What do the President of Malawi, 65 aspiring Malawian MPs and two Big Brother contestants have in common?

Malawi has its fourth democratic elections today (19th of May) and election fever is in full swing. They may not be as high profile as recent elections in the South Africa and India (not to mention the United States) but they have the potential to increase access to medicines in the country and help stop these ‘stock-outs.’
 
Many rural clinics in Malawi lack even the most basic medicines. Although malaria drugs are free in public clinics one in five clinics do not have first line treatment for malaria. The right medicines are often available through the private sector, but this can cost a huge amount – around 10 days salary for the average unskilled government worker. The reality is that because the medicines are not available in public clinics, many poor people have no option but to risk their lives by going without treatment.
 
This election has the potential to bring real change to Malawi and health care in the country. To make sure this happens Oxfam and it’s partner the Malawian Health Equity Network are working round the clock to show the government that medicines is a crucial issue for Malawians. Officials need to see that people support them taking action.  

The election is going to be a close run thing, so we are campaigning in battleground constituencies, lobbying aspiring MPs, using national independent radio and also talking to the major phone networks about the use of text messaging. We also have the two Malawian contestants in African Big Brother endorsing the campaign as well as key musicians.
 
The campaign aims to make health services, especially access to medicines, one of the top three election issues in 2009.  We want to get as many of the key candidates to pledge that when elected they will end the problem of 'stock-outs' as they are officially known. Before May 19, we hope to get a third of targeted aspiring candidates to sign a public pledge to supply Medicines for All if they are elected. 
 
So far:

• 65 aspiring MPs have signed the pledge and the campaign is reaching some of the most prominent politicians. 
• We have reports that President Bingu listened to our hour-long radio debate on World Health Day and a few weeks ago, in a speech on national television he promised to make “Medicines for All Malawians”. 
• There has been some fantastic media coverage on the national television station, national public and commercial radio stations and in the national papers.
• There have been 4 large public meetings held so far on the issue in our target battleground states, with growing support and action being taken from across civil society in Malawi. 

Its not just in Malawi that this is a problem, and we are just one part of a pan-Africa campaign called - ‘Stop the Stock-outs, Ensure Access to Essential Medicines for all’. The lack of vital medicines in clinics is an issue across the continent.

Who knows what change in Malawi could influence elsewhere?