“UMWA is honored to have consultatively contributed towards the Uganda Women Movement Strategy”.
On Thursday 25 2021, UMWA engaged in a consultative meeting for an action plan towards a draft strategy for the Uganda Women Movement. This was facilitated by the United Nations Women at Skyz Hotel, Naguru.
The strategy aims at strengthening the women’s movement and its effectiveness in promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
As a stakeholder and over other 30 women organizations, UMWA substantially contributed knowledge in outputs and activities that would contribute towards the action plan.
Other stakeholder women representative groups were: Nowippress, Uganda Women’s Efforts To Save Orphans, The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers, among others.
Adekemi Ndieli, the deputy country representative of UN Women applauded the greater participation of women in public life.
However she said that there is need to develop a collective framework and interventions that would enable movement achieve its vision. The consultative meeting was a crystallization of the existent ideas into a conducive strategy.
Strategically, the goal of the development tool is to build a strong, inclusive, coordinated and sustainable women’s movement rooted in the activism of a critical mass of women effectively and promoted Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Uganda.
According to Florence Butegwa, consultant of the strategy, the plan development was informed by a survey study conducted in September 2019 and capacity assessment in 2020.
She said that the survey was about understanding the nature and perceptions around women movement among the various stakeholders and wider society.
She added that whereas media is helping much in promoting women’s agenda and achievements of women groups, these are disconnected from the grassroots experiences.
National Association of Women’s Organizations (NAWOU), an umbrella of women organisations highlights that there are numerous women founded and led organisations in Uganda. These range from district networks to national Non Government Organisations.
The study informing strategy however found that the many women organizations and individual women activists are not consolidated into a common women movement.
Further findings among others suggested that there is no coherence even with the what would be an existent movement of activism.
Butegwa, also a laywer and retired development worker notes that its because of these deficiencies that activists feel ‘burned out’ economically, politically and socially. Therefore she emphasized protection, solidarity and interconnection with rural areas.
Her emphasis added to the system of change through objectives stated in the drafted strategy as:
- Develop a movement buiding culture founded on agreed principles, values, practices and shared political agenda
- Promote women’s grassroots organizing and strengthen vertical and horizontal coordination
- Establish regular convening for movement building through collective analysis, reflection, celebration, and planning
- Develop and implement a resource mobilization strategy for movement building and resilience
These objectives aligned to the aspired outcomes with the various strategic approaches applied. As part and parcel, the stakeholders in participation proposed outputs and activities that would be bought into the strategy to achieve the goal for a stronger women movement.
Among the suggested were: regular platforms for dialogue and capacity building, established partnership and coordination mechanisms, and more.
Women movement and activism in Uganda dates back to the 1980s when the National Resistance Movement captured power.
However the UN-Women funded study that informed the strategy highlights that civil society organizations specifically the women’s rights organizations remain critical in implementing interventions that aim to prevent Violence against Women and Girls.
This study was conducted in districts of Kampala, Lira, Wakiso, Mbale with 200 respondents. It depicts the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment proponent of the 2030 Agenda.
Also, the study and strategy in entirety extends pillar 6 of the multi-year spotlight Initiative of the European Union-United Nations led by UN Women to create a strong, vibrant, inclusive and active women’s movement in Uganda.
