Championing Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Uganda's Refugee Response.

As gaps remain in efforts to stem the tide of global economic crises, having fiscal policies in place to safeguard spending for women is essential. Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) can ensure a gender-equitable allocation of resources and expenditure tracking to promote gender equality. This briefing note provides information on the foundation established to determine entry points for this work, key partnerships, and plans to advance systemic financing for gender equality in the country.

The assessment focused on HCTs and Cluster Working Groups (CWGs) in recognition of the central role they play in planning and coordinating humanitarian responses. Survey findings showed that the overall knowledge of Gender integration in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) was average, with just over half of the HCTs and Clusters reporting a working knowledge and only one third (33 percent HCTs and 25 percent clusters) reporting comprehensive knowledge.

Key initiatives in the ESA KM Strategy (2022-2025) include sustaining the review and update of country gender equality profiles by all the 13 countries in the region, increasing momentum on the use of established KM systems and tools; institutional learning; quantitative and qualitative research and analyses on GEWE; capacity strengthening for R/M/COs on KM interventions; quality assurance processes of knowledge products; evidenced based advocacy and documentation and development and repackaging of knowledge products.

The guide has been informed by the draft global humanitarian response strategy and by some of the recommendations from the initial humanitarian response team training conducted in October and November 2020.

This edition of our quarterly publication, aimed at keeping our esteemed readers abreast with the endeavors of UN Women Uganda, encompasses the period of October through December 2022. Within these pages, we have meticulously curated a selection of activities undertaken by our organization, as well as providing a platform for the voices of those whom we have had the privilege of serving, to be heard. We trust that the contents of this newsletter will prove to be both enlightening and informative. Enjoy the read!

This quarterly newsletter profiles UN Women Uganda activities and highlights voices of beneficiaries. The Q3 Newsletter covers the period of July to September 2022. Enjoy the read!

This policy brief highlights the main findings of four academic research papers on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda that were presented during a workshop organized by UN Women Ethiopia Country Office in December 2021. The findings focus on protection of women from conflict-related sexual violence; gender-sensitive recovery programs; role of women human rights defenderds in supporting the WPS agenda; and awareness of Members of Parliament on the agenda.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated worldwide economic decline, East and Southern Africa (ESA) has suffered job losses and an increase in poverty, interruptions in healthcare services, and declined nutrition levels. Young adults whose place in the labor market is often informal, temporary, and tenuous at best have suffered greater job and income losses than their parents. As part of ensuring that recovery efforts also reduce the number of youth, young women, not in employment, education, or training (NEET), UN Women in ESA commissioned a quantitative study on the NEET status of youth aged 15-24 years in nine countries in the region. This report summarizes country findings and provides detailed analysis of available NEET data for youth aged 15-24 years with a view to supporting evidence-based policy advocacy and action in this area. This study covers Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda.

There is a tendency to view the sheer volume of land certificates issued in Ethiopia in recent years as a proxy for improvements in women’s land tenure security. While getting land registered in women’s names is a significant step, evidence indicates that focusing on titling alone may not necessarily lead to greater tenure security for women. Control and transfer rights of land for women are affected by broader gendered norms and practices. It is high time to think more deeply around the post-certification agenda so that women can derive the full range of benefits from their land resources.

The purpose of the Global Minimum Set of Gender Indicators is to develop a common statistical measurement framework that could be used for the national production and international compilation of gender statistics and to track progress across countries and regions.

UNWomen, in collaboration with International Medical Corps (IMC), has been implementing a Programme on Women’s Empowerment in Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) Rights (POWER) in humanitarian settings in Gambella Region. The purpose of the action research is to document the progress on the SRMNCAH programme implemented in the humanitarian setting, lessons learned from it, gaps in it and efforts required for it. The findings will better inform UN Women and partners working in a humanitarian setting on the current progress and the efforts required to improve SRMNCAH services in the refugee and host communities.

This study explains why it is important to integrate a gender perspective into assessments of all the SDGs, and also shows how to approach this task as a way to enhance gender mainstreaming across the 2030 Agenda.

Consistent integration of a gender perspective into each SDG requires that the methodological approaches used to analyse targets should be capable of identifying gender inequality concerns in the ‘gender silent’ targets and when mapping interlinkages between them. Ths toolkit adresses sustinability issues by providing SDG researchers, analysts, and policy experts with the necessary tools to incorporate gender considerations throughout their Agenda 2030 related work.

The report “Lessons Learned, Promising Practices, & Challenges to Overcome” provides first-hand experiences from the eight African countries implementing the Spotlight Initiative in ending violence against women and girls.

Innovations during COVID-19 by African Girls Who Code

The baseline survey on unpaid care work status among women and men in eight districts of Rwanda seeks to understand the care-related dynamics in households, this study utilized both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on Oxfam’s Household Care Survey (HCS) and the Harvard Analytical Framework (also referred to as the Gender Roles Framework). The survey helps to understand how women, men and children spend their time, how care activities are distributed in the household and the access that households have to basic public services and infrastructure that facilitate their everyday survival. The study also explored the social norms that shape power relations and gender division of care labor.

Uganda has made gains in its socio-economic transformation, maintained peace and stability for over 3-decades and is on course to become an upper middle-income country by 2040. The Government of Uganda (GoU) is committed to the SDG 2030 Agenda as exemplified by the gross domestic product which doubled over the last 10-years, from $17.2 billion in 2010 to $34.4 billion in 2019. Literacy rates improved from 70% between 2012-2013 to 74% between 2016-2017, yet still literacy levels were higher for males than females. Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDP) III focuses on inclusive growth, human wellbeing and resilience, transformational and inclusive governance positions. The NDPIII is a convergence framework for the entire UN System to coherently contribute to the advancement of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) in Uganda with UN Women as a strategic partner on the path to transformation

The qualitative component of the Women’s Health and Life Experiences study was designed to complement the larger survey on prevalence which seeks to generate reliable estimates of the prevalence of different forms of Violence Against Women and girls (VAWG), provide detailed information on the impacts of VAWG, and examine women’s attitudes to violence, how women cope with violence, and the risk factors associated with VAWG. It provides contextual information on women and community perspectives and experiences of Violence against women and girls (VAWG).

The current drought response in Ethiopia is being scaled up across sectors, including food security, nutrition assistance, provision of safe water and sanitation, and livelihood protection. In addition, other urgent humanitarian assistance to drought- stricken areas such as agriculture and livestock support for pastoralist communities are also being increased. Nonetheless, the needs of women and girls may not be met due to a number of compounding factors such as the breakdown of key services which are critical to the health, protection, and recovery of women and girls; weakened informal and formal protection and accountability mechanisms; disrupted livelihoods, increased displacement, power imbalances, and limited access to resources.