A Wealthy Woman A Wealthy Nation

Inclusive Development with Women at the Forefront

Asiimwe Charles

Policy and Gender Officer

Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association Limited (UWEAL)

About UWEAL

•History: established in October, 1987 to promote business women in Uganda

•Vision: a wealthy woman responsibly contributing to national economic development

•Mission: to empower women entrepreneurs to create wealth through capacity building, networking and advocacy

Status of women in Uganda

• Available statistics show that women in Uganda are employed mainly in the agricultural sector which represents 72% of all women employed;

• 90% of all rural women work in agriculture compared to 53% of rural men.

• Women are also responsible for 90% of the total food production in Uganda and 50% of cash crop production

• According to the Uganda Export Promotions Strategy, it stated that women work longer hours (12-18) a day as compared to men (8-10)

• To make matters worse there are more women than men living on less than US$ 1 a day.

• Evidence also indicates that more men than women are successful in credit application with women getting smaller credit amounts.

• Of the economically active women, 88.2% are self-employed or unpaid family workers.

• Women own about 40% of private enterprises, mostly at the micro-enterprise, informal level.

• About 29.5% of women in business are already exporting.

3

Access to resources• Ownership rights to land, houses and other

property

• There are wide gender inequalities when it comes to this:

• Although women save more and invest a higher proportion of their earnings in families/ communities.

• Women own only 16% of registered land in Uganda, yet responsible for 70-80% of agriculture production (2004). This is a clear indication that their food is on other people’s land since majority of women access to land is through relationship to men as wives, sisters, daughters or mothers.

• Women’s limited control and ownership is due to discriminatory culture on land inheritance that favour males over females.(Confirming with the normative system challenges)

• Implications; limits agricultural production, affects the benefits women from production e.g. access and control over incomes and food security and access to loans/credit. 4

Access to Finance• Loans and credits has been recognized as an

essential tool for gender equality

• 4/5 women, especially those unmarried, decide on the spending of their own savings.

• With access to Credit being 288,067 females and 532,276 Males at an indicator of 0.541.

• Women clients represent over half of the loans and credits taken, the indicator being 0.541,

• in the past 5-7 years, women’s access to credit has improved rapidly.

• In 2000, only 35% of women had access to some form of credit.

• Limited access to formal credits explains why women are the dominant micro finance clients, which is expensive with 40-50%interest rates. It should also be noted that some women get loans on behalf of their husbands though no available statistics. 5

Access Education and use of Technology

• Population with at least some secondary education i.e. female 25years + in 2005-2012 was at 22.9%;

• Participation rate of females 15 years+ in 2012 was at 33.5%;

• Participation rate for males of 15years+ in the same period was at 79.3%.

• Limiting women’s access denies them opportunities thus slows economic growth and social development opportunities.

• More than 70 % of Internet users surveyed for Intel’s 2013 Women and the Web study consider the Internet “liberating”, and

• 85 % believe that it “provides more freedom”.

• Access to the Internet has personal, social and market benefits. 6

Strategies

Creation of jobs: Inadequate human resource; Uganda has a large youthful labour force that is poorly educated and skilled. This has been largely due to inadequate education and health care.

Uganda has the youngest population in the world, with 77% of its population being under 30 years and this same group having unemployment rate of 83%.

7

Strategies Continued

Combating discrimination and exclusion: The statistics above clearly show a big gap on inclusion. All the three systems Regulatory, inheritance laws in Uganda favour men,

access to capital is still a big challenge Normative Cultural stereo

types and mind sets are a big hindrance to economic growth and Cognitive as in above statistics, there is still a big gap for women in education and access to technology especially for the rural parts of the country

8

Strategies Continued

Redistribution through taxes and transfers:Infrastructure development

Corruption remains one of Uganda’s major challenges. It increases the cost of doing business and negatively affects service delivery

Low level of saving and inadequate revenue collection; the inadequate revenue collection has hindered financing of public investments to the expectations of the citizenry

Monitoring and Evaluation of the systems and polices9

Strategies Continued

Equal opportunities for developing human and physical capital:•Slow accumulation of modern infrastructure; Uganda has not accumulated a sufficient infrastructure base (roads, railway, energy and water) to lower the cost of doing business and compete favorably for Foreign Direct Investments

10

Strategies Continued

Development of inclusive governance and institutions:•Weak public sector management and administration; Public Sector Management and administration is characterized by weak policy, legal and regulatory frameworks; weak institutional structures and systems

11

Challenges

•Corruption

•Low Competitiveness thus inability for the country to produce goods and services that can be favorably traded on the global market.

• Insufficient political systems and policies to appropriately support intervations.

•Low industrialization and value addition; This is compounded by low Science, Technology, Engineering and Innovation yet this is necessary to guide the populations ahead

•Insufficient Information12

Actors

• Religious and Cultural institutions: These will help in changing mindsets and cultural stereotypes that still hinder equality

• Non government institutions and community based organizations: Lobbying, advocacy and provision of information

• Academia: Research and provision of information

• Government Institutions: Policy Formulation and Legislation and Infrastructural development

• 13

Actors

• Local and international donor community: Financial support with Terms and Conditions

• The Masses: To be supportive of the initiatives and provide information on their core needs

14

What's an Enabling Policy Environment

• Secure Access To Land:

• Fundamental and other human rights and freedoms:

• Transport and infrastructural development:

• Gender balance and fair representation of marginalized groups:

• Laws on domestic violence:

• Laws on Marriage:

• Law on Inheritance:

• Legislation on Civil Liberty:

• Access formal financial services

• International Laws and Legislations

• Legal and Policy Frameworks to Secure Women’s Equal Access to Resources

• CEDAW stress women’s access to credit.

•  The Protocol on Women’s Rights:15

16