African gender and development index : Uganda's experience

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AFRICAN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX

UGANDA REPORT

Received on

Tuesday 25 October 2005

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AFRICAN GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT INDEX

UGANDA'S EXPERIENCE

FIELD TRIAL REPORT

The Eastern Africa Sub Regional Support Initiative (EASSI)

October 2005

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African Gender and Development Index - Uganda

2.3.1 The Social Power Block 33

2.3.2 Economic Power Block 45

2.3.3. Political Power Block 49

2.4 Limitations of the GSI 54

PART III: AFRICAN WOMEN'S PROGRESS SCORE BOARD 55

CHAPTER THREE: INTRODUCTION TO THE AFRICAN

WOMEN'S PROGRESS SCORE BOARD 56

3.1 Introduction S6

3.1.1 Computation ofthe AWPS 57

3.1.2 Uganda's performance on the AWPS 60

CHAPTER FOUR: WOMEN'S RIGHTS BLOCK 63

4.1 Introduction 63

4.2 Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

(CEDAW), Article 2 and Article 16 63

4.3 The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights - Women's

Rights Protocol - Harmful practices 80

CHAPTER FIVE: SOCIAL POWER - CAPABILITIES BLOCK 86

5.1 Introduction 86

5.2 Beijing Platform for Action and Plus Five Meeting 86

5.3 Violence against Women (domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment) 95

5.4 Trafficking in Women 105

5.5 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC),

Article XXVI 110

5.6 Health - International Conference on Population and Development

(Cairo 1994), Plus Five 1999 117

5.7 The Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other

Related Infectious Diseases 131

5.8 Education 132

5.8.1 Policies on school girl dropout 132

5.8.2 Education of Human rights/Women's Rights 139

CHAPTER SIX: ECONOMIC POWER BLOCK 142

6.1 Introduction 142

6.2 The International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 100,

111, 183 and Code of practice on HIV/AIDS 142

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List of Tables

Table 1.1: Government Sector Budget Allocations 2000/01 and 2001/02

(Recurrent and Development expenditure) 14

Table 1.2: Budget performance by sector for FY 2001/02 15

Table 1.3: MGLSD Total Wage and Non- wage Recurrent and Development

Budget Approved Estimates and releases for 2000/2001 16 Table 2.1: GSI Variables and indicators by components and sub-components 30 Table 2.2: Indices for components, sub components and aggregate GSI 31 Table 2.3: Percentage distribution of secondary school enrolment by sex for

persons aged 13-18 years 1992-2003 35

Table 2.4: Percentage distribution of primary school dropouts by sex 1992- 2000 37 Table 2.5: Average wage and income from agriculture and remittances and intra-household

transfers (figures are in Uganda shillings) 46

Table 2.6: Share of paid employees, Own Account Workers and employers in total employment

(for the period 1993-2000) 47

Table 3.1: The African Women's Progress Scoreboard 59

Table 3.2: Summary of Uganda's Overall score on the African Women's Progress

Scoreboard 60

Table 3.3: Summary notes for the women's rights block 66

Table 3.4: AWPS - Summary notes on the implementation Beijing PFA and

Violence against Women (Social Power Block) 89

Table 3.5: AWPS - Summary notes on the implementation of the African Charter

on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) Article XXVII 111 Table 3.6: AWPS - Summary notes on the implementation of ICPD 1994 and

1999 plus five and Abuja Declaration 119

Table 3.7: AWPS - Summary notes on the implementation of the school girl

dropout policy and human /women's rights education in Uganda 134 Table 3.8: AWPS - Summary notes on the implementation of ILO Conventions 145 Table 3.9: AWPS - Summary notes on engendering NPRS, access to agricultural

extension services, technology and land 152

Table 3.10: AWPS - Summary notes for the Political power block 169

List of Figures

Figure 2.1: Primary School Enrolment by sex for children aged 6-12 years 34

Figure 2.2: Tertiary Enrolment by Sex 1991-2000 36

Figure 2.3: Trends in Under five Mortality in Uganda 199-2000 42

Figure 2.4: New Infections by sex 1992-2000 • 44

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FUE Federation of Uganda Employers GAD Gender and Development Approach GDI Gender-related Development Index GDP Gross Domestic Product

GEI Gender Equality Index

GEM Gender Empowerment Measure

GOU Government of Uganda

GRF Gender Roles Framework GSI Gender Status Index

GUSCO Gulu Support the Children Organisation

HAR Hope after Rape

HDI Human Development Index HDR Human Development Report HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus

ICESCR International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

ICPD International Conference on Population and Development

ICT Information Communication Technology

IDS Institute of Development Studies of Sussex University IGG Inspectorate General of Government

IGO Inter Governmental Organization ILO International Labour Organization

ISCO International Standards for Classifications of Occupation ISIS-WICCE Isis - Women's International Cross-Cultural Exchange LAW-U Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda

LC Local Council

LSMS Living Standard Measurement Study M&E Monitoring and Evaluation

MAAIF Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries MACA Multi-sectoral AIDS Control Approach

MFI Micro Finance Institutions

MFPED Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development MGLSD Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development MISR Makerere Institute of Social Research

MOES Ministry of Education and Sports MOH Ministry of Health

MOWHC Ministry of Works Housing and Communications MWLE Ministry of Water, Lands and Environment NAADS National Agricultural Advisory Service NAPW National Action Plan on Women NAP National Advisory Panel

NARO National Agricultural Research Organisation NAWOU National Association of Women's Organization NCC National Council for Children

NCHS National Centre for Health Statistics NEPAD New Partnership for Africa's Development NGOs Non-governmental Organisations

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Definition of some concepts

EMPOWERMENT: This is a process through which women and men, girls and boys are mobilized to identify, understand and overcome the structural and underlying causes of underdevelopment and achieve equality of welfare and equal access to and control over resources

GENDER EQUITY: This refers to ensuring that development policies and programmes leave women no worse oft either economically or in terms of their social responsibility. Equity is measured through the human cost of various activities e.g the provision of fuel and water. As well as a fair share of benefits and responsibility, equity aims to give women equal treatment before the law, equal access to education, and equal remuneration for work.

GENDER EQUALITY: This concept means there is no discrimination on the grounds of a person's sex in the allocation of resources or benefits - or in their access to services. Gender equality can be measured in terms of equality of opportunity or equality of benefits.

GENDER AWARENESS: This refers to the knowledge and appreciation of the social and cultural differences between men and women, girls and boys and how these result in differences in roles, power relations, privileges, responsibilities, needs and access to and control over resources.

ACCESS TO AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES: this refers to the opportunity or right to get agricultural extension services such as information and inputs ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY: this refers to the opportunity or right to get and use

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

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Executive Summary

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in its mandate to evaluate and report progress on the implementation of global and regional Platforms for Africa on the advancement for women, embarked on the process of developing an African Gender and Development Index (AGDI). The AGDI measures country's progress in the implementation of the international conventions and charters, agreements that address gender equity and equality issues including CEDAW, African charter on human and peoples rights - the women's rights protocol, African charter of the rights of the child, the ICPD (Cairo 1994) and the Platform for Action drawn during the 1995 Fourth Women's World Conference in China, the ILO conventions and the Abuja declaration. It captures the experiences and achievements of countries in promoting women's empowerment and advancement in the African region. The AGDI measures both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of gender equality, which the other indices have not captured.

It incorporates issues such as participation, empowerment, equity and equality

Components of AGDI

The AGDI is composed of two parts, the Gender Status Index (GSI) and the African Women's Progress Scoreboard (AWPS). The GSI is a measure of relative gender equality that captures those issues that relate to women's empowerment that can be measured quantitatively. It is divided into three blocks on indicators namely social power, economic power and political power blocks. Each of these blocks is divided into various variables, which are further sub divided into a number of indicators.

The AWPS complements the GSI and measures government policy performance focussing on the qualitative elements of women's advancement and empowerment. It is divided into four blocks namely the women's rights, social, economic and political blocks. The combination of 'hard' data as contained in the GSI, and the 'soft' data from the AWPS captures the complex and dynamic reality of African women's lives.

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While Uganda government performance is attributed to fulfilling international obligations such as ratifying conventions such as CEDAW and the African charter on the rights of children, being up to date with reporting to the relevant bodies, being a signatory to the international documents such as Beijing Platform for Action and the ICPD, putting in place a legal framework such as the Constitution (1995) and other laws, instituting specific gender policies, plans and institutional mechanisms, a lot leaves to be desired for the county to attain gender equality and equity in all spheres of life. The country has not yet ratified the optional protocol, the African charter on human and people's rights (women's rights protocol), the UN Conflict resolution (1325), all the ILO conventions. It scores low on targets, budgets, human resources, research, information dissemination, monitoring and evaluation and involvement of civil society organizations. While there are institutional mechanisms to implement the gender policies and plans, the mechanisms are not well facilitated to effectively implement the plans and policies as well as reach the

grassroots.

The government scores high (2) on mechanisms to implements programmes on health indicators and policy on school dropouts, engendering NPRS, access to agricultural extension services and

technology. The national machinery for the advancement of women is also not well facilitated and marginalized on many areas. The country lacks a comprehensive gender policy on school

girl dropout, maternity protection, equal remuneration and equality of opportunity and treatment in employment, ILO policy on HIV/AIDS, women's participation in conflict resolution and access to land. Most of the laws do not adequately address women's concerns because they are discriminatory and do not provide sufficient protection of women's rights and property ownership and control.. A lot of challenges still exist including:-

• Some of laws, which were enacted during the pre-independence era and have remained

unchanged despite the social and economic changes the country has experienced. The

process of reforming these laws has been very slow. The good constitutional provisions

need to be translated into domestic legislation that aims at protecting women against

discriminatory practices, which are still prevalent in Uganda. In addition, there is need for

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advancement. Women's literacy rates and knowledge about their rights remain very low and especially those form the rural areas. Culture is very oppressive and the patriarchal attitudes and beliefs relegate women to a subordinate status and perpetuate their oppression. Many women are not economically empowered and have no control over and ownership of the productive resources such as land. This increases their vulnerability to human rights violation and inability to challenge the status quo. Women's health and nutrition is still very poor as reflected in the high maternal mortality and fertility rates.

Overall both the GSI and AWPS shows that gender discrimination exists in a number of areas and the progress made so far should be sustained and efforts made to address the gender concerns that form barriers within the whole social, economic, political spheres and especially in increasing women's political voice.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The growth of the global women's movement drew the attention of many international bodies, governments and non-governmental organizations to the discourse of gender and development and the need to address the inherent gender disparities at all levels of development. Issues of gender inequality and inequity were brought to the forefront and became issues of international concern culminating into the adoption of important international instruments and programmes of action geared towards the attainment of gender equity and equality in all spheres of life. Notable among these instruments are the 1981 UN Convention on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (1989), the outcome of the World Summit for Children in New York 1990, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children (ACRWC) (1990), African Platform for Action (1994), ICPD Platform of Action (1994) and the Beijing Platform for Action (1995). Uganda's participation in these international and regional events is a clear indication of its commitment towards addressing gender inequalities in the country.

Other international events and policy commitments geared towards the attainment of gender

equality and women's empowerment, to which Uganda is party include the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the UN Millennium Declaration 2000 (Millennium Development goals). NEPAD is a new initiative by African leaders anchored in the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world. It is hoped that implementation of the initiative will take into consideration the international agreements and commitments that participating governments have assented to on women's rights and gender and development (ECA, 2004). The Millennium Development Goals provide a framework for measuring development progress and focus on the efforts of the world community to achieve significant and measurable improvements in people's lives through poverty eradication. Uganda's commitment to the Millennium Declaration is reflected in its comprehensive development

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constitutional reform that culminated into the promulgation of a national constitution in 1995.

With the 1995 Constitution, government has to a large extent succeeded in restoring respect for the rule of law, democratic values and practices, freedom of speech, association and the press and encouraging increased participation of the local population in decision-making processes. The constitution is noted to be one of the gender sensitive constitutions in Africa because it strengthened the position of women and other marginalised groups by prohibiting discrimination of all kinds at all levels of development and provided for the protection and promotion of Women's rights (Article 21 and 33) The Republic of Uganda, 1995).

Religion and ethnicity

Uganda is composed of four main tribal groupings namely the Nilotics, Bantu, Nilo-hamites and those of the Sudan origin. Some of these tribal groupings cut across the boundaries with the neighbouring countries. They make up 56 language dialects, although Luganda is the most widely spoken language, followed by Swahili and English (the official language of the country). The country is divided into 4 regions namely central, western, eastern and northern regions, which are further subdivided into 56 districts. The districts are further sub divided into administrative units namely counties, sub counties, parishes and villages administered by appointed chiefs and elected administrators called Local Councils.

Uganda's population is predominantly Christian with majority of the people being Catholics (41.9%) while Anglicans (Protestants) constitute 35.9% and 12.1% are Muslims. The other religious denominations take a small percentage including Seventh day Adventist (1.5%),

Pentecostals (4.6%), Orthodox (0.1%) and other categories (4.8%)' (Uganda Bureau of

Statistics (UBOS), 2005)

1.2.2 Socio- economic and demographic background

Uganda is predominantly an agricultural economy with over 90% of the population depending on subsistence farming and small agro based industries. Following the mismanagement of the economy in the 1970s and early 1980s, the NRM government embarked on a comprehensive socio- economic recovery programme including structural adjustment policy packages involving trade liberalisation, privatisation and divestiture of

Includes those of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Bahai, traditional, non Christians and Hindu faith.

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Constitution of the Republic of Uganda makes provisions for such repugnant cultures, traditions and practices to be abolished, a number of laws are still discriminatory especially those that deal with family affairs. Hence the legal framework does not holistically offer positive solutions to address women's oppression particularly within the family with respect to property rights, gender based violence and inheritance rights. Most women have little or even no power over property and sexual and reproductive rights in the home. Studies conducted and media reports show that the extent of violence against women particularly domestic violence is high (Law and Advocacy for Women Uganda (LAW-U), 2000).

In the education sector, gender disparities are evident at all levels with girls' schooling lagging behind that of boys. This is evidenced by the low literacy rates among women (51%

of the women) compared to 77% of the men (UBOS), 2001) which is a clear indication of the low participation of women in education. Although government is putting emphasis on achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE), gender disparities are persistent across all levels of schooling, with the greatest disparity especially in access at secondary and tertiary levels of education. Furthermore, women's education is skewed to the traditional professions (arts and humanities) rather than the science and technical professions (Kwesiga, 2002).

Gender disparities are equally evident in the health sector as indicated by the country's health status particularly that of women and children. The Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) 2000/2001 reports a persistent high maternal mortality rate of 505 deaths per 100,000 live births and high morbidity among women (20.4% prenatal and maternal conditions) and Infant and child mortality of 88 and 152 respectively (UBOS, 2001). In addition, although there has been a reduction in the overall HIV/AIDS prevalence rates to 6.1%, the number of cases among women is still high (51%) than that of men (39%) (MOH, 2002). Although there is a substantial decline in teenage pregnancies from 43% in 1995 to 31 % in 2000, the rate is still very high.

There is a clear division of labour between men and women whereby women are mainly engaged in reproductive activities which have no economic value particularly care of the family, while men are mainly involved in productive work of economic value. Majority of women are engaged in agricultural production particularly food crop production providing 70

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1.4 Governments' efforts towards the attainment of gender equity and equality

Over the last 2 decades the government of Uganda has expressed commitment towards attainment of gender equality and women's empowerment. This is evidenced by not only governments' participation in both international and regional events that support women's advancement but also signing and adopting the respective instruments, conventions and POA/PFAs resulting from these events. These instruments have been operationalised by putting in place a legal and policy framework as well as institutional mechanisms to facilitate the integration of women in development and the attainment of gender equality and equity.

Some of the notable legal mechanisms include the 1995 Uganda's Constitution, the Local Government Act (1997), the Land Act (1998) and the National Women's Council Statute

1993, all of which promote women's rights.

Government's commitment to gender equity and equality is further demonstrated by its adoption of the National Gender Policy of 1997, a tool to guide and direct the planning, resource allocation and implementation of development programmes with a gender perspective. The adoption of the gender policy has facilitated Uganda's gender mainstreaming programme in all sectors of the economy through the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and the Sector Wide Approaches (the government policy framework is discussed in section 1.5). Another notable achievement is the adoption of the National Action Plan on women in 1999. The plan operationalises and facilitates the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

A national machinery for the advancement of women, the Ministry of Women in Development was established 1988 which has undergone several institutional changes and transformed to the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD). The MGLSD collaborates with other government institutions including the line ministries to ensure that gender concerns are integrated in all the sectoral policies, plans and implementation. Other government institutions promoting women's rights include the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) charged with the protection of human rights and the Uganda Law Reform Commission (ULRC) for law reform.

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supported by the NGO statute 1989 that provides somewhat a conducive environment for civil society operations. Areas of collaboration cover all sectors of the economy including health, education and the economy and in the implementation of the national gender policy.

Consequently, Government and CSO's have contributed to significant improvements in the advancement and empowerment of women in the country although manifestations of gender inequalities across all spheres of life are still persistent. This suggests that much more needs to be done to address the gender disparities and improve women's status/situation.

1.5 Uganda's Government Policy Framework

As Uganda's economy continues to grow, there have been concerns about inequitable economic growth, general household poverty and poor social sector services. Consequently, the government has prioritised poverty eradication as the major focus of its overall sustained growth and development strategy (MFPED, 1997). To this effect, in 1997, a comprehensive national policy framework known as the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) was formulated with the main aim of improving the welfare of all Ugandans through poverty eradication. Since its inception, PEAP has guided the formulation of government policy in all sectors of the economy and focussed on four major goals namely: -

1. Creating a framework for economic growth and structural transformation;

2. Strengthening good governance and security;

3. Increasing the incomes of the poor and;

4. Improving the quality of life by addressing the constraints in the education, health and

water sectors

Within the framework of PEAP, government recognises that implementation of policies requires involvement of all stakeholders and thus has adopted Sector Wide Approaches (SWAPs) to address sector specific constraints through decentralised sector wide planning by line ministries and districts. While PEAP sets the overall framework, it is the individual line ministries that have to take the initiative to develop and design the detailed plans within each

sector and where a multi-sectoral approach4 is required, committees representing each of the

relevant ministries have been established (MFPED, 2001, P.142) to set the overall framework 4 Sectors of programmes that require implementation of more than one ministry such as agriculture, combating HIV/AIDS and gender main stream ing

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predominantly agricultural country with more than 85% of the population depending on subsistence farming as their main source of livelihood, measures to eliminate poverty countrywide must therefore address the agricultural sector (MAAIF, 2000). PMA recognizes the promotion of gender equity and equality as one of the catalysts to agricultural transformation process, since women constitute more than half of the country's population and contribute over 70% to agricultural production. It acknowledges that gender disparities hinder agricultural productivity, economic efficiency and growth and that public policy can make a difference in closing the gender gap through gendering agricultural interventions and public sector investments in advisory services. Consequently one of its main strategies is to ensure that all interventions/programmes are gender focussed and gender responsive (MAAIF, 2000, P.27) (see details about PMA in section 3.4.2).

1.6 Uganda's Budgetary Policy and Expenditure Framework

Although Uganda has registered improvements in economic growth, the level of domestic revenue is still very low (12% in 2001/2002) and consequently the government works in partnership with donors and CSOs to finance its budget and pursue its priorities effectively (MFPED, 2003). Thus, the country depends heavily on donor funding (over 52%) for its public expenditure (MFPED, 2001, 2003). The Poverty Status Report, (2003) notes that donor aid has increased substantially from 9.1% of GDP in 1998/99 to 13% of GDP in 2001/02. The low level of domestic revenue is a significant constraint on government expenditure levels and is an indication that poverty eradication activities cannot be sustained.

Government budget allocation to the various sectors is guided by the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The MTEF is a medium term (3 years) public expenditure for implementing the priorities of PEAP and covers decisions on overall public expenditure including donor-financed expenditures. The allocations are arrived at through a consultative budget process involving all key stakeholders including line ministries, donors, local governments at all levels and the private sectors particularly the Uganda Manufacturers Association (MFPED, 2001). Through SWAPs, the sectoral policies and plans/frameworks are translated into concrete spending decisions through the MTEF and the Poverty Action Fund (PAF), which channels funds to the most directly poverty reducing services (MFPED,

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Table 1.1 Government Sector Budget Allocations7 2000/01 and 2001/02 (Recurrent

and Development expenditure)

2000/01 2001/02

Sector

Security

Roads and Works Agriculture Education Health Water

Law and order Accountability EF&SS

Public Administration Interest Payments Total (MTEF)

Approved Budget billion

shs.

209.8 138.0 24.1 403.8

134.2 36.4 94.5 17.1 95.4 264.9

107.1 1,505.3

% share

13.9 9.2 1.6 26.8

7.6 2.4 6.3 1.1 6.3 17.6

7.1 100

Approved budget billion

Shs.

229.2 170.2 49.1 458.3

170.1 54.0 128.5

22.8 139.9 325.3 155.1 1,902.5

% of Total

12.0 8.9 2.6 24.1

8.9 2.8 6.8 1.2 7.4 17.1 8.2 100 Source: MFPED, 2003

MFPED, (2003) notes that the wage bill (salaries) accounts for the largest percentage of the total budget. For instance, about 31.3% in 2000/01 and 28.4% in 2001/02 of the total budget was spent on the wage bill.

Although Table 1.2 indicate a high aggregate budget performance of 99.5 %, some sectors such as agriculture and Economic Functions & Social Services indicate substantial gap between existing resources and the costs of achieving the targets articulated in existing sector plans. The low budget performance in these sectors is attributed to large cuts in the budget in order to release resources for defence expenditures (see expenditure on security on table 1.1 and 1.2) to finance interventions addressing the war in northern Uganda (MFPED, 2003) which led to high budget performance (over expenditure) in security. For instance while the approved budget for security was 229.2 (12% of the total share), the final budget outturn indicates an over expenditure (237.9) which was over 100% budget performance (103.8%) (Table 1.2). Such an over expenditure in one sector suggests that other sectors did not receive enough funds for their activities.

7 The budget excludes donor project contributions and includes both wage and non wage expenditure

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Table 1.3 MGLSD Total Wage and Non- wage Approved Estimates and releases for

Programme

Recurrent Budget Headquarters Planning

Gender and Community Development Disability and Elderly

Poverty Eradication & economic rights Youth and Children

Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations

Occupational Safety and Health Total

Development Budget

PEARL

Strengthening MGLSD Youth Entrepreneurs Scheme Community Based Rehabilitation Youth and Women Skills

Support to AIDS orphans & Homeless Children

Advocacy and Community Mobilisation BECCAD

Rehabilitation and Dev't of Public Libraries Child Rehabilitation and Development Inst.

Jobs for Africa Adult Literacy

Elimination of Child Labour

Support to National Disability Council Vocational Training Orphans and Street Children

Total

Approved Expenditure

2,077,292,000 64,984,000 1,042,368,000

168,739,000 114,329,000 1,080,808,000

178,229,000 237,169,000 4,963,918,000

120,400,000 609,354,208 1,181,992,979

139,663,405 90,342,000 510,037,505

188,696,000 88,000,000 31,900,000 644,864,903

60,000,000 1,500,000,000

23,900,000

-

3,000

5,189,154,000

Recurrent and 2000/2001

Releases

1,567,409,635 57,564,078 893,389,052

152,356,700 104,359,016 947,562,424 148,485,288 218,004,493 4,089,130,686

84,280,000 564,880,892 834,281,272 116,893,404 50,378,300 510,037,504

132,087,200 61,599,999 22,330,000 149,222,010 42,560,000 1,499,999,943

16,730,000

-

767

4,085,281,291

Development

% Share (Releases)

38.3 1.4 21.8

3.7 2.6 23.2

3.6

5.3 100

2.1 13.8 20.4 2.9

1.2 12.5

3.2 1.5 0.5 3.7 1.0 36.7

0.4

-

0.0

100

Budget

Budget Performance

75.5 88.6 85.7 90.3 91.3 87.7 83.3

91.9 82.4

70.0 92.7 70.6 83.7 55.8 100.0

70.0 70.0 70.0 23.1 70.9 99.9 70.0

25.6

78.7 Source: MGLSD, 2001

In 2000/01, the MGLSD budget estimates and releases (Table 1.3) for the recurrent and development expenditure show a budget performance of 82.4% and 78.7% respectively, indicating that not all the approved funds were released. The poor budget performance coupled with heavy dependence on donor funding has negative implications on effective implementation of the planned activities. Indeed it was noted that some programmes such as

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processes cannot exclusively monitor actual implementation of the PFAs. It was therefore critical to document the individual country experiences and disseminate the best practices on the advancement of women in the region (Africa). Consequently, the ECA's African Centre for Gender and Development (UNECA-ACGD) embarked on developing an index that captures the experiences and achievements of the African region known as African Gender and Development Index (AGDI).

While a number of indices including the Gender Related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender and Empowerment Measure (GEM) have been developed to assess the situation of women in all sectors of development and decision making, both indices only cover quantitative issues. These indices do not measure the qualitative aspects of development which are important for gender equality such as participation in community life, consumption of resources within the family and society at large. The GDI is strongly correlated with GDP and thus measures general welfare rather than gender equality in itself. It relates gender equity to income and yet gender equity is more than income. The challenge has been to develop an index that measures particularly the implementation of Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action, which incorporates issues such as participation, empowerment, equity and equality and other international conventions and charters, agreements that address gender equity and equality issues such as those mentioned in section 1.1. The development of AGDI has come at the right time when the international community including national governments and CSOs are weighing the effectiveness and sustainable impact of women's global and regional fora against their costs and frequency. Twenty-eight years after Mexico, almost twenty years after Nairobi and more than five years after Beijing it is obvious that the goal of the global process for gender equality, development and peace has not yet been achieved. In spite of the gains made, gender disparities are persistent in all spheres of social, economic, political and basic rights.

Over the years it has become apparent that one of the reasons behind women's continued marginalisation is the fact that gender concerns have not been fully and/or systematically incorporated into either policy and program formulation processes or in their implementation.

In addition, women's contribution is not included in national accounting systems and as a result women continue to be excluded from the mainstream development process. The AGDI

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quantitatively. It is divided into three blocks of indicators including social, economic and political power blocks. Each of these blocks is divided into various components (variables), which are further sub divided into a number of indicators (see part II for details).

The AWPS complements the GSI with more qualitative elements of women's empowerment.

It is divided into four blocks namely the women's rights, social, economic and political blocks, which are also subdivided into various components and indicators (see details in part III). The combination of 'hard' data contained in the GSI, and the 'soft' data obtained from the AWPS capture the complex and dynamic reality of African women's lives.

1.8 The Methodology

1.8.1 The process of developing the AGDI

The process of developing the AGDI began in 2002 with developing the theoretical framework and defining the critical variables that are key to addressing gender inequalities in

Africa. This assignment was undertaken by two consultants11 based at ECA-ACGD, Addis

Ababa in Ethiopia with assistance from a working group of experts from Europe and Africa.

The experts included statisticians, economists, gender and development specialists and social development practitioners (ECA, 2004). Based on the developed theoretical framework, a draft Index was designed and presented to a panel of experts/advisors (the Regional Advisory Panel) for review and validation. The panel constituted senior external experts from selected

13 countries1 where the Index was tested, representatives of UNFPA, World Bank and

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). These technical consultations resulted in the development of the final index, the AGDI.

In preparation for field trials, a training workshop for the country teams comprising of statisticians, economists, gender experts and development experts from 13 countries in Africa was organised in November 2002 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The main aim of the workshop was to introduce the index to the country teams and prepare them for field trials. The country case studies will be inputted into the African Women's Report.

11 Dr. Saskia Weiringa Sassen and Prof. Jacques Charmes

12 The countries include Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Mozambique, Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Benin, Burkina

Faso, Ghana, Cameroon, Gabon and Tunisia

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in a number of cases the required data was not in the form that would enable the researchers to easily extract it. Consequently, relevant information was obtained from the original field records. Although several call back visits were made to try and collect as much information as possible, it was not possible in some cases.

UBOS provided both published and unpublished data as well as primary data from the National Household surveys and population censuses. Unpublished information had to be analysed from the rich data set at the Bureau and indicators/numbers obtained. In some organizations (professional syndicates etc.) data was obtained from the summaries provided by persons in charge for the years that data was available. Some of the information was not readily available for example information on professional accountants, but was later organized and sent by e-mail. Information was collected from a number of sources for each of the indicator.

Data sourcesfor the Social Power Block

Data on education was collected from the Ministry of Education and Sports and Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Age specific information and literacy was collected from household survey data at UBOS. Enrolment and dropout rates were estimated based on the information from MOES. Data on stunting, underweight, and mortality indicators was obtained from the Demographic and Health Survey while estimates of new HIV/AIDS infections were provided by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Data sourcesfor the Economic Power Block

Data on the economic block was collected from a number of sources. Statistics on salaries and wages was based on information from household surveys. Additional information on salaries was obtained from the Uganda Computer Services and a few self-accounting organizations namely Uganda Revenue Authority, NSSF and UBOS. The limitation with the salary data however is that it suffers from the effect of averaging over a wide range of salary scales. Data on employment, income, employers and administrative, scientific and technical persons was obtained from the household survey data for various years with the latest being the Uganda National Household Survey of 2002/2003.

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did not cover all schools in Uganda because before 1995 the data was collected from Government Aided Schools only and suffered from incompleteness since it omitted private schools.

• Some data from MOES especially enrolment for secondary schools and tertiary institutions was not disaggregated by age group as required for all the years.

• Some statistics such as secondary school enrolment by class for the years 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999 was not available from the MOES. Instead, the 1998 and 2001 summaries of Education Abstracts were used to obtain total enrolment figures for these

years.

Additional information was obtained from other sources namely the household surveys and the 1991 Population and Housing Census at the UBOS.

Health

Data on HIV/AIDS that is published by the MOH has not been disaggregated by year and sex for the new cases of HIV infection. However, attempts were made to disaggregate the data based on the date of filling the form.

ii) Economic Power Block

It was not possible to obtain data relating to the salary structures of all the institutions and thus the salaries/wages in the autonomous parastatal bodies have been based on a few institutions. Information on access to credit was based on household survey data. The survey with detailed information on Micro finance institutions and their activities is yet to be finalized.

iii) Political Power Block

Although efforts were made to obtain data for all the indicators, it was not possible get data on ownership of urban plots/houses/land. The process required going through all the files with raw data and given the lack of a well organised system and poor record keeping in the Ministry of Lands, Water and Natural Resource Management, it was difficult to extract sensible data from such records. Instead proxy data based on ownership of houses/plots in the Household Surveys was used to estimate the percentage of ownership of plots/land/house. In

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the women's rights block (52.4%) attributed to signing of the relevant conventions, reporting and putting in place policy mechanisms to address issues articulated in the conventions. This indicates government effectiveness in stimulating women's advancement and empowerment in these areas. Government has faced more obstacles in other aspects of empowerment especially on laws relating to women's rights and political empowerment and this could be associated with culture and tradition that relegates women in more subordinate status (see details in part II chapter four).

1.10 Structure of the national report for the AGDI

Uganda's Gender and Development Index field trial report comprises four parts. The first part discusses the background and the status of work on gender and development by government.

It presents, government commitments to address gender inequalities, background information about the AGDI and the methodology used for developing the index and the field trials. The second part focuses on the calculation of the GSI and gives the status of data and statistics for the various components and indicators. The third part discusses the African Women's Progress Scoreboard providing notes for each of the horizontal/vertical axis on each of the indicators in the different blocks. In both parts (2 and 3) a discussion of the good and negative practices is provided. Gaps are highlighted and the basis for policies given. The fourth and last part of the report gives the conclusion and challenges.

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CHAPTER TWO

THE GENDER STATUS INDEX

2.1 Introduction

The Gender Status Index (GSI) is one of the two components that make up the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI). The GSI measures the relative gender equality that captures issues related to women's empowerment that can be quantified. It attempts to address the shortcomings that characterize the other gender indices namely; the Human Development Index (HDI), the Gender-related Development Index (GDI), the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), the Gender Equality Index (GEI) and the Standardised Index of Gender Equality (SIGE). For example, one of the shortcomings of the HDI is the excessive role devoted to income especially when the defects (the indicators with large variance weighs heavily on the overall index) in the measurement procedures in developing countries are well known.

The GSI is made up of three blocks including the social power block, economic power block and political power block. Each block is composed of a number of indicators. The social block includes indicators on education and health; the economic power block includes indicators on income, time use, employment and access to resources and the political power block includes indicators on public sector and civil society political power.

2.1.1 Computation of the GSI

Assumptions underlying computation ofthe GSI The GSI is based on the following assumptions:

• Gender equity and social justice are preferable and important to society than unequal and unjust relations;

• The components of power are related to gender, social, economic, legal and cultural issues and are interrelated. Thus in the GSI, all the three blocks are given equal weights;

• The processes related to women's empowerment have both quantitative and qualitative dimensions and that to capture these dimensions, it is necessary to include both dimensions in women's empowerment policy.

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Table 2.1 :GSI Variables and indicators by components and sub-components

Block

^ocisl rower

Capabilities

Economic Power 'Opportunities'

'oliiical Power Agency'

Component

Education

Health

Income

Time use or employment

Access to resources

Sub Component

Enrolment

Drop out

Literacy

Child Health

Life expectancy ai birth New HIV infection Time spent out of work

Wages

Income

Time use

Employment

Means ofProduction

Management

Public Sector

Civil Society

Indicator

Primary enrolment rate Net Secondary enrolment rate Tertiary enrolment rate Primary dropout ratio Secondary dropout ratio Ability to read and write Primary school completed Stunting under 3 Underweight under 3 Mortality under 5 Life expectancy ai birth New HIV infection Time spent out of work Wages in agriculture Wages in civil service

Wages in formal sector (public and/or private)

Wages in informal sector Income from informal enterprise Income from small agricultural household enterprise

Income from remittances and inter- household transfers

Time spent in market economic activities (as paid employee, own-account or employer)

Time spent in non market economic activities or as unpaid family worker in market economic activities

Time spent in domestic, care and volunteer activities

Or: Share of paid employees, own-account workers and employers in lotal empioyment Ownership of rural/urban plots/houses or land

Access to credit

Freedom to dispose of own income Employers

High civil servants (class A) Members of professional syndicates Administrative, scientific and technical

Members of parliament Cabinet ministers

Higher courts judges Members of local councils

-lighei positions in civil service (including lovemmeni institutions, regional governors and ambassadors)

Senior positions in political parties Senior positions in trade unions Senior positions in employers' associations Senior positions in professional

yndicates

leads or managers of NGOs and leads of community-based ssociations or unions

DATA Women

84.00 12-70 2.90 66.5 84.8 54.6 0.2 30.8 22.4 149.4 50.5 1944

na

870 317890 174022 28307 44880 40700 242100

na

na na

2,882,775 906,551 288067 59.6 9680 171 394

145350 75 15 10 5388

2996 9 30 10

5 378

Men 85.0 12.8 12.5 58.3 62.1 78.0 0.4 35.4 27.4 163.5 45.7 1303.0 na 952 307,890 244,455 35520 56660 60200 143500

na

na na

3,957,654 2,916,179 532276 100 17648 814 1995 277956 230 52 32 7523

11782 50 59 22 22 1567

Indicator 0.988 0.992 0.232 0.877 0.732 0.700 0.639 1.149 1.223 1.094 1.105 0.670

na

0.914 1.032 0.712 0.797 0.792 0.676

1.687

na

na na

0.728 0.311 0.541 0.596 0.549 0.210 0.197 0.523 0.326 0.288 0.313 0.716

0.254 0.180 0.508 0.455

0.227 0.241

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Note: na =not available

Within the social power block, significant progress has occurred in the education sector (0.737) particularly at primary and secondary levels of schooling. However, although the government has made efforts to increase access to primary (0.737) and secondary education (0.805), there is slow improvement as one climbs higher above the education ladder. The index for tertiary enrolment declines significantly indicating a wide gender gap (0.232). In addition, though there has been progress in reducing the gender gap in dropout rates (0.805), female dropout seems to be higher than that of boys especially at secondary level (0.732). on the other hand, literacy levels for those aged 15 years and above still indicate a gap between males and females (0.700) in spite of the progress made through interventions such as Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Functional Adult Literacy programmes.

The indices for the health sector are high (0.977) for all the components particularly with regard to child health (1.156) and life expectancy (1.105), which indicates that females are performing better than the males. The high indices for the health indicators such as stunting (1.149), underweight (1.223) under five mortality (1.093) and life expectancy indicators (1.305) indicate that females perform better compared to males in these areas. However the overall under five and maternal mortality is still high for Uganda. Factors explaining the difference may be more physiological (biological) than social although other factors may influence the final indicator. On the other hand, gender discrimination is more evident with respect to new HIV infection rates as reflected by the index of 0.670. This depicts a higher infection rate for women than for men.

The overall index for the economic power block shows a lower gender gap (0.704), reflecting fair performance in the elimination of discrimination in the various areas under study. The index shows that while the country performs well regarding wages in the formal sector where there is almost no difference between the wages for females and males (1.032)18, a gender inequality is depicted in the other "wage" areas particularly in agriculture (0.914) and informal sector (0.797). However, the gender gap is relatively lower resulting into relatively high index for the wage sub sector (0.864). In the Uganda Civil Service and in the formal sector, there are no differences in salaries between men and women. The differences are due to the duration of service and the scale or level of experience of the person and most women

the index is above one due to the averaging over many scales and levels.

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a) Education

i) Enrolment trends Primary school enrolment

Primary education in Uganda lasts 7 years for children aged 6 to 12 years and the official age for starting primary school is 6 years, although there are some children who start before or after the official school going age. It has been noted that enrolment for both girls and boys has substantially increased since the introduction of Universal Primary Education policy

(UPE) in 1997 and the gender gap in primary enrolment20 has been significantly narrowed

particularly in 2002 and 2003 (Figure 2.1). The figure 2.1 further shows that despite the UPE program the high gender gap persisted until to 2001.

Figure 2.1: Primary School Enrolment by sex for children aged 6-12 years

0.00

□ Male

1 ■ Female

1992 1993 1995 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003

Year

Source: UBOS and MOES

Figure 2.1: Primary School Enrolment by sex for children aged 6-12 years Secondary school enrolment

Secondary school education lasts six years and students sit for examinations at the end of the fourth year (senior four) leading to the attainment of the Uganda Certificate of Education

19 The Non Formal students are neither taught in formal classrooms nor do they follow a systematic curriculum in programmes namely; Complementary Opportunities for Primary Education (COPE), Basic Education for the Urban Poor Areas (BEUPA) and Alternative Basic Education for the Karamoja Area (ABEK)

20 Primary enrolment is defined by the MOES as those pupils who were enrolled at school at the beginning of the la term.

It includes all those on the school register (including repeaters and those temporarily absent) and any who have enrolled but not entered in the register at the time of the Ministry's education census. On the other hand, the household surveys conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) include questions on current school attendance that enables one to estimate enrolment.

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Figure 2.2 Tertiary enrolment by sex 1991-2000

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Years

Source: MOES

Figure 2.2: Tertiary Enrolment by Sex 1991-2000 ii) Dropouts in primary and secondary schools

According the MOES, dropouts refer to the number of pupils who are enrolled in a school during the preceding school year but left school (dropped out) before the end of that school year. It does not include pupils who have transferred to another school. In 2002, the incidence of dropping out for females (49.8%) was slightly lower than that for males (50.2%) for all classes at primary school level (MOES, 2002). Table 2.4 below shows the percentage of pupils estimated to have dropped out of school during the period 1992-2000. Notable is the fact that in the year UPE was launched, the number of pupils who dropped out of school more than doubled the number of estimated dropouts in 1996 (1.7 million children dropped out compared in 1997 to 600,000 in 1996). This may be due to the fact that some parents temporarily enrolled their children in primary schools but withdrew them shortly afterwards, as they could not afford to provide for other requirements like books and uniforms. This implies that there are other factors inhibiting retention that need to be addressed to ensure high completion rates. For instance, of the 254,826 girls who were enrolled in primary one in 1992, only 122,093 (47.9%) girls were enrolled in primary seven in 1998 (assuming that all who were enrolled graduated to a higher grade every school year). This represents a dropout rate of about 48%.

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iv) Factors causing gender disparities in education in Uganda

A range of factors influence the enrolment, persistence and achievement outcomes of girls

and boys in schooling. A number of researches conducted21 in the country categorize the

factors under 3 main themes namely social cultural factors, school related factors and political/economic/administrative factors and these factors reinforce one another to cause gender discrimination and stereotyping and thereby constraining women's participation in education. Under the above themes, the National Strategy for Girls Education (MOES, 1999, pp. 5-6) identifies 18 major barriers to girls/women's participation in education. On the other hand, boys mainly drop out because of engaging in income generating activities and petty trade, domestic chores and peer pressure from earlier dropouts (MFPED, 2003).

(v) Why the progress in education

Education is a key component of the poverty eradication strategy (the PEAP), that has become the government's overarching development objective. The Government of Uganda's commitment to the education sector is reflected in the Education Strategic Investment Plan (ESIP) 1997-2003 and the Strategic and Programme Framework (ESIP Framework).

Deliberate efforts have been made to accelerate the enrolment of females and the disadvantaged by geographical location (ESIP 1998-2003) through a number of policy and programme initiatives such as the National Strategy for Girls Education launched in 1999.

While some of the stated priorities of ESIP are expanding access and increasing equity at all levels of education (MOES, 1998, PP. 3), the major focus has been on basic education particularly on primary education under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme.

Government policy on Universal Primary Education(UPE)

In 1997, the Government of Uganda (GOU) launched a Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme, to provide free primary education up to four children per family with a requirement that 2 of the 4 children should be girls. The current policy of UPE (since 2003) encourages all primary school going age children irrespective of the sex of the child to be at school. The launching of the UPE led to a double increase in enrolment for both boys and girls although the gender gap persisted (Figure 2.1 and Annex 9). It is noted that since 1997, primary enrolment for both boys and girls increased leading to a significant reduction in the

21 Kwesigaand Kasente, 1996; Carasco et al, 1996; ACFODE, 1997; Manyire, 1997; Tumushabe etal, 2000 and

Kwesiga; 2002.

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(vi) Good practices to be emulated

A major success one can draw from the introduction of UPE is that it has without discrimination, attracted many children to join primary schools who hitherto were out of school.

b) Health indicators

Good health is a panacea for a productive population and an ultimate target in eradicating poverty in Uganda. The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health as a lead agency has developed a National Health Policy and a Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP).

The purpose of the plan is to reduce morbidity and mortality from major causes of ill health in Uganda within the framework of the poverty eradication programme. According to the burden of disease study in Uganda, (MOH, 1995), over 75% of the life years lost due to premature deaths were due to preventable diseases including perinatal and maternal related illnesses, Malaria, Acute Lower Respiratory Infections, AIDS, Diarrhoea (MOH, 2000).

Apart from the burden of infectious diseases, Uganda is also faced with the recurrence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, mental illness, cancer hypertension and chronic heart disease (MOH, 1999).

i) Child health

Child stunting and underweight

Anthropometry is used to measure the nutrition status of children. This method is recognized as a way of determining deficits in food energy and proteins that manifest themselves in stunting (slow linear growth) and wasting (current malnutrition or being emaciated). The nutritional status of a given population is based on the assumption that one expects to observe a statistically predictable distribution of children of a given age with regard to height and weight. The observed distribution is compared with the United States National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population as a standard recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). Usually, the nutritional indicators are only meaningful when compared with a standard reference population (in this case NCHS).

Height-for-age is an indicator used to measure stunting and reflects long term or chronic malnutrition. Children in the category are those who are more than two standard deviations below (-2SD) the median of the NCHS reference population recommended by WHO.

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Figure 2.3. Trends in Under five Mortality in Uganda 1991-2000

■ Under 5 mortality rate for girls

- Under 5 mortality rate for boys

Source: UBOS

Figure 2.3: Trends in Under five Mortality in Uganda 199-2000 Reasons for the increase in under five mortality

(a) Low Immunization rates

Data from Uganda Demographic and Health Survey indicate that the number of children who

are fully immunized22 declined from 47% in 1995 to 37 % in 2000 which is far below the

MOH estimated target of full immunization level of 60% in 2000. Government is concerned about the slow progress and as a result, the MOH has established a Task Force on Infant and Maternal mortality, to formulate a comprehensive strategy to address the problem (MFPED, 2003).

(b) High Fertility rate

The level of fertility is important because it presents the prevailing situation and relates it to the population policies and programmes. According to the UDHS 2000/2001, the average number of children born alive to a woman during her reproductive period has remained high at 6.9 despite improvements in contraceptive use. The increase in the use of contraceptives from 15 percent in 1995 to 23 % in 2000/2001 has not yet had an effect on the total fertility levels.

(c) Deliveries supervised by qualified health personnel

22 A fully immunized child should have received one dose of BCG vaccination, three doses of DPT vaccine, three doses of polio vaccine and one dose of measles vaccine.