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MPs Protest Gov’t Move To Scrap Off Shs32bn Women Entrepreneurship Fund

Flavia Kabahenda (Kyegegwa District Woman MP) is chairperson Parliament’s Committee of Gender, Labour and Social Development

The Uganda Women Parliamentary Association and Civil Society Organisations have vowed to reject the proposed alignment of the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) into the Parish Development Model (PDM), saying the move will further limit women’s access to resources.

The threat was made by Flavia Kabahenda (Kyegegwa District Woman MP) at Kampala Sheraton Hotel alongside The Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA Uganda) during a meeting held to discuss way forward of the planned proposal to merge women entrepreneurship fund with PDM.

Kabahenda argued that if Women Council protested being merged because of affirmative action, UWEP equally should be saved, because unlike Parish Development Model that has no policy, UWEP has a policy and therefore, there is no reason why PDM without a policy can’t kill UWEP which has a policy.

“Amalgamating UWEP to PDM will return the women to the difficult position of competing for the resources and subject them to our original tormentors, we know who the tormentors are, and yet we are grappling with a number of things like Gender Based Violence, we are grappling with burden of care, non access to factors of production, unpaid care work, teenage pregnancies. We can’t afford to go back and start struggling with men for the little resources,” Kabahenda said.

It should be recalled that in January 2022, Ministry of Finance tabled before Parliament the national budget framework paper 2022/2023 with a proposal to re-allocate all Shs205.5Bn wealth creation funds to PDM.

In the proposal, funds to a tune of Shs32Bn meant for Women Empowerment Program was to be sent to PDM, also Funds for planting material under NAADs Shs24.8Bn, Luwero-RwenzoriShs72.1Bn, and PRDP worth Shs44.5Bn was to be taken away and handed over to PDM.

Kabahenda’s move was backed by fellow Lamakers like; Milton Muwuma (Kigulu South), Nancy Acora (Lamwo DWR), John Faith Magolo (Bunghokho North) and Alex Brandon Kintu (Kagoma North) who vowed to ensure that UWEP remains independent from the PDM.

“In any case, PDM is talking about the value chain on agri-business, I think agri-business requires that we have land in the first place, I don’t know how many of those lower level women own land,” added Kabahenda.

In 2015, World Bank reported that women in Uganda make up more than half of Uganda’s agricultural workforce, and a higher proportion of women than men work in farming—76 percent versus 62 percent.

But despite contributing biggest chunk in agricultural production, Uganda Bureau of Statistics in 2013 reported that women own 28% land in Uganda.

Elizabeth Kemigisha, Advocacy Manager at FIDA-Uganda urged both Civil society organizations and legislators to oppose the merger of the UWEP with the PDM arguing that the proposed 30% fund allocation within PDM to UWEP would not be sufficient to sustain the UWEP activities

She said, “Aligning may not take us to separation, aligning may take us to different ways in terms of politics because the budget is a political tool because the 30% may not directly go as it was in UWEP.”

In the January 2022 Auditor General Report, John Muwanga the Auditor General raised concern over the management of the UWEP program especially delays on the disbursement of funds by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

He said that Shs16Bn sitting is sitting on the recovery account with Bank of Uganda from loan repayments over the five years, but only Shs963M of the amount has been resolved, which denied qualifying women groups timely access to funds.

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