Forum for Women in Democracy Uganda

The Ford Foundation has been going through a review of its strategy over the past one year and is now ready to launch its new programmatic framework. The Foundation while reflecting on global trends so as to better understand the state of human dignity   found that indeed there is growing inequality in all its forms. To address and respond to inequality, the Foundation will be working in six program areas: Civic Engagement and Government; Creativity and Free Expression; Gender, Ethnic, and Racial Justice; Inclusive Economies; Internet Freedom and Youth Opportunity and Learning. This month, FOWODE was privileged to be one of the co hosts of the Women’s Expert Dialogue on Identity Justice that was graced with the presence of the Ford Foundation Vice President for Education, Creativity and Free Expression, Hilary Pennington, the Representative for Eastern Africa, Maurice Makoloo and all the Program Officers from the Eastern Africa office. The dialogue was attend

UN Women convened a Validation Workshop on Women in Leadership Strategy on the 7 th of August 2015, in Kampala, Uganda with more than 20 delegates from the women’s movement in attendance of which Forum for Women in Democracy was part of. The objective of the workshop was to present the first draft of the Women in Leadership Strategy, which was aimed at informing UN Women’s role in supporting the Government of Uganda and stakeholders in engendering the electoral processes towards 2016. The workshop was aimed at filling in the gaps that would have been identified by the delegates at the workshop. UN Women Deputy Country Representative, Mrs Anna Mutavati, thanked the delegates for honoring the invitation to the validation workshop. She stated that UN Women joined women around the world in promoting women leadership, which was one of the key pillars of UN Women’s work. She went on to state that political transformation was essential for empowerment of women, whic

An empowered woman has the capacity to transform her community. As elections edge close, Forum for Women in Democracy is focusing its energies in civic education because we believe that women’s role at all levels are critical in shaping the future of our country Uganda.   In July, we carried out training in Masindi to sensitize the community on civic education, build cohesion by forming groups to start up income generating activities The group formed   Agaterine that means combined effort was formed after being trained on soap making by Barungi susan a Trainer of Trainers who participated in the FOWODE young leadership building camp in June 2014, she came back and imparted the skills to the community members and some got interested and formed a group comprising of 18 menbers 16 women and 2 men in Budongo sub county Nyatonzi village Masindi District. This group has acknowledged the fact that combined effort is the way to go in empowering themselves economicall

Forum for Women in Democracy has trained 30 female leadership mentors from the districts of, Kabale, Kibaale, Kibuku, Rukungiri, Gulu and Luweero in campaign procedures and skills for winning the 2016 elections. In a two-day workshop this week, women leadership mentors acquired knowledge and skills in effective campaigning procedures to enable them train and sharpen women candidates’ skills for successful engagement in the upcoming general elections in 2016. The leadership mentors who were selected according to their political and leadership experience had their knowledge enhanced on Gender and development, Women and Leadership, Women’s engagements with Political Parties, Running a successful Campaign, Fundraising for campaigns, communication skills as well as Developing a winning manifesto. These were readied as political consultants for the women candidates in their various districts as captured in the voice of one Santa from Gulu.   “ The way I came

Our Executive Director, Patricia Munabi Babiiha, was invited by the UNWomen Fund for Gender Equality (UNFGE) as keynote speaker at their donor roundtable meeting that took place in New York on 8 July 2015. FOWODE was one of the first beneficiaries of the UNFGE in 2010 and received a catalytic grant to support her gender budget work. The Executive Director shared the organisation’s Village Budget Club model that has gained popularity for its ability to awaken citizen’s consciousness and to spur them to demand for accountable leadership and improved gender responsive service delivery. Additionally she shared the gain of the Certificate of Gender and Equity that was integrated in the Public Finance and Management Act 2015. The advocacy for this certificate started during the implementation of the FGE grant. Prior to the roundtable meeting, Patricia shared the results of the project and how we have been able to sustain the work that we began during the lifetime of the

2016 is around the corner; tensions can already be felt within the political parties.   Everybody is talking about the elections. So are the women of Uganda. On Thursday 9 th July 2015, the women of Uganda under the umbrella Women Democracy Group (WDG) of whom Forum for Women in Democracy is a member launched the women’s manifesto a political document that is placing demands to those that wish to stand for political offices. As a political document, the Women’s Manifesto set out the concerns of women in Uganda and the demands for accountability by political parties and candidates. The Women’s Manifesto builds on similar processes undertaken by women and women’s rights organizations in previous elections since 2000, when the first women’s manifesto was developed. The Women’s Manifesto builds on efforts, synergies and issues of previous efforts and gaps that need prioritization to advance women’s rights and gender equality.

Gender-based violence (GBV) continues to be a problem across societies, classes, races, religions and ethnicities, affecting an estimated one in three women in the course of her lifetime yet many times the victims remain silent.   In FOWODE‘s work on women and leadership, especially during our civic engagements, the issue of domestic violence generally and GBV in particular has always emerged. We believe that the “personal is political” and thus as we talk leadership it is critical to deal with emerging issues such as GBV. In 2012, we therefore embarked on engaging communities on GBV as part of our contribution to building communities of hope, aware of their rights and able to drive their own change. We supported the development of community informal structures called Community Advocacy Groups (CAGs) which have made a great contribution to GBV prevention. This week 12 community outreaches on GBV were held in 6 districts of Uganda including, Kween, Gulu, Pallis