KAMPALA – Civil society organizations have rallied the government of Uganda and development partners to Invest in prevention to eradicate violence against women and girls.
Speaking at the launch of the “16 Days of Black” campaign, Mr. Xavier EJoyi, the ActionAid International Uganda (AAIU), Country Director said every effort invested in preventing violence against women is a step towards a safer, more equal and prosperous world.
“Gender-Based-Violence is the most extreme form of injustice against women and it is one of the leading structural causes of poverty,” Mr. Ejoyi told reporters, adding:
“This is something that concerns ActionAid [International Uganda] very much. It concerns each one of us because all of us are striving to end poverty and we cannot do so when half of humanity endures in violence each and every day.”
Globally, the topic of gender-based violence remains subject to shame, silence, and stigma, despite being one of the world’s most commonly experienced human rights violations. According to the World Health Organization, nearly one in three women has faced intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in her life.
Meanwhile, in Uganda, a staggering 95 per cent of women and girls reported in 2021 that they had survived physical violence, sexual violence, or both since the age of 15.
“Today, we extend that opportunity to each one of us to join the voices from across Uganda and globally to put a call for an end to gender-based violence and also call all stakeholders to step up efforts to prevent violence against women and girls in all its forms,” Mr. Ejoy said at a press conference held in Kansanga.
“We must be very intentional in recognizing that GBV is a serious issue. It is not a competition on who is facing more violence,” he added.
Ms. Mercy Munduru, the Head of Programs at ActionAid International Uganda highlighted that despite the glaring statistics, an insignificant proportion of the national budget is directed towards robust responses, including investment in the prevention of Gender Based Violence while donor funding towards women’s rights work continues to shrink.
“Systems to track and enforce budget allocations for gender equality remain weak and data on national budgets to address violence against women and girls are hardly available. We also note with concern the rollback on advancing the realities of women’s experiences and an attempt to silence survivors through deliberate counter-narratives on gender-based violence,” Munduru said.
Gender-based abuse is propelled by norms and practices that perpetuate gender inequality. Changing a society’s beliefs and customs can be a difficult job – but it’s one necessary to stopping vicious cycles of violence.
Uganda has made progress in recent years towards rejecting gender-unequal norms. Between 2000 and 2016, for example, the proportion of men who agreed with one or more justifications for physical abuse against a spouse dropped from 64 percent to 41 percent.
But many other gendered attitudes and expectations have proven difficult to break down.
Munduru said the campaign is a crucial space for survivors to find empowerment and solidarity, and for allies to further the work of creating a future free of violence.
“By uplifting the voices of survivors today, and every day, we change the conversation around gender-based violence, which impacts people of all genders but has a disproportionate impact on women and girls,” she said.
Elizabeth Kemigisha, Manager of Advocacy and Policy at The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers-FIDA, speaking at a press conference, emphasized that the struggle is predominantly led by NGOs, which, due to financial constraints, face sustainability challenges.
In Kemigisha’s perspective, active government engagement and the empowerment of communities are imperative to protect victims and proactively prevent cases, thereby providing a sustainable solution to the pervasive issue that is detrimentally affecting society.
Hawa Birabwa, an advocate at the Justice Centre Uganda, echoed similar concerns, emphasizing that while NGOs and donors play a critical role in the fight against gender-based violence, reliance on them indefinitely is not sustainable, given their transient nature. According to her, there is a pressing need for initiatives that empower communities.
Birabwa suggested that these efforts should specifically target religious and cultural groups to address practices that contribute to gender-based violence in the country. She highlighted that certain practices within these groups, such as the vows taken during weddings that bind couples “till death do us part,” can result in strained relationships where individuals endure abuse but find it challenging to seek divorce. Additionally, some community practices inadvertently support victims in continuing to live with their victimizers.
Birabwa emphasized that without active government involvement in addressing gender-based violence at the grassroots level within communities, the fight against GBV risks becoming a mere annual event without tangible results. She also underscored the importance of engaging men in advocacy efforts, stating that empowering only women and girls while neglecting men and boys fails to break the cycle of GBV.
On her part, Ms. Shibah Namulindwa, the coordinator Eastern Region, AAIU said Uganda has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy and child marriage in East Africa at 34%.
She noted that teenage pregnancies are estimated to contribute 20% to infant death and 28% to maternal deaths.
“Uganda is carrying the flag in teenage pregnancy and child marriages, which is at 34%. So, evidence shows that the cost of inaction is very high if we do not deal with this problem. We shall have challenges that include individual, social, and economic costs,” Ms. Namulindwa said calling for an investment in access to health care and protection services for adolescent mothers and their children.
“Me, I work in communities where health facilities are struggling with services and one of the major challenges is that teenage pregnancy is causing a burden on those health facilities. They plan but they are not able to support these young girls because the numbers increase every day. And they were not planned for,” she added, noting that “We are losing so many children giving birth to children, and we need to deal with the reality.”
Namundinwa said that it is not enough to have the policies when the budget does not speak to them.
“So we need to really engage the government to ensure that even when we have the policies in place, we can really harness the demographic dividend of the young people. Uganda has a very young population but it is very useless. If young girls end up in teenage marriage, or they’re ending up as child mothers. We have to ensure that we push for investment into education. We push for investment into skilling so that we have a productive population. A population that is not productive, to me, I think it’s a burden to the country, not just for development, but also for security. We’ll see issues of peace and security being affected because the nation is producing people who are not productive,” she said.
