In commemoration of the International Women’s Day 2024, the Women’s Movement of Uganda under the leadership of Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET), joined the rest of the world to reflect on progress and gave a voice to pertinent issues concerning women and girls.
In a statement released by UWONET on Thursday, the Women Movement is calling on Government and other stakeholders to empower women economically, so that they participate competitively in elective politics.
“Women are more disadvantaged due to limited resources to run the campaigns and often pull out of the race. The steadily growing monetization of politics in every election cycle, is affecting women’s effective participation in leadership”, reads the UWONET statement in part.
UWONET says; the low participation of women in politics is exacerbated by the low economic status of women compared to men, high poverty levels, yet running an electoral campaign is increasingly monetized.
“The registration fees are high and constituents have high monetary expectations from candidates. Only a few women can meet these costs”, adds the UWONET statement.
According to UWONET, a report by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy dubbed: “Impact of the cost of politics on inclusive political participation in Uganda,” revealed that candidates in the 2016 primary and general elections in Uganda spent on average of UGX 465 million (136,084 USD) to run for parliament and UGX 237.5 million (USD 69,505) to run for Local Council V.
According to the Uganda Jobs Strategy for Inclusive Growth, micro, small, and medium enterprises created within the past five years now generate over 50 percent of formal jobs, and household enterprises provide employment for 3.1 million households.
The 2020 Mastercard Global Index of Women Entrepreneurs estimated that women own nearly 40 percent of all businesses. However, women entrepreneurs earn 30 percent lower profits than men, and women business owners in Uganda face gender specific barriers, including lower access to capital, and segregation into lower-value sectors.
Betty Amongi, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, while addressing Journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, acknowledged that women still face a wide range of challenges. She said despite their demographic advantage Women still face numerous challenges.
“The national fertility rate stands at 5.2 but in the rural areas the rate is higher at 5.6 compared to 4.3 in urban areas. A total of 24 percent of women aged 15 to 19 are mothers or pregnant with their first child according to statistics from the Uganda Bureau of statistics for 2022”, she said in a statement.
Minister Amongi said Government of Uganda considers gender equality and women’s empowerment as critical for the attainment of accelerated socio-economic transformation. “It’s the reason Government has put in place different Programmes and Projects aimed at addressing challenges women still face namely; the Joint Programme of Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) and the Youth Livelihood Programme”, she said.
Minister Amongi said; cumulatively by the end of FY2021/2022, UWEP had disbursed UGX116.8 to finance a total 18,244 women enterprises reaching 205,879 individual women.
She enumerated other Government initiatives to empower women to include; the Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) scheme, where eligible older persons receive UGX 25,000 per month to support them meet their basic need of life.
She said others include; JUA-KALI Enterprises to Transition into Formal Economy (SENTE) Programme, the Presidential initiative project on skilling underprivileged girls or young women aged 17 to 35 years, which started in 2017 under State House and the Presidential Initiative on Wealth and Job Creation (Emyooga), launched in August 2019 as part of the broad government strategy targeting to transform 68 percent of homesteads from subsistence to market oriented production, among others.
The International Women’s Day National celebrations took place at the Boma Grounds in Katakwi District on Friday, under the theme: “Accelerating Gender Equality through Women Economic Empowerment.
The National theme is derived from the global theme “Count Her in: Accelerating Gender Equality through Economic Empowerment”. “This theme gives us an opportunity to reflect on progress made by the nation in ensuring gender equality through economic empowerment”, concluded Minister Amongi.
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