Forum for Women in Democracy Uganda

Brenda Nabulya’s Story Brenda Nabulya facilitating a community meeting in Kasaala Subcounty © FOWODE 2011 The leadership building camp organized to mentor young women and men in alternative and transformative leadership has proved particularly empowering for Brenda Nabulya both for her personal and public life. After attending a three-week leadership building camp by Forum for women in Democracy (FOWODE) in 2009, Brenda explains why she valued the training so much: “since the training in 2009, my leadership abilities were awakened and my life has progressed since then. I have conducted several out reaches in communities and schools, talking to young people and helping them to explore their leadership potentials. I am happy to inform you that I am currently the General Secretary in Ekitangaala Old Students Association at Cornerstone Leadership Academy and am also employed as Secretary to the Luwero Diocese Education Department. For Brenda the sky is the limit, what she ...

The year 2011 was a mixed bag for women. It is during this year that great achievements were arrived at while at the same time, debilitating challenges stood in the way for the advancement of the mothers of the nation. This is the year that Uganda scored highly on the international scene when Justice Julia Ssebutinde, the calm yet firm former Uganda High Court judge was elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It was a tight race that pitted her against highly experienced ICJ judge from Sierra Leone, Abdul Koroma. Sebutinde becomes the third woman elected to the ICJ and the first African woman to assume this position. Nationally, women continued to assume influential positions in cabinet, parliament and at different levels of leadership. It was this year that Uganda got its first female speaker of parliament. Rebecca Kadaga , also the Kamuli woman MP beat opposition’s Nandala Mafabi to the helm of Uganda’s legislative body. Since her election, the outspoken lawyer has held...

The East African Women Chamber of Commerce and other organizations including FOWODE , NAWOU, UWONET and UGANET met line ministries from Gender, Trade and Easter African to disseminate research findings on the economic governance and Trade Agreements. Conducted in Uganda , Egypt , Kenya , Rwanda and Zambia , the research revealed that Trade Agreements often affect women negatively both as consumers and producers. During these meetings, the civil society organizations and the government ministries agreed on various strategies to mainstream gender in trade within Uganda. Specifically, the Ministry of East African Community Affairs proposed to co-opt members of the civil society to the committee developing the regional monitoring and evaluation plan for the east African common markets so that they can review the indicators and ensure that they address the gender and trade issues. It was planned to establish a gender and trade forum composed of civic society organizations, line...

In November 2011, the Feminist Movement in Uganda conducted its fourth annual forum under the theme “Whose power, whose politics” , the forum sought to develop feminist strategies for political accountability to women in Uganda and specifically to provide space for collective reflection, visioning and strategizing on how to position and strengthen the feminist and women’s movement for greater political impact in Uganda. This annual forum that brings together African feminist activists in Uganda was hosted by Forum for Women in Democracy ( FOWODE ).  The sisters gathered from far and wide to talk about issues of concern to their existence, their femininity , their power and their rights as women. Among them, Ruth , a grandmother to a one week old baby; Jacque , the brave , resilient and courageous young woman; Magdalene , a Gender Based Violent survivor who fights for the rights of sexual minorities; and Sanyu , the young woman who fights for the rights of sex workers...

In a bid to strengthen gender responsive budgeting in Uganda, members of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) vowed to lobby for a gender budget monitoring unit in Uganda to monitor the country’s performance in financing gender equality. If established the unit would be a replica of Rwanda’s Gender Monitoring Office which promotes gender equity and monitors the country’s compliance with the gender principles into the national development processes.  The legislators who had just returned from a study tour in Rwanda acknowledged the existence of Uganda’s Budget Monitoring and Accountability Unit within Ministry of Finance, but felt that it focused more on monitoring resource utilization than monitoring Uganda’s performance to meet its gender equality commitments .  The members with support from Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) had visited Rwanda to draw lessons for up scaling gender responsive budgeting in Uganda. While sharing her experienc...