Northern Uganda girls, women get sh557b empowerment project

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ARUA - Seven districts from northern Uganda are set to benefit from shillings 557 billion (euros 135 million) European Union (EU) and a co-funded project codenamed: Gender for Development Uganda (G4DU).

The five-year multi-stakeholder project (2024-2027) will be implemented in the districts of Yumbe, Adjumani, Madi-Okollo, Nebbi, Oyam, Kitgum and Lamwo.

The major objective is to empower adolescent girls and women through greater access to inclusive quality education and through knowing and exercising their sexual and reproductive health rights and to free them from SGBV with focus on transition from upper primary to lower secondary.

The first component of the G4DU project implemented by the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) will address some of the key determinants for adolescent girls’ education (e.g. financial barriers, WASH facilities in schools and communities, social norms, effective and gender responsive teaching, improved and safe learning environment, improved school management) and for their transition from primary to secondary school and the re-entry into school of girls who have dropped out, including during pregnancy and after childbirth.

G4DU will consider the specific challenges for girls while contributing to improving the education system more broadly for both boys and girls.

The second component of the Action, building on the EU-UN Spotlight initiative, will aim at reducing SGBV and promoting Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) at national and sub-national levels, including in and out of schools, through enhanced coordination and support to institutional strengthening for the implementation of laws and policies, engagement of civil society and institutions for equitable social norms, behaviors and attitudes, and enhanced capacities for the delivery of integrated and multi-sectorial prevention and response services.

The other G4DU component is boosting teacher competencies for gender transformative education' (G4DU-WeTeach) project improves management of schools and provision of services to ensure safer and more conducive, quality teaching and inclusive learning environment for adolescent girls implemented by Enabel.

We expect results

During the project inception meeting in Arua city on September 10, 2024, EU programme manager Juliette Rubenstein said EU designed G4DU with the line ministries having in mind that investing in girls‘ education is key to achieving Uganda’s 2040 vision as well as SDG 4 and 5.

“Uganda has made significant progress towards gender parity in primary schools but the transition from primary to secondary is still a challenge for girls with 69 percent of adolescent girls who have never attended secondary school," Rubenstein said.
According to her, apart from euros 40 million by EU, other funding is expected from the EU member states of Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.

“This programme is one of the largest investments of the EU in Uganda and we really want to be able to demonstrate results for the children of Uganda. I ask each one of you to be able to support implementation of this program to make sure we get the most out of it,” Rubenstein said.

Government backs intervention

Rosette Nanyanzi, the gender technical advisor in the gender unit at the education ministry, said the selected districts have been struggling with adolescent-related challenges like teenage pregnancies, high dropout rates and GBV that affected the education of gills.

While representing the commissioner for basic secondary education, Juliet Atuhaire Muzoora, the commissioner of government secondary education, expressed gratitude to the EU for their continued support and commitment to this unique and timely intervention which she said is a significant step forward in their collective efforts to increase the retention and completion of young girls in school.

Gender ministry principal gender officer Christine Akumu said G4DU should be a well-coordinated programme from the district to the partner level.

“We pledge to work closely with every one of you so that the project can achieve the key objectives and we hope the district will do the same,” Akumu said.

EU programme manager Juliette Rubenstein said EU designed G4DU with the line ministries having in mind that investing in girls‘ education is key to achieving Uganda’s 2040 vision as well as SDG 4 and 5. (Credit: Robert Adiga)

UNICEF reveals disturbing statistics

UNICEF adolescent development manager Khushbakht Hojiev said the statistical findings for the seven converging districts exposed significant gaps in the completion, dropout and transition of learners into secondary schools.

It showed that overall, Uganda has a strong policy environment tackling issues related to gender equality, inclusive teaching and improving access to education, particularly for vulnerable girls; however, a clear gap exists in the operationalization and implementation of policies due to a variety of reasons including resource and capacity constraints.

The average survival rate for girls in primary education is estimated at 41% in target districts as 51% of girls could not complete the primary education cycle at the right pace, resulting in either repetition or dropping out.

Completion rates for girls are lowest in Yumbe and Madi-Okollo compared to other districts and overall, boys are more likely to complete the primary education cycle compared to girls.

Transition from primary school to lower secondary education revealed that the lowest transition rates for girls are found in Nebbi, Lamwo and Kitgum compared to relatively better rates in Madi-Okollo, Oyam and Yumbe.

The highest gross secondary enrollment figures are found in Yumbe while Kitgum scores the lowest number of learners across all grades. In all districts except Nebbi, the enrolment keeps decreasing from S1 through S4 with the sharpest decline found in Yumbe.

On the lower secondary survival rate shows that girls in Nebbi, Kitgum and Oyam are more likely to progress to lower secondary education at the right pace compared to Madi-Okollo, Lamwo, Yumbe and Adjumani, the survival rate is alarmingly low in Madi-Okollo at 27%.

In the seven selected districts, refugee learners represent 28 per cent of gross enrolment rates in lower secondary levels and 17 per cent in primary education.

Participation of children with disabilities in target districts appears to be very low.

Children with disabilities enrolled in 92 primary schools and 64 secondary schools account for only 3.5% and 3.1% of enrolled children, respectively.

Almost half the enrolled children, at primary level in target districts fail to complete the primary education cycle at the right pace, suggesting that significantly high numbers of children drop out of education every year. Furthermore, girls are particularly disadvantaged in terms of completion rate (40% for girls against 60% for boys).

District officials laud intervention

Adjumani principal education officer Phillip Akuku Kaya acknowledged the poor performance and bad education performance indicators in the district but hastened to say that, with intervention from UNICEF, the indicators are fast changing for the better.

Meanwhile, Yerusa Oyiorwoth, the senior probation and welfare officer in Nebbi district, decried the timeliness of the intervention given the high number of teenage pregnancies due to school dropouts and poor parental care.

Scope of the project

G4DU is expected to support about 200 primary and secondary schools: 151 in the seven districts, those in refugee settlements 22 schools.

Criteria for selection of schools

Proximity to water supply system, pupil stance ratio, enrollment rate, land availability, government-aided school, ratio of secondary to primary school.