Gender equality in service delivery to be monitored

Indicators that will be used to monitor and ensure that all sectors adhere to gender equality in decision making and service delivery in the country, has been launched by government.

The National Priority Gender Equality Indicators (NPGEIs) 2016 provide ways of measuring the gender inequalities existent in Uganda and address their underlying cause.

Launched under the theme, Illuminating the Path towards Gender Equality in Uganda, the over 160 indicators focus on six thematic areas which include, education, economic, human rights, health, leadership and political participation and Information Communication Technology.

The indicators are to help government implement its second National Development Goal (NDPII) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) five which underscores the need to eliminate gender inequality and violence against women.

The economic indicators include income per capita by sex, employment, training, percentage of people living on less than $1 a day taking into account women, men and the disabled, percentage of national labour force employed by sector and proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work.

Among the education indicators are primary and secondary enrolment rate by sex, university students by sex, tertiary institution by sex and ratio of graduates in science and technology to arts.

Measurement under health will be based on the ratio of nurses and doctors to the population,  child stunting as percentage of under 5s, infant mortality rate, total fertility rate and access to a health facility with a 5km radius.

Leadership indicators will focus on the proportion of seats held by women in parliament, local government, LCs and managerial positions in the formal sector and the proportion of government recurrent and capital spending going to sectors that disproportionately benefit women.

According to Ben Paul Muhereza the executive director Uganda Bureau of Statistics, women are the most marginalized in Uganda and are in most cases taken for granted yet they constitute the country's largest labour.

"As men we need to repent, go back to basics and see how we can transform our society in a gender sensitive manner" he said.

Mungyereza said that women do spend a lot of time on unpaid domestic and care work which men instead of down play and take for granted.

He was speaking during the launch of the indicators at Protea Hotel on Thursday. The indicators' report was launched by Gabriel Ajedra the State Minister for Finance on behalf of the Prime Minister who was attending to other government duties.

The NPGEIs was compiled by UBOS in collaboration with government, Makerere University's school of women and gender studies, UN women, embassy of Sweden and UKaid.

Ajedra said that men take women for granted and treat them unequally yet if they were to be given chance, they would stir development to a greater height.

Gender expert, Mubarak Mabuya said, "Gender equality benefits everyone and has a very significant effect on men too."

Prime Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, in his speech read by Ajedra, said that government has prioritized incentives that aim at uplifting women and bridging the gender gap.

These include affordable credit and grants for women, women entrepreneurship and youth livelihood programmes which majorly young women and youths respectively, and social protection programmes of which 59 percent of the total older persons targeted are women.

UN women country representative, Hodan Addou said that the indicators will to a large extent determine whether policy efforts are marshalled and the goals and targets are achieved.