Forum for Women in Democracy Uganda

The women with whistles parallel session at the 2 nd Uganda Women’s Week one to reckon as it attracted women and men of substance among them; political leaders, members of the civil society, local government officials, national and political party representatives, Women’s NGOs and young women leaders; women in the media and academia. This Session was organized by Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) and Women’s Democracy Network (WDN).    Themed ‘ Women with whistles, galvanizing voices for Good Governance ’, the session sought to enhance awareness of critical governance issues in the political and economic arenas and mobilize citizens to challenge status quo; current governance concerns in Uganda today and their impact on the nation, the effects of bad governance on the women of Uganda.     To pace set the parallel session was the FOWODE executive Director, Mrs. Mrs. Patricia Munabi Babiiha who challenged the participant to do thoro...

Forum for Women in Democracy held   two workshops mentoring and support supervision workshops in Tororo and Kiboga concurrently in the first week of October 2014. These workshops aimed at enabling women to have functional caucuses that will ably influence council decisions for gender sensitive laws.   Majority of the women Councillors reported to have been able to influence their respective councils. For example, in Wakiso, the council agreed that   if any toilet stances are to be constructed in a school, half of them must be for girls. The women of Wakiso have also mastered the art of lobbying, advocacy and networking which has enabled them reach out to several relevant resource persons like the CAO, District Statistician among others, who have learnt to consult with the women's caucus before making critical council decisions. In Mukono district, the women influenced the budget in a way that 37% of the budget had been channeled to maternal health. They...

Forum for Women in Democracy did not relent on her position to stand against exploitation of the poor masses. Like never before we were determined to see that the 200 shillings tax is scrapped off. However that was not the case. On Wednesday 8 th October 2014, the parliament of Uganda showed again that it is insensitive to the needs of the poor.   This was a desperate move to save the wretched of the earth after President Museveni rejected three Bills and returned them to Parliament for further consideration consequently opposing Parliament’s decision to scrap the tax on Kerosene. This entire move followed Finance minister Maria Kiwanuka’s 2014/2015 Budget speech in which she proposed a tax of Shs200 on a litre of kerosene to help the government raise Shs15 billion. While the women’s movement thought that the president’s view is noble ,  the question that lingered is, should it be the poor that bear the burden of such taxes yet there could be alter...

It was that time of the year when the members of the Uganda Feminist Forum convened with the objective of reflecting, caring for one another as sisters but also to strategize on how to deal with a militaristic state as they advance the feminist agenda.  The three day workshop gave space to re-energize, collective reflection, visioning and planning a way forward in defeating the giant that manifests itself in various forms even in the political world where it is subtle. Through Leonard Okello’s presentation, the women’s eyes were open to the subtle nature if the giant that employs through tactics of manipulation, decoy that leads to self-censorship a detractor to women’s empowerment. Health is vital for the movement to thrive, a health session was conducted where the women were advised on well being and introduced to juicing a good practice phenomenon that is practiced in the western countries to reduce diseases such as cancer that has killed l...