Maria Kiwanuka advises on gender equity financing

By Francis Emorut                                                                                        

Special Presidential advisor on finance Maria Kiwanuka has expressed concern that women in the country are nowhere near to attaining gender equity and economic development since the declaration of the Beijing conference in 1995 due to limited financing.

"Despite significant global attention to gender equality and women's empowerment, we are nowhere near achieving equality," Kiwanuka, the former minister of finance, said while presenting a keynote address on high level national women's consultative meeting on financing for gender equity in Kampala convened by Forum for Women in Democracy.

Kiwanuka explained that the chronic underinvestment in programmes that tackle the structural causes and consequences of gender inequality in areas including unpaid care work, violence against women, health, education, and peace and security, are some of the reasons for limited progress, stressing that government needs to prioritize on financing gender equality in order to realize economic development.

Participants pose for a group photo after a dialogue on gender financing in Kampala. Photo by Francis Emorut

She called for innovative sources of financing which must be mobilized and effectively used to target gender equality programming.

"It is critical that all resource allocations and investments systematically integrate gender perspectives," she said.

She emphasized that states must align their development agendas to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for a transformative post-2015.

The Presidential advisor also pointed out that women are lagging behind due to failure to formalize their businesses to become leading entrepreneurs.
 
"Barriers to formalization of a business have a disproportionate effect on female entrepreneurs," she said.

The other fundamental hindrance to women's progress, Kiwanuka noted, was regarding land ownership practices especially in relation to access to credit where women don't own land.

Special Presidential advisor on finance Maria Kiwanuka (centre) talks to the country representative of UN Women Hodan Addou (right) during a dialogue on financing for gender equity in Kampala. Photo by Francis Emorut

She said women face barriers in using non-land assets as collateral because of the undeveloped system of personal/moveable property securities laws, pointing out that public spending should accordingly be monitored for its impact on achieving gender equality and women's rights.

She noted that public investment in boosting access to social service and excellence in service delivery remains very relevant for the gender agenda in Uganda.
 
She also observed that education remains the most powerful influence over the cultural and traditional barriers to gender equality.

She said ensuring parity in access to educational opportunities and outcomes needs to be sustained in the post-2015 development agenda.

She underscored building the production base of economies is a good and necessary investment for gender equality because the effects of low productivity and unemployment on the public purse immensely undermine public investment in gender equality and women's empowerment. 

Kiwanuka called for new aid modalities, private sector financing and community self-financing to be aligned towards gender equality.

The UN Women country representative, Hodan Addou observed that gender responsive budgeting, access to financial services and women's access to science and technology are vital for the realization of transformative financing for gender equity and the empowerment of women and girls.

She urged government to make concerted efforts to raise domestic resources to address the finance gaps affecting women empowerment.

Patricia Munabi the executive director of forum for Women in Democracy called for government's commitment to tackle inadequate financing on gender equity.