ISLAMABAD, July 13 (Lord Media): Uganda on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, highlighting significant gains in female representation, economic inclusion and legal reforms while acknowledging persistent challenges such as gender-based violence, cultural barriers and inadequate funding.
Speaking at the 9th Ministerial Conference of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Women in Islamabad, Uganda’s Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Jacqueline Mbabazi, said her government has continued to pursue gender equality through comprehensive policy, legal and institutional reforms aimed at improving the lives of women and girls.
Addressing delegates at the Jinnah Convention Centre during the two-day conference held under the theme “Socio-Economic and Political Empowerment of Women in the OIC Countries: Challenges and Way Forward,” Mbabazi thanked the government of Pakistan, the OIC General Secretariat and participating delegations for organizing the event and praised Pakistan for its hospitality and assumption of the conference presidency.
She said the Government of Uganda has integrated gender equality into national development planning while investing in human capital development and key economic sectors, including agriculture, agro-industry, tourism, information and communication technology (ICT), oil and gas, energy and mineral development.
Mbabazi said Uganda has institutionalized gender-responsive budgeting across government ministries in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act, while Article 33(5) of the country’s Constitution guarantees affirmative action measures for women.
Highlighting Uganda’s achievements, the minister said women now occupy half of all cabinet positions, up from 46 percent in the previous cabinet. Women also account for 36 percent of members in the country’s 12th Parliament, an increase from 34 percent in the previous legislature. Female representation has also reached 45.7 percent in the public service and 51 percent in the judiciary.
She said the government has launched several major economic empowerment initiatives targeting women. These include the Parish Development Model, under which 2.059 trillion Ugandan shillings have been disbursed through savings and credit cooperative societies, the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme, which receives approximately 8 million U.S. dollars annually, and the 217-million-dollar Generating Growth and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) Project, including 40 million dollars specifically allocated for women refugees.
On land rights, Mbabazi said Uganda has undertaken reforms allowing women greater access to land ownership and property rights. During the 2024/25 financial year, 7,281 of the country’s 26,090 land titles were issued to women. The government also issued more than 20,000 Certificates of Customary Ownership and established 600 Communal Land Associations, ensuring women comprise at least one-third of land administration structures.
The minister said amendments to Uganda’s Employment Act have strengthened workplace protections for women by requiring breastfeeding facilities, mandating policies against sexual harassment and abuse, and extending formal labour protections to domestic and casual workers, many of whom are women.
She also highlighted progress in expanding women’s access to digital technologies. Under the Digital Uganda Vision, the government is expanding ICT infrastructure and digital literacy, particularly in rural communities. According to the minister, 52 percent of women aged 15 years and above own mobile phones, while 12 percent use the internet.
Mbabazi said Uganda has also implemented the Education Digital Agenda Strategy to integrate ICT across the education sector and introduced the Digital Transformation Roadmap for 2023-2028 to guide the country’s transition toward a digital economy.
She pointed to affirmative action measures at Makerere University, where female applicants receive an additional 1.5 admission points, saying the policy has helped increase the proportion of female graduates to 52 percent compared with about 10 percent in the 1990s.
Despite the progress, Mbabazi acknowledged that major challenges remain.
She identified deeply rooted cultural norms and discriminatory practices, weak enforcement of laws affecting women’s access to justice, insufficient funding for women’s programmes, the continued prevalence of gender-based violence, and limited participation of many women in the digital economy as key obstacles to achieving full gender equality.
“The future of technology must not be a future of inequality – nor one of violence and abuse,” she said.
Calling for collective action, Mbabazi said gender equality is closely linked to stability, resilience, poverty reduction, economic growth and social cohesion.
She urged governments to address systemic barriers rather than placing the burden on women themselves.
“To realize this vision, we do not need to fix women – we need to fix the systems and structures that are currently preventing progress and reverse the regressive social norms that are pushing back women’s rights and limiting their full and meaningful participation,” she said.
The minister concluded by reaffirming Uganda’s commitment to accelerating gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls through poverty reduction, stronger institutions and gender-responsive financing. LORD
