By Josepha Jabo
No other government, before it, has promoted women emancipation and gender equality in Uganda as much as the NRM Government, which took power in 1986.
On Tuesday, May 22, 2012 the New Vision newspaper reported that out of 39 lawyers appointed as Grade One magistrates by the Judicial Commission—25 of these were women. This is one of the many instances where Uganda has excelled in promoting women in public life.
Politically, women have been greatly empowered under the NRM. In accordance with Article 78(1) of the 1995 Constitution, it stipulates that there shall be one woman representative (Woman MP) for every district in Uganda. Since Uganda has 112 districts, there are currently 112 District Woman MPs in the 9th Parliament making women representation at the district level 100%. This is a remarkable achievement of the NRM Government. Which other country can say the same?
In the 2010 Presidential elections, there was 1 female candidate among 8 contenders (the other 7 were male), namely Betty Kamya leader of the UFA Party. Of late, there has increasingly been talk that Uganda is ready for a female President. According to an opinion poll, ‘One year into the Fourth Term,’ conducted by Research World International released on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 if presidential elections were held today, Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga would become the next President of Uganda making her Uganda’s first female President. Kadaga already made history when she was elected as Uganda’s first female Speaker (2011-2016) in the 9th Parliament. Uganda has already had a female vice-president. When Dr. Specioza Kazibwe was elected Uganda’s Vice President (1994-2003) she made history as the first African female Vice President.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) 2011report Uganda was ranked 17th out of the 188 countries that were profiled accessing the percentage of women in parliaments. In the Ugandan Parliament out of the 375 available seats (there are 386 in total if you include Ex-officios) 131 women have parliamentary seats resulting in 34.9%. Therefore, the number of Ugandan women in parliament surpasses that of most countries because the average percentage of national parliament seats held by women across the globe is 19.5%.
On International Women’s Day, March 8, 2012, Hon. Rukia Nakadama Isanga, Minister of State for Gender and Cultural Affairs in her speech said, “The introduction of UPE (by the NRM Government) has significantly contributed to gender parity. USE has also increased total enrolment rates of females. Affirmative action in terms of adding 1.5 bonus points to qualifying girls on entrance to Public Universities (like Makerere University) has contributed to the desired critical mass of professional females.” In addition, in the Combined Report on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) published in December 2010, ‘The Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy has contributed to narrowing enrollment disparities in primary school education. The proportion of girls in primary schools improved from 44.2% in 1990 to 49.8% in 2006.’
Great strides have also been achieved in the health sector. Besides providing family planning, safe motherhood and HIV/AIDS counseling to women the maternal mortality (MMR) rate has reduced significantly over the years. According to the international report titled ‘Trends in maternal mortality:1990-2010’ released on Thursday, May 17, 2012, by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and the World Bank in the last 20 years (1990-2010) Uganda’s maternal mortality rate has decreased by 47% from 600 to 310 per 100,000 live births. That is, in 1990, Uganda’s MMR (MMR is maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) was at 600 but by 2010 it had reduced to 310. In this report, Uganda was commended as one of the countries that has made progress towards improving its maternal health.
