Forum for Women in Democracy Uganda

  Women cry and suffocate after police dispersed crowds with tear gas. Picture by Chimp report On December 4 Kampala woke to a fire that gutted Nakivubo Parkyard Market. While listening to news on radio, I heard a woman crying and amidst her sobs she laboured to explain how her property/ stock had been destroyed in the fire. She had just acquired a loan from a Women’s Sacco which money she invested in buying second hand clothes targeting the Christmas season. In her narration, she wondered how she would pay back the loan yet all her stock was destroyed. Worse still she has a family to feed and yet her only means of income had gone with the fire. She is one of the many women suffering due to the park yard infernal whose causes are not yet known.  I wondered about other women petty trading in this area and how this fire has affected their wellbeing. Majority vend foodstuffs, newspapers, airtime, plastic bags, etc. The same group has i

A frican women should anchor their demands for equality with men in their national constitutions if they are to succeed, the Leader of Uganda’s delegation to the Pan African Parliament (PAP), Hon. Cecilia Ogwal has said. “We as African women should anchor our struggle in the fundamental law, under which we can demand for governments to account,” she said. Hon. Ogwal (FDC, Dokolo district) said subsequent legislation would then be enacted to operationalise the constitutional provisions on gender equality. Hon. Ogwal was speaking during an MPs workshop on ‘The role of the Pan African Parliament in championing for the ratification, domestication and implementation of the Charter on Democracy, Elections and Good Governance,’ held in Dar es Salaam, Dec. 5 – 6, 2013. The workshop was attended by members of PAP from nine countries in Eastern African including, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Mauritius and Uganda. “I appeal to MPs to

Members of Parliament under their umbrella, the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Union (UWOPA) are seeking to have the vacant seat of the estranged General and former leader of Ugandan Security Agencies, General David Sejjusa filled by a woman. The move is led by Ssembabule Woman Member of Parliament Hon. Hanifa Kawoya, who is also Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission.   Hon. Hanifa Kawoya during a meeting at Parliament recently. The women have written a letter to the Chairperson of the Army Council requesting that a woman Army representative replaces General David Sejjusa who fled the country a few months back. UWOPA is also seeking audience from the UPDF Parliamentary leader, General Elly Tumwine over the same.  The Uganda Parliament now has 8 Army representatives and of these only two are women. That is Captain Susan Lakot, Major Sarah Mpabwa.  

In commemoration of the Anti-corruption week, Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) organized a parallel session in line with the 3 rd National Anti-corruption Convention. The  session which gathered women councilors from the Districts of Amuru, Amuria and Napak, Members of Parliament, human rights defenders and CSO representative was organized under the theme “Leadership with Integrity”. Kabumba Busingye presenting a paper on “integrity with Government Institutions, during the Session on Leadership with Integrity that was part of the 3rd Anti-corruption convention to commemoration the National corruption week, 2013.  These celebrations happened at a time when the 2013 Global Corruption Barometer by Transparency International ranks Uganda the 17 th country with highest occurrence of corruption cases.  In his presentation,  Busingye Kabumba one of the panelist at this session, pointed out that the lack of capacity in the Director of Public Prosecution’s office

Kampala- Six out of 10 small scale farmers depend on money lenders (loan sharks) and other informal sources of funding, a report presented by a group of civil society organizations claims. The problem with such unregulated financing, according to Sophie Kyagulanyi, the programme manager of Forum for Women in Democracy- a gender-based civil society organisation, is that it exposes the farmers to unfavourable terms, almost all the time.     Caritas Uganda’s Francis Ndamira calls for partnership between government and the civil society to promote agriculture. Listening in is Ministry of Finance’s Maxwell Adea. Photo by S. Wandera   Accessing finances Presenting a paper on agricultural financing at a meeting yesterday in Kampala, Ms Kyagulanyi said while quoting figures generated by the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), that 61 per cent of small scale farmers, who make 80 per cent of the total farmers in the country access finances from informal source