ENTEBBE – Uganda has hosted the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Programme (SIARP) Review and Planning Workshop. The four-day-long workshop held at Hotel Protea Entebbe is aimed at creating and strengthening synergies across the Africa Spotlight Initiative Programme while capitalizing on results and good practices across the continent.
SIARP is a global partnership between the United Nations, European Union, and African Union with continental scope and enhances a regional approach to end Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), Sexual Gender-Based Violence, and Harmful Practices, as well as strengthening Sexual and Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights (SRHR-RR). The Regional Programme prioritizes strengthening existing strategies and initiatives, such as the African Union Gender Strategy 2017-2027, Agenda 2030, Agenda 2063, and the Maputo Plan of Action on the operationalization of the Continental Policy Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (2016-2030).
Speaking at the opening event on Tuesday morning, Mr. Aggrey Kibenge, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development said that they shall build on the workshop to eliminate violence against women and girls in Uganda and Africa.
Represented by Ms. Naumo Juliana Akoryo, the Director of Gender and Community Development at the Ministry of Gender, Kibenge said, “I am aware that during your stay here, you shall reflect on the overall Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional and country-level program implementation focusing on progress, lessons, good practices to increase understanding of how the two are complementing each other. I am also aware that you shall also discuss how to accelerate delivery and strengthen coordination modalities that link the Spotlight Initiative regional and county level programmes.”
He noted that the regional review is timely because Africa continues witnessing high numbers violence against women and girls despite presence of laws and policies to protect survivors.
“In Uganda alone, the National Survey on Violence Against Women, Children and Older Persons by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2021 indicates that sexual violence increased from 22% in 2016 to 36% in 2020; child sexual abuse currently stands at 59% with 3.8% increase in defilement cases between 2020-2021 as per the Uganda Police.”
“These alarming trends of SGBV are not isolated to Uganda but are experienced throughout the countries implementing the Spotlight Initiative. This is a constant reminder for us to scale up our efforts to ensure that women and children especially girls are protected and can live lives free of violence,” added Mr. PS.
The PS said that Uganda is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, whose targets are embedded in the objectives of the Third National Development Plan, and Uganda’s Vision 2040.
“While we recognize and celebrate some of the positive developments towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, we are continuously reminded of existing inequalities in a number of areas which are still undermining national development.”
He commended the United Nations in Uganda for supporting and complementing Government’s programmes through United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2021- 2025).
Ms. Susan Ngongi Namondo, UN Resident Coordinator in Uganda re-echoed that violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world.
According to her, research shows that more than 640 million women aged 15 and older have been subjected to intimate partner violence.
“Gender-based violence (GBV) undermines the health, dignity, security, and autonomy of its victims, and yet it remains shrouded behind a veil of silence. This is more so on our beautiful continent of Africa, where child marriages and female genital mutilation (FGM) are still tolerated as normal practices,” decried Ms. Ngongi who was represented by UNFPA Country Representative, Dr. Mary Otieno.
“This silence has a cost that speaks in the high volume of state funds spent in health services delivery and correctional services. The cost of violence against women and girls, beyond the incalculable human suffering and losses, is more than 2% of the world’s annual GDP, totalling US$ 1.7 trillion,” she added.
She revealed that Uganda spends an estimated UG Shs77.5 billion annually on managing the impact of violence against women and girls, “money which could address other development priorities.”
The Uganda Police Annual Crime report of 2020 reflects a 29% increase in the number of domestic violence cases from a figure of 13,693 for the 2019 reporting period, to 17,664 cases in the following year.
Ngongi says it is concerning that women’s experience of spousal violence remains high at 56%.
The UN RC revealed that the global COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to contain it exacerbated existing structural gender inequalities in programme countries.
“The increases in the recorded cases of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) were mostly in sexual violence against minors. Uganda witnessed a 3.8% rise in defilement cases, and a concerning number of 14,134 underage girls were subjected to sexual violence, where the reproductive health consequences include unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and Sexually Transmitted Infections, including HIV.”
She added that, “COVID-19 also negatively impacted the efforts of social change actors working on protecting women’s rights. Mitigating the impact of the global crisis on efforts to eliminate (VAWG) requires concerted and expanded action, both in speed and in scale. New humanitarian emergencies such as the war in Ukraine have informed a shift in the global ecosystem and present an opportunity to “build back equal” post-pandemic.”
Ngongi said that the United Nations has over the years supported interventions designed to curb, and in the long run, eliminate the abuse of women’s rights.
“As the United Nations, we remain committed to supporting Governments in delivering quality services to their citizens, and we trust that this learning event will provide constructive feedback to improve programme delivery,” she said.
In her part, UN Country Representative, Ms. Adekemi Ndieli said that the programme has not only enhanced the capacity of the UN in designing and implementing a comprehensive programme to end violence against, but also it has increased attention to violence against women (VAW) as a human right, public health, and development concern across all UN agencies in Uganda.
“We recognize that while there have been several joint programmes on GBV in Uganda, this is the first programme that has brought up to 5 agencies together and through it, we have been able to demonstrate that a multisectoral and multi-pronged approach can effectively address violence against women.”
She revealed that with almost 60% funding going to CSOs, including a dedicated budget of 10% going to the women’s movement, the voice, agency and needs of women and girls have been at the center of interventions over the last 4 years.
“Spotlight has translated the calls for the women’s movement to be more inclusive from rhetoric to practice: by among others allowing traditionally marginalized groups like women with disabilities aacnd women living HIV to be explicitly and deliberately included in a major EVAW programme.”
She added that “The investment in CSOs and women’s rights organizations among others resulted into the passage of 3 bills: SOB, Employment and Succession Amendment bills. Spotlight further created platforms for women to engage on different issues including advocating for a gender-responsive COVID-19 response plan.”
Ms. Ndieli noted that the programme has given much-needed mileage to the work on access to justice for survivors of violence.
“The support to Uganda Police, Directorate of Public prosecution, judiciary, and legal aid Providers has seen a rise in conviction rates from in 60% in 2019 to 74% in 2020 in the GBV Sessions By December 2021 73.7% convictions were secured for the SGBV sessions conducted from October December 2021.”
The overall purpose of the joint annual review and planning is –
- To reflect on the overall Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional and country-level program implementation progress, lessons, good practices; and to increase understanding of how the two are complementing each other
- To review major 2022 priorities of the programme, discuss on the complementarity and synergy of implementation and agree on areas that require accelerated plan and pace of implementation.
- To discuss and agree on coordination modalities that will link the SI regional and country level programs regularly to ensure cross-fertilization of practices and strategies.
