Political parties came up with manifestos and charters that fairly promised to handle women and gender issues, including promoting involvement of women in their decision making, as well as advancing women’s issues and concerns.

But how far are the political parties in Uganda implementing these commitments to including women and handling gender issues in their party agendas? Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) commissioned a study in 2007 to analyse gender issues in political party agendas in Uganda. The study titled “Dancing to the tunes of Democracy: Women and political party agendas” found that despite the modest commitments to women and gender issues by all leading political parties, they have not done enough to ensure effective women representation in their structures and gender mainstreaming.

“Most political parties through the structures, processes and practices do not promote gender equity and equality and as such are discriminatory to women hence the need for more gender sensitivity and strategic interventions so that multi party democracy indeed benefits women,” the report reads in part.

The study notes that women’s issues and commitments in political parties were “were lost in the mainstream”. “There is need for engagement with political parties to ensure that gender commitments have clear indicators, are thoroughly followed, and resources- human, time and financial are allocated to the fulfillment of these concerns,” the study recommends.

According to the study report, although most the party manifestoes, constitutions and strategic plans have some commitments to women, they do not have clearly laid out procedures to ensure that the commitments are translated into improved lives of women.

The study report shows that all political parties fell short of the required 40% women representation in the party’s governance structures that most political parties had committed to. The study notes that Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) had only four (4) women on its 13member top organ (31%), Democratic Party (DP) had four (4) women on its 11 member top organ (36%) while the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) had only three (3) women on its 13 member top body (23%).

The study notes that the deputizing syndrome has continued in most political parties with women taking up position of deputy or vice. Also, most political parties lumped women together with other special interest groups, which limited their ability to effectively focus on addressing gender issues. It was also noted that most political parties preferred to field male candidates than female candidates as party flag bearers. For example out of a total 808 contestants on open Parliamentary seats in the 2006 elections, only 33 were women, which constitutes four (4%) of the electoral contestants.

Table1: Number of flag bearers fielded by each party in 2006 Parliamentary elections

The analysis was conducted through participatory methods, including interviews with some of the political party officials, men and women; review of relevant literature that included political party manifestoes, constitutions, and press reports. The analysis also benefited from information obtained from partner organizations and leading scholars which was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.
Betty Kamya, the only leader of a political party and Presidential candidate in 2011

It should be noted however that this study was done based on information that was available to the researcher as it was difficult to get all political party documents due to bureaucracy and suspicion in regard to accessing information from political parties. The fact that the study was done hardly two years after multiparty politics was reintroduced in Uganda did also present a limitation to the study. As such, some political parties do have official information records, while some respondents were very busy for interviews.

In spite of the shortcomings, FOWODE successfully conducted the study that has generated data and information on how to enhance the visibility of women in the still male dominated political parties; and identification and pursuit of strategic issues of interest to women within political parties as Uganda prepares for the 2011 elections.

The analysis quotes numerous see more on page 2 below

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FOWODE wants women in leadership positions

This message is a result of a conference of FOWODE which took place between 14th and 16th June 2010 and gathered over 80 women participants in Kampala that was aimed at promoting women in politics
and leadership.

The meeting of women activists in their communiqué say that political parties should make amendments to their constitutions such that they can incorporate values into such constitutions that promote gender parity in their parties.

FOWODE says the reason why they are urging the political parties to this is because they are aware of the important role that political parties can play in the realization of gender equality in the politics and leadership.

FOWODE which organized the conference says that the political parties should heed to their call because increase participation of women in leadership and politics will have a positive effect on the leadership and politics in Uganda.

Despite the progress made to date, major challenges still hamper women’s full and effective participation in active politics and leadership, especially under multi party politics that were adopted in 2005 after almost 20 years of no party movement rule.

Also see

Uganda women NGO FOWODE organizes conference of women in politics
By Zacharia Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media

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As Uganda prepares for the 2011 elections, it is imperative that the women of Uganda irrespective of political affiliation reflect on the past 5 years of multiparty democracy and agree on a women’s agenda for elections and beyond.

Uganda woman in elections (AFP)

The Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) whose mission is to promote gender equality in all areas of decision making through advocacy, training, research and publication is organizing a conference scheduled for 13^th – 16^th June 2010 at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala to set the agenda for political accountability to women in the upcoming 2011 elections. The conference will bring together selected women politicians from all over Uganda for alliance building, solidarity and knowledge generation.

Objectives

The broad aim of the conference is to galvanize women’s voices from all regions of Uganda to set the agenda for 2011 and beyond. The specific objectives on the other hand are:

• To agree on and concretize the women’s political agenda for 2011 and beyond
• To devise strategies for accountability to women
• To set the platform for increased visibility for the women’s agenda for 2011 and beyond

Conference activities

To kick off the activities, FOWODE conducted a series of regional and national consultations with women NGO’s, female politicians, the public and other stakeholders to gather a set of concerns for women for their agenda. The views gathered from the consultations will form the basis of the discussion of the women’s agenda at the conference.

The conference will begin with a keynote address that will set the pace for the conference. Following the keynote address, a paper on the ‘Dynamics of a multiparty Democracy: Challenges and Opportunities for women’ will be presented and discussed. This paper will bring to the fore the challenges a multiparty environment presents and the opportunities that women can take advantage of.

Subsequent to the paper presentation, three sub themes will be discussed during parallel workshops:

Subtheme 1: ‘Playing the Men’s Ball Game?: Parties as Institutions of Accountability to women’. This will be facilitated by a panel of dynamic female politicians from different political parties. Among the issues, for deliberation in this session will be accountability mechanisms within parties; positioning of women, gender wars within parties and women’s voice within parties.

Subtheme 2: ‘Earning Our Trust: Holding your Leaders Accountable’. This theme will focus on what it takes to demand accountability from leaders. It will include a presentation of a case study highlighting how leaders have successfully been held accountable in different areas other than politics.

Subtheme 3: ‘Women Holding up Half the Sky: Success Stories from Rwanda’ will be the third theme. Rwanda boasts of having the biggest numbers of women in decision-making. This theme will provide the opportunity to share the strategies that have been used to ensure the high numbers of women in Rwanda and will offer some inspiration to the women of Uganda as they struggle for parity. The possibility of replication of strategies used in Rwanda will be explored. The conversation of the involvement of young people in leadership is a critical one. A panel of young leaders will discuss ‘Passing on the Baton’ Specific focus will be on the opportunities and challenges of the next generation of leaders.

Political parties have been ‘operational’ in Uganda for the last five years; however, women’s involvement in politics has remained minimal. No of party has achieved the agreed quotas for women’s representation in their manifestos. More generally, party manifestos, constitutions and strategic plans do not have concrete commitments to women. During the conference women will meet with their political party leaders, discuss, and agree on the strategies to improve political parties’ accountability to women.

Expected outputs of the Women in politics Conference

i. Vibrant debates on women and politics

ii. Linkages formed between organisations and individuals

iii. Communiqué to leaders of political parties

iv. A women’s political agenda set for 2011 and beyond

Expected outcomes of the Women in politics Conference

i. Accountability to women in political parties improved

ii. Visibility of women in politics enhanced

iii. Partnerships on common goals among women from different regions developed.

Target group

The conference will be attended by100 women politicians at national, district and sub county level from all over Uganda, individuals from women’s NGOs, young women, women in post-conflict areas and women with disabilities.

For more information about the conference, contact FOWODE on P.O Box 7176, Kampala Uganda, Tel: +(256) 041 4 28063, Emails: fowode@utlonline.co.ug/fowode@fowode.org

Ultimate Media

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The MP for Mukono North, Betty Nambooze is set to lecture election winning tricks to women politicians in Uganda as the country prepares for 2011 polls.

Betty Nambooze

Nambooze will give the tricks to women on June 13^th during an all women in politics conference due on 13^th to 16^th June 2010 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala.

The women conference will run under the theme, ‘setting the tunes of democracy: Towards an agenda for political accountability to women.’

The summit being organized by the Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) will attract all female politicians in Uganda irrespective of their political affiliation. According to a press release from FOWODE today, the women will reflect on the past five years of multiparty democracy and agree on a woman’s agenda for 2011 elections and beyond.

The FOWODE conference is aimed at promoting gender equality in all areas of decision making through advocacy.

The broad aim of the meeting is to galvanise women voices from all regions of Uganda to set agenda for 2011 elections.

Ultimate Media

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