Women Empowerment

Equality and Women Empowerment

The attainment of gender equality and women empowerment is a prerequisite for accelerated socioeconomic transformation. More than half of Uganda’s population is women and yet they continue to be left behind in the development process, thus slowing down the country’s economic development. Although Uganda has made significant progress in this area, including the formulation of gender responsive policies and strategies, institutionalization of gender planning in all sectors and increased availability of gender disaggregated data and information from research, women continue to face constraints related to access to, control over and ownership of businesses and productive resources such as land and credit. 

Overall, there is limited employment of women in skill-based industries and this constrains further women’s income potential. Women are also marginalized in skills development, access to financial resources, employment in non-agricultural employment and inheritance rights. Additionally, about 50 percent of women cite getting money as a problem for accessing health care while 41 percent cite distance to health facilities as a challenge for accessing health care.  HIV/AIDS prevalence rates indicate higher vulnerability of women and girls arising out of their limited control over decisions for safe sex. Among the age group of 15 to 19 year olds the female prevalence rate has increased from 2.6percent in 2006 to 3percent in 2011 while male prevalence rates in the same age group rose from 0.3percent to 1.7percent in the same age group.

Gender Based Violence in all its manifestations remains a critical human right, public health and economic concern with 56 percent of women citing having experienced physical violence by the age of 15 years while 28 percent women aged 15-49 citing having ever experienced sexual violence compared to 9 percent of men in the same age group.

Care Africa Community Initiatives Uganda aspires to make contributions in this sphere by way of the following;

Strategic Objective 1: Promote rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment in the development process

Strategic Interventions

  • Mainstream gender and rights in policies, plans and programmes in sectors and local government.
  • Strengthen capacity of stakeholders in social equity and human rights promotion, protection and reporting.
  • Promote formulation of gender sensitive regulatory frameworks in all sectors and local government with a focus on emerging areas of climate change, oil and gas.
  • Prevent and respond to Gender Based Violence.
  • Promote women economic empowerment through entrepreneurship skills, provision of incentives, and enhancing their participation in decision making at all levels.
  • Support the formulation a National Sexual Harassment Policy.

Strategic Objective 2: Ensure the effective integration of equity principles in programming, internal structures, procedures and policies

Strategic Interventions

  • Design and implement an equality policy and adopt a realistic view of how to integrate equality at programme and organizational level.
  • Develop analysis tools to be applied at programme and organizational level.
  • Undertake a gender audit and analysis for Care Africa Community Initiatives Uganda and its programmes and adopt log frames accordingly.
  • Develop and agree on a strategy of how to package equality with other cross cutting issues.