KAMPALA — Women need more participation in local and international contracts management in a bid to grow the country’s economy.
Referring to a meeting with the former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga said she had asked the IMF boss at the time to build structures in the projects funded by the institution where women could fit in.
“When you look at the bid security of the IMF, no woman can afford it. Even here, when you ask a women to bring a bid security of UGX.400 million, how many of them can put away such an amount,” said Kadaga.
She added that the Ministry of Finance had been asked to create more spaces for women and youth to give them an enabling environment for investment, which she said had not yet been adequately realised.
The Speaker said this at a high level Women’s Conference celebrating women in infrastructure on the theme, ‘Bridging the Infrastructure Gap, the Role of Women’.
She emphasized the need to have women in decision making processes of government contracts and avail adequate funding opportunities to them.
Kadaga said the absence of good roads and power in homes among others, had affected women in many areas of Uganda, adding that Parliament had tasked local governments to ensure facilities that improve women’s livelihood are in place.
“We tasked the local governments to establish of daycare and health centres with the construction of every new market place so that our women can work conveniently there,” said Kadaga.
Ambassador MacDella Cooper who is a former presidential candidate for Liberia highlighted the need to have more women in positions that drive the decisions of a country.
“The fight to put women and youth in the right positions of leadership starts with a leader who appreciates the potential of women. I commend Uganda’s president for that. We still need to surpass the current 30 per cent women representation,” said Lady Cooper.
She said that with women being about 51 – 56 per cent of the population, it was prudent for every company dealing with infrastructure development to put women on decision making panels.
The event held at Kampala Sheraton hotel on Monday, 02 March 2020 brought together women leaders in society who advocated for more avenues for women to grow their potential.
