Uganda Women’s Network

Uganda Women’s Network
Abbreviation UWONET
Motto Centering Women’s Power: Our Voice, Our Vision.
Formation 1993
Legal status Non-governmental organization
Purpose To coordinate collective action among members and other stakeholders through networking, capacity building, resource mobilization, policy research and advocacy for the attainment of gender equality in Uganda.
Location
Region served
 East Africa
Membership
 16 CSOs
Executive Director
 Rita H. Aciro-Lakor [1]
Affiliations Uganda National NGO Forum
Uganda Debt Network
Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda
Uganda Land Alliance
FEMNET, SOAWR, NURRU
MWENGO, NGOCEA & EASSI[2]
Website Homepage

The Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) is a Ugandan non-governmental organization (NGO) working to advance public policy in Uganda on women's rights. It is an umbrella organization of national women’s NGOs and individuals, operating in East Africa. Rita H. Aciro-Lakor is the current executive director.[1]

History

UWONET was created after the East African Women’s Conference held in Kampala in 1993 in preparation for the UN World Conference on Women in 1995.[3][4][5]

UWONET was formed to champion a united voice and create space to women to collectively address and take action on gender based discrimination in spheres of social, economic and political life of women in Uganda at all levels.[5]

1998 Land Act

In East Africa, during the early part of the twenty-first century, it was recorded that women provided 85% of agricultural work, yet owned only 7% of the land.[6] Disillusioned by groups that were not bringing women into the political process, many women's rights organizations and individuals started turning to UWONET, especially in campaigning for land reform which started in 1995.[7] UWONET, in conjunction with the Uganda Land Alliance, lobbied Parliament in 1998 about women's right to inherit land in Uganda.[8] In 1998, the Land Act was passed with provisions for women's rights.[8] The legacy of campaigning for women's inclusion in the Land Act was that women in Uganda learned to "work together and to respond to issues in a more timely and aggressive way."[6]

People's Manifesto

In 2000, UWONET published a People's Manifesto, which took on the topics of internal reform in UWONET and also the "need to develop means of incorporating women's concerns" to the leadership level in Uganda.[9] In the run-up to the 2001 presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda, UWONET spearheaded an initiative which took public steps towards challenging the lack of internal democracy in the Movement Government. Together with likeminded organizations, UWONET put together a 26-page manifesto known as the People's Manifesto to highlight the people's rights and plight to aspiring presidential candidates.[4][10] They also published the manifesto to "let parliamentary candidates in the 2002 March elections know the demands that women wanted addressed."[11]

Women's Manifesto

In 2015, UWONET together with other organisations, under The Women’s Democracy Group (WDG) launched a political document, The Women’s Manifesto 2016-2021, which set out demands taken from a cross section of women, both in the rural and urban areas. Among other things, the document made five major demands critical in achieving gender equality and empowerment for women which included: women’s health; land and property rights; women and education; economic empowerment; and women, politics and decision-making. The document is a tool for women to hold their leaders accountable on critical issues.[12][13]

Function

UWONET coordinates "collective action" among its members in order to attain gender equality in Uganda.[14] Since UWONET was founded, women are contributing economically in greater numbers than ever before.[14] They have also won land rights through lobbying for the 1998 Land Act.[6] However, there is still a long way to go to reach gender equality, according to Director Lakor.[1]

Programme areas

UWONET’S activities are implemented under four thematic areas; namely:

Membership

The network was founded by 9 members but has grown to be composed of 16 women’s organisations and 9 individual activists.[7] These include:

  1. Action for Development (ACFODE)
  2. Association of Uganda Women Medical Doctors (AUWMD)
  3. Association of Uganda Women Lawyers (FIDA–U)
  4. Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP)
  5. Community Development Resource Network (CDRN)
  6. Department of Women and Gender Studies Makerere University (WGS)
  7. Disabled Women’s Network and Resource Organization (DWNRO)
  8. Empower Children and Communities Against Abuse (ECCA)
  9. Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE)
  10. Isis Women’s International Cross–Cultural Exchange (Isis–WICCE)
  11. National Bahai Committee for the Advancement of Women
  12. Send a Cow Uganda
  13. Slum Aid Project (SAP)
  14. Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA)
  15. Uganda Women’s Trust
  16. Women Engineers, Technicians and Scientists in Uganda

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Women and Power: Rita Aciro, Executive Director of UWONET". NTV (video). 4 August 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  2. ↑ "UWONET is a member of". UWONET. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  3. ↑ "Who We Are". UWONET. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa". Rowman & Littlefield.
  5. 1 2 "Uganda Update: Meetings". Global Grassroots. External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. 1 2 3 Asiimwe, Jacqueline (2001). "Making Women's Land Rights a Reality in Uganda: Advocacy for Co-Ownership by Spouses". Yale Human Rights and Development Journal 4 (1): 173–174, 180–181. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  7. 1 2 Kawamara-Mishambi, Sheila; Ovonji-Odida, Irene (2003). "The 'Lost Clause': The Campaign to Advance Women's Property Rights in the Uganda 1998 Land Act". In Goetz, Anne-Marie; Hassim, Shireen. No Shortcuts to Power: African Women in Politics and Policy Making. New York: Zed Books Ltd. pp. 160–161, 186. ISBN 1842771469.
  8. 1 2 Benschop, Marjolein (2002). Rights and Reality: Are Women's Equal Rights to Land, Housing and Property Implemented in East Africa?. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Human Settlements Programme. pp. 64–67. ISBN 9211316634.
  9. ↑ Goetz, Anne Marie (2005). "Constraints on Women's Political Effectiveness in Uganda". In Cornwall, Andrea. Readings in Gender in Africa. London: The International African Institute. p. 229. ISBN 0852558716.
  10. ↑ "Museveni Launches 'People's Manifesto'". Africa News Service. 21 December 2000. Retrieved 26 August 2015 – via Highbeam Business.
  11. ↑ Tripp, Aili Mari (2004). "Women's Movements, Customary Law, and Land Rights in Africa: The Case of Uganda". African Studies Quarterly: 6. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  12. ↑ "Women’s Manifesto 2016-2021: What’s in it for you?". Daily Monitor.
  13. ↑ "Launch of the women’s manifesto 2016 – 2021". UWONET.
  14. 1 2 3 Agwang, Sarah Jesca (3 May 2015). "Status of Women in the Labour Market". East African Business Week. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  15. ↑ "Women's Economic Justice and Empowerment". Uganda Women's Network. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  16. ↑ "Women's Rights and Gender Equity.". ActionAid Uganda. ActionAid. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  17. ↑ "Leadership skills training for LC5 women councillors in south western Uganda". CEWIGO. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  18. ↑ "Projects by EU Institutions". Open Aid Data. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "Institutional Development and Organizational Stregthening". UWONET. Retrieved 26 August 2015.

External links

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