Participating in the UN Women Validation Workshop on Women in Leadership Strategy

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, which was reflected in the global UN women strategy.Mrs Mutavati also noted that UN Women had a 5 year program for supporting the Government of Uganda and stakeholders under the UNDAF.She also stated that the next UNDAF cycle would  starts in 2016 and end in 2020.  She noted that within the UNDAF cycle, women’s political participation and leadership was identified as one of the key areas that UN would support government of Uganda and stakeholders. She stated that UN Women had been mandated to support women leadership and political participation in preparation for the 2016 elections, hence the validation workshop being convened.

The consultant gave a presentation on the draft strategy on Women in Leadership. The presentation outlined the legal and policy framework that addresses gender and governance in Uganda. The presentation focused on the successes made since the formulation of the constitution in 1995, challenges that inhibit women’s participation in governance processes and opportunities that still exist. The presentation also outlined the key outputs that will be supported by UN Women which included (i) capacity  of the electoral  commission enhanced to engender the electoral processes and deliver  credible democratic elections , (ii) capacity of women enhanced to participate fully in elections and effective leadership , (iii)capacity of non state actors and the media strengthened to promote gender responsive democratic processes and women’s leadership ,(iv)women participating in electoral process free from violence and harassment

A plenary discussion was convened after the presentation and delegates noted that the selection of the key informants in developing the strategy paper needed to be clarified,  as well as the need to include lessons learnt from the 2011 elections was key in informing women’s intervention in the 2016 elections. Other delegates noted that there was need to engage with women’s organizations in consolidating the work already done on women in leadership, in relation to the 2011 elections and preparations for the 2016 elections. The meeting also noted the need to engage political parties especially in addressing all the different factions in order to get a broader perspective on women in leadership. Some delegates noted the need for the strategy to address how it will support women’s rights defenders who would have been violated before, during and after 2016   elections.  The discussion also focused on the need to address the glaring gaps within the draft strategy.

UN Women commended the delegates for the feedback and committed to review the draft strategy, taking into account of the points that had been raised in the plenary discussion. Delegates were engaged in-group work discussions that were aimed at identifying the gaps within the draft strategy, as well as providing recommendations including identifying potential stakeholders and synergies. The UN Women team concluded the workshop by thanking delegates and informing them of the next step which included revision of the draft strategy by including inputs from delegates and presenting the final draft strategy in the coming weeks.