Activists warn Uganda’s GBV crisis needs major investment

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Civil society organisations under the Domestic Violence Act Coalition have called for increased financial investment to prevent violence against women and girls in the digital era.

In a joint statement released to the public on Monday (November 24) at the Bahai Temple Auditorium ahead of the launch of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the CSOs said that ending violence requires sustained funding.

“Without financing prevention, justice, survivor-centred services, remain unchecked and survivors continue to face barriers to healing and justice,” read the statement.

According to the coalition, Uganda loses approximately sh73 billion annually due to gender-based violence through healthcare costs, legal processes, lost productivity, school dropout, disability and long-term trauma.

These national losses undermine Uganda’s development agenda, strain institutions and impede progress towards Vision 2040 and the SDGs, said Ann Nasamula, a senior advocacy officer at the Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP).

She added that the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, which is mandated to coordinate GBV response, receives only 3% of the national budget for the 2025/2026 financial year.

“This chronic underfunding has forced shelters to close, reduced the availability of psychosocial services, limited community prevention efforts and disrupted survivor referral pathways,” Nasamula said.

Emphasising other forms of violence, Omega Aloyo from FIDA Uganda noted that women and girls are increasingly targeted online through cyberstalking, harassment, non-consensual image sharing, deepfake sexual content, online sexual exploitation and digital blackmail and extortion.

Aloyo called for the adoption of bills that address technology-facilitated GBV, fast-tracking the National Strategy on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, establishing digital safety hotlines and reporting mechanisms, strengthening survivor support and improving women’s digital literacy and online safety.

Grace Naiga, executive director of UGNET, called for collaboration among CSOs to ensure that grassroots feminist groups receive the resources needed to address GBV cases. She also encouraged increased engagement with men and boys to dismantle patriarchal norms and to generate evidence on emerging GBV trends, including digital violence.

Status of gender-based violence in Uganda

According to the coalition, Uganda continues to experience high rates of violence against women and girls. Uganda Bureau of Statistics data shows that 45% of women aged 15 and above have experienced physical violence; 36% have endured sexual violence; and 54% of ever-married women have faced emotional, sexual or physical violence from an intimate partner.

The 2024 Uganda Police Force Annual Crime Report recorded 12,424 gender-based violence cases, including 1,607 cases of rape and 12,317 cases of defilement.

“Most survivors never see justice, according to the UN Women’s Beijing+30 Monitoring Report (2023) that shows that only 26.6% of reported cases were investigated and taken to court, and only 4.8% resulted in convictions. This extreme impunity emboldens perpetrators, silences victims, and erodes public confidence in the justice system,” the coalition noted.

The national launch for this year will take place at the Kasese District Headquarters on November 25, 2025, under the theme: "Unite to end Violence against Women and Girls: Empower, Consolidate and Sustain the gains".

Activities will run until December 10, 2025, which is International Human Rights Day.

The campaign, founded during the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991, has grown into a worldwide movement. Globally, the 2025 campaign will run under the theme, "Unite to end digital violence against women and girls". This year marks the 34th anniversary of the campaign.

Highlights of the day will include calls to criminalise and prohibit all forms of digital violence against women and girls, strengthen the capacity of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute offenders, and ensure accountability.

The campaign will also emphasise the need for sex- and gender-disaggregated data for effective policy development and impact measurement, strengthen laws and policies against cyberbullying and online abuse, and improve accountability and transparency of technology companies through content moderation policies, codes of conduct and human-rights-based responses to victims.

It will also call for increased advocacy for the representation of women in leadership roles in science, technology and innovation.