KAMPALA – Likeminded women’s rights organisations led by Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), anorganization that champions women’s rights through capacity development, community empowerment, policy engagement and strategic partnerships have called for deliberate efforts in curbing down Gender-Based Violence.
These were addressing media on Friday at FOWODE offices in Ntinda as Uganda joins the rest of the global community to commence the commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence under the theme “UNiTE! Activism to end violence against women and girls”.
Supported by the United Nations, the international campaign focuses on the call for the elimination of all forms of Gender-Based Violence, and culminates into celebration of the International Human Rights Day on 10th December.
According to these CSOs, although there are deliberate efforts by the government to fight and end the practices; like the establishment of a gender-sensitive legal and policy framework, and specific laws against GBV, the crimes have persisted with less action being made.
According to the Police Crime Report for 2021, a total of 17,533 Domestic Violence cases; 1,486 cases of rape; 14,570 cases of Defilement, and 16,373 sex-related crimes were registered last year.
“We need to bear in mind that many cases remain unreported due to stigma, the huge dependence on perpetrators for survival, intimidation, accessibility etc,” said the CSO leaders.
“While these numbers on their own are worrying, more terrifying is the prosecution rates (percentages), which is a direct indicator of the low access to justice for survivors of GBV. For instance, in 2021, only 1,640 (9.3%) of Domestic Violence cases were taken to court and only 464 (2.6%) cases secured convictions. Only 667 rape suspects (44.8%) of the total cases) were charged in court with a mere 25 (1.7%) convictions secured. Similarly, only 42% of the registered defilement cases ended up in court with only 939 cases securing convictions,” they noted.
According to them, GBV is a major factor impeding women from full participation in decision making and benefiting from resources in Uganda.
“A UNFPA study estimated that GBV incidents cost the Ugandan economy about UGX 77 billion annually, while a more recent study by FOWODE (Budgeting for Peace 2021), established that GBV has a colossal cost on families. The prevailing GBV trends also directly affect the nature of Uganda’s demographics, which in turn has a direct bearing on the country’s ability to harness the Demographic Dividend.”
KEY CONCERNS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The leaders decried meagre and uncoordinated funding for the community mobilisation and mindset change function.
They say that while the NDP-III recognises the need for mindset change and combating GBV/SGBV to ensure full participation of women and girls in development, the structures mandated with this role are grossly underfunded.
“Reduction of negative cultural practices and attitudes is one of the key mandates of the Community Mobilization and Mindset Change (CMMC) Programme, and its implementation largely lies under the auspices of Community Based Services Department (CBS) at Local Government level.”
“However, the department is grossly underfunded and suffers understaffing challenges. Community Based Services departments reported a 49.5% staffing gap and in FY 2021/22, Government allocated a meagre UGX 7.64 billion for Community Mobilisation and Campaign programmes shared across more than 176 Local Governments. This leaves a funding gap of UGX. 24.75Bn (MoGLSD MPS, FY 2022/23),” they noted in a statement.
While Civil Society Organizations have endeavoured to supplement government’s role with programs such as mass civic education, male engagement, SASA etc, they say that their reach is insufficient and the gross underfunding of Community Based Services departments leaves them unable to fulfil on their key mandate of reducing negative cultural practices and attitudes.
On this, they want the Government through the MoGLSD to prioritise the recruitment of staff under the Community Based Services Departments in Local Governments to at least 70% in the short term (5% above the minimum staffing threshold for Local Governments) to enable Local Governments achieve on the citizen mobilisation mandate to gradually contribute to the reduction of negative cultural practices and attitudes in society.
They also ask for gradual increase allocations for the Community mobilisation and Mindset Change function from the current UGX 7.64bn to at least 10bn in FY2023/24.
The CSOs are concerned with inadequate funding for GBV/SGBV Prevention and Response, noting that the glaring gaps in access to justice point to significant inadequacies in the Justice Law and Order Sector.
“Key institutions such as the Child and Family Protection Unity (CFPU) of Police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) are severely under-funded, which limits their ability to fulfil their mandate.”
They asked the Government to strengthen the mandate of key institutions responsible for GBV prevention, mitigation and management by;
i) Revision of the Chart of Accounts to introduce a specific budget code where all resources and expenses for VAWG/GBV can be tagged. “This will greatly improve on the ability to plan for and track GBV resources for consistent reporting.”
ii) Earmarking and allocation of an adequate budget for the Child and Family Protection Unit (CFPU) of Police to effectively track, investigate and assist in prosecution of GBV related cases. “We propose that the Child and Family Protection Unit (CFPU) is integrated in the new Sub-County Based policing system (with CFPU staff present in every Sub County) to ease access to justice for survivors of GBV.”
