Isis- WICCE

Project: Advancing the Rights of Women in Post Conflict Setting in Uganda

Location: Uganda; Pader and Kitgum in Northern Uganda and Katakwi in North eastern Uganda

Duration: 2011-2014

Partner: Isis –Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE)

The situation

For over two decades, north and north eastern Uganda have experienced armed conflicts that have caused immense suffering and displacement amongst communities, with an estimated 70% of survivors left with physical or mental health problems. Violence against women is still rampant in Uganda, particularly in post-conflict settings and women are at serious risk of ongoing violence including rape, domestic violence, and forced and early marriages.

Strong cultural gender biases negatively affect women’s participation in political and public life at various levels meaning women are often the least informed about the available welfare and other services provided by government and other institutions. As a result, there are too few women with adequate leadership skills to promote women’s rights, and engage in conflict transformation and peace-building activities amongst the affected communities.

What Womankind is doing

Womankind is collaborating with our partner Isis-WICCE to:

• empower women conflict survivors in north and north eastern Uganda by increasing their participation in government decision-making and tackling violence against women

• tackle violence against women through improving livelihood support to communities struggling to rebuild their lives following violent conflict and strengthening data collection on the underlying causes on gender-based violence in Pader, Katakwi and Kitgum

With our partner we will be:

• supporting women to develop a deeper understanding of the cycle of planning, to acquire skills in lobbying and advocating for their needs, and to enable women to hold decision-makers to account

• providing spaces for 180 women and 90 men to interact with government to raise awareness among policy makers of the practical needs of women in post-conflict Uganda

• providing livelihood support for 145 women and 42 men to help communities meet their basic needs and reduce the violence attributed to men’s inability to resume their traditional role as providers in the post-conflict setting

• strengthening data collection on the underlying causes on gender-based violence in Pader, Katakwi and Kitgum to help Isis-WICCE lobby for an improved governmental response to violence against women

• enhancing Isis-WICCE’s collaboration with government leadership to enable the NGO to pressure for renewed commitment to their obligation to support women’s peace and security issues

What we have achieved so far

In Pader, though women are still marginalized in post conflict reconstruction processes generally, in the past six months the Women’s Taskforce (WTF) lobbied successfully for women to be awarded public sector contracts.  Four women in Pader were awarded contracts;  including one for supplying school furniture and another for constructing a road. This is a significant breakthrough since such contracts are traditionally awarded to men.