By Ireen Twongirwe

Uganda is also a signatory to the African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa.

The Constitution of Uganda of 1995 contains several provisions on the principle of non- while there have been some positive recent steps to fight violence against women in Uganda, in particular the adoption of laws criminalising female genital mutilation and sanctioning domestic violence, measures necessary to ensure their implementation are lacking, whilst other much needed reforms of discriminatory laws have stalleiscrimination and equal rights of women and men.

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a pre-condition for sustainable development. Providing women and girls with quality education, health care, decent work, access and ownership rights over property and technology, and equal participation in political and economic decision-making processes will lead to social, economic and environmental sustainability across the globe.

To this end Uganda focuses on gender equality and women’s empowerment by integrating it into its key programme areas on Sustainable Inclusive Economic Development (SIED) as well as Inclusive and Effective Governance (IEG).To improve on gender equality and women’s empowerment is  to work  with relevant stakeholders to support the Government of Uganda in domesticating global gender norms and standards, and implementing the National Gender Policy through the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD).

In 2015, for example, UNDP supported the Government of Uganda to take an early lead in localizing and aligning the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including goal number 5 on Gender equality and Women’s Empowerment. The outcomes of this effort set a national framework for financing and monitoring women’s economic empowerment within agriculture, tourism and mineral development.

How can we improve women and Gender equality in Uganda.

Ensure that management and accountability systems address gender equality at the work place,   Achieve gender parity in the country office, and focus on supporting partners in government, civil society and the private sector to unlock institutional barriers to gender equality through.

To strengthen the capacity of local partners to deliver evidence based, rights assured and safe programs at community and national levels, The passage of the DVA shows what is possible when a committed and politically astute coalition of feminists combines forces to promote policy change in favour of gender equity, Building strong alliances across political and civil divides is particularly important here.

However, this case reveals the political limits that are placed on the achievement of women’s rights in Uganda, and that difficult trade-offs are likely to lead to diluted policy agendas.  The case of the DVA also suggests that campaigners need to plan carefully for the post-adoption phase, with a much stronger focus on trying to generate the capacity and commitment required for policy implementation. 

International support for women’s rights in Uganda needs to become more consistent and also redirected to a focus on implementation as well as policy adoption , The UPE experience similarly demonstrates the need to consider the practicalities of implementing policies, particularly in terms of the quality of provision and educational experience for girls,  Policies need to be monitored and evaluated in order to generate the evidence of positive impacts required to sustain them over time, including in relation to the kinds of arguments used to promote the policy in the first place (e.g. the developmental benefits of the reforms).

Women of the world want and deserve an equal future free from stigma, stereotypes and violence; a future that’s sustainable, peaceful, with equal rights and opportunities for all. To get us there, the world needs women at every table where decisions are being made.

 8^th March2021 was indeed a big day for every woman to celebrate as we choose to challenge the existing gender inequalities in Uganda’s fiscal policies and commits to rebalancing this inequality and promoting women’s rights in resource allocation and revenue mobilization.

For God and my country.

The writer is a social worker