. That they were subjected to violence at food and water distribution points. That they engaged in sex work to survive – but that this led to specific medical needs, and that hospitals often mocked them or turned them away. That they had managed to find a job in the camp, but could not keep it. One woman told us, “I’ve been searching for work as a hairdresser. I found one salon that accepted me… But then the customers saw that it was me coming to cut their hair, and they said, no, and they got up and walked out. So the boss couldn’t keep me on.” Another said that men had come into her place of work, attacked with her a knife, and stolen cash– after which she was both fired and told she needed to repay the money lost to the business owner.
When asked what kind of internationally-supported programming would be the most helpful to them,
- LGBTQI+ refugees stressed that if they had the means to start their own businesses, they could build their own customer base, amongst community members and allies.
- Non-refugee LGBTQI+ individuals also spoke to the need for grants and resources for queer-owned businesses, and better integration of economic empowerment programmes with the private sector.
- Many leaders of LGBTQI+ organisations said they needed training and mentoring in effectively running, managing and fundraising for their NGOs.
Better localisation in HIV programming and beyond
In humanitarian parlance, ‘localisation’ refers to the process of empowering national and local actors to deliver aid to populations in need, rather than expending resources on importing foreign staff structures and personnel to do so. The USAID funding cuts have further underscored the risks of over-reliance on foreign donors in humanitarian emergencies. In Malawi, most international support for LGBTQI-led projects – problematically – comes through initiatives set up to combat HIV; and most of these initiatives seem to have been primarily funded by the US. When the USAID stop orders came through, it became apparent that that these programmes lack adequate ownership and co-financing commitments from the government of Malawi, and elsewhere, and are not well-integrated enough into national public health systems – leaving millions of people in need of treatment to the whims of the US administration.
I knew this before going to Malawi. What surprised me, however, was the way the LGBTQI+ organisations spoke about the way they had been working with USAID: through partnerships in which they felt listened to, where they were provided with support to enhance their financial management and compliance skills, and through which they could access flexible funding through a progressive financing model that started with small grants and scaled up over time. In other words – using many of the best practices of localisation. In contrast, most organisations described UN agencies and other humanitarian actors as rigid, bureaucratic, and inaccessible, with complex funding processes that exclude community-based and refugee-led organisations. When I asked one Director for recommendations on how humanitarian agencies could better support LGBTQI+ organisations in Malawi, told me simply that they should learn from the funding and capacity building models put in place by USAID.
Recommendations given to us by the activists and organisations for improving localisation efforts included:
- Establishing flexible funding mechanisms for LGBTQI+ service providers with diversified donors, which first provide community-based organisations with capacity building to assist them in managing the funds, and then offer progressively larger grants over time – with previous USAID programmes as examples of best practice.
- Support LGBTQI+ service providers to broaden this programming beyond the public health domain – which conflates LGBTQI+ communities with people living with HIV+; excludes queer folk, such as lesbians, who are not considered at-risk populations; and provides only a narrow range of services to a population in urgent need of holistic support.
- Working with the government to develop a roadmap for transitioning HIV programming from donor-led initiatives to a model under which it is fully integrated into Malawi’s public healthcare system.
Given the profound challenges facing LGBTQI+ communities in Malawi, and the recent setbacks they have experienced, the amount of energy and determination still exhibited by the individuals we met with blew us away. There are many ways for international actors to support these groups, and provide more inclusive programming for LGBTQI+ communities in both refugee and host communities. If you are a humanitarian interested in engaging further in this area, follow the International PRIDE Centre: announcements about tools, trainings and guidance are coming soon.