Uganda: Rethinking Gender Sensitivity in Governance for Equality

29 January 2015
opinion

Although the numbers of women and men in Uganda are comparable, there exists a great gap in access to resources and to positions of power between the sexes. This inequity affects the structure of the country as a whole and must be corrected.

On 29 August 2014, the Independent magazine ran a cover story about the top guns per region in Uganda. This was a mini survey of 425 top government appointments. The survey was to determine the level of ethnic balance in government institutions in Uganda. One of the key findings was that there is a high level of sectarianism in Uganda. The other finding raises questions about gender equality in governance, whereas the first issue was a regional disparity in terms of numbers and positions of influence. Out of the 25 most influential positions in Uganda, northern Uganda occupied five (20 per cent), eastern Uganda six (24 per cent), central Uganda and western Uganda seven (28 per cent each). Disaggregating these top positions by gender indicates that women are barely represented, at only 36 per cent. Technically, politically as well as economically, the survey positions central and western Uganda at a better height of influence on decision making and the management of Uganda.

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