Gender and Trade: EASSI Trains Women Informal Cross Border Traders in Uganda

A recent research done by EASSI revealed that cross-border trade at informal sector level is a strong component of intra-regional trade and an important aspect in the East African Community integration process. Women in the EAC region have been at the forefront of cross border trade both as a source of income and employment, yet their experiences have not been adequately documented to advocate for improved trade conditions.  Women constitute the largest proportion in this sector, engaged in small scale business transactions in a range of products. According to a UNECA study, trade provides 60% of non-agricultural self-employment in sub-Saharan Africa with informal traders representing 70%-80%.

To enhance the capacity of women informal cross border traders  (ICBTs) and impart them with business skills and  knowledge  in order to contribute to improved business conditions, EASSI is currently conducting a training of some of these women in Uganda.  This is one of the activities under her Gender and Trade Project in the EAC. The training will take place for two days and given the entire package, it is expected to increase their knowledge in gender and trade to reduce transaction costs and eliminate the non-tariff barriers in order to increase their trade volumes.

The training in session

The training comes after an assessment that was done by EASSI at the EAC border points to identify the needs of these Informal Cross Border Traders. Some of the identified training needs are already being addressed in the ongoing training by the facilitators. The Uganda training is the first of similar national level trainings that will take place in the rest of the partner states of the EAC. Our partners in the Gender and Trade Project (Uganda Export Promotion Board and Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry) are also on board to facilitate sessions during the training.

The training will, among others, delve into the Customs Union & Common Market Protocols that will look at opportunities for women traders and existing challenges for women traders. Participants will also learn about Tax regimes in the EAC region & harmonization of National Legislation on Trade Labor Law. There will be in-depth discussions on Entrepreneurship / Business management; Networking for Business growth; as well as Savings and Credit Schemes – Loans Management and Access to Credit. The women will get to elect leadership for an Association for the Uganda Chapter to wind up the training.

 Participants of the training

The Gender and Trade Project recognizes that despite the integration of the East African countries and the coming into force of the customs union and common market protocols, women continue to engage in informal cross border trade by using illegal border crossing routes and middlemen who exploit them and take advantage of their ignorance.

Overall, the project seeks to support  women cross border traders in the informal economy to increase their trade volume, reduce transaction costs and eliminate the non-tariff barriers which remain obstacles to trade including sexual and other forms of harassment - by arming them with information and supporting their collective organization. The expected outcomes of the training include:

•  Enhanced coordination of support efforts to women in trade at policy level;

• Improved knowledge of trade issues among the different women  traders in the EAC partner states; and

• A regional small scale trade association for women traders established

The training falls under the women’s rights and gender equality programme of EASSI and it is tagged to the EAC Campaign for a Gender and Development Protocol. As East Africa moves towards integration, women should not be left behind especially in the area of trade/economic empowerment.

p.s. – more about our gender and trade work at http://www.eassi.org/publications/cat_view/119-eassi-gender-and-trade-project

Local government officials want 40% of health budget

Local government leaders, under their umbrella organisation Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA), have asked the Ministry of Health to allocate them at least 40 per cent of the budget, saying they do more work than the central government which takes the biggest chunk. This follows the proposal from the 2012/13 national budget frame work paper which suggests 17 per cent, way below the 35 per cent allocated to the health sector under the local government in the last financial year. The ULGA vice president, Ms Josephine Kasya, during the ULGA negotiation and advocacy meeting held in Kampala yesterday, said there was need to harmonise the funds given to the two sectors. The president of the same organisation, Mr Peter Odok, expressed disappointment over the level of “selfishness” at the central government. “If we cannot get 50 per cent, let the ministry give us 40 per cent and we will use it to improve service delivery rather than giving 83 per cent of the funds to people who sit in offices and draw plans to implement yet they don’t want to give the money for implementation,” Mr Odok said. The local government officials accused the central government of a deliberate move to under look them, an allegation which the central government representative from the Ministry of Health, Dr Isac Ezati, said would be addressed by the relevant authorities.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Local+government+officials+want+40++of+health+budget/-/688334/1407542/-/7g8o0x/-/index.html

Basic maternal care could ease Uganda's fistula problem

Ugandan women face a higher risk of fistula due to a lack of skilled birth attendants in the country. The Commissioner Clinical for Clinical Services Dr Jacinto Amanduaau old Daily Monitor that 15 per cent of labours in Uganda require the aid of a professional midwife, but most women have to do without such essential medical care. Fistula is usually caused when a woman is in labour for too long or the delivery is obstructed. The condition can cause an abnormal opening of the birth canal which often leaves the woman with a recurring problem with leaking urine and feacal matter. Dr Amandau was speaking at the launch of the country's new fistula care programme.  Authorities in Uganda recognise there is a fistula problem and they want to ascertain the scale of it and develop new ways to address the issue. The latest official figures are from 2006 and show that 2.64 per cent (200,000) of Ugandan women have suffered from symptoms of fistula.  

 

http://www.figo.org/news/basic-maternal-care-could-ease-ugandas-fistula-problem-0010063

2012 is an even year and that means something in the Sebei Region - FGM!

The dreaded time of the year 2012 (for some) is fast approaching.  2012 is an even year and in the Sebei and Pokot region, the surgeon's blade will be the language come December. Young girls will either be forcefully OR ignorantly circumcised or they will turn up for FGM because they believe that it is cultural and one must never go against culture. Sadly, women who refuse to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) in Pokot and Tepeth communities in Karamoja sub-region are forcibly cut by traditional birth attendants while delivering. The law against FGM is in place and the Sabiny contributed to its formation, according to sources interviewed by EASSI. It was not imposed on them at all, rather it was through participatory dialogue. Kenya, Uganda's neighbor to the East also banned the unkind cut in 2011, months after Uganda. And now the East African Community is to legislate against FGM.

Plans are underway to implement an FGM law at a regional level, Dora Byamukama, a legislator at the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) member recently revealed. “One of the fundamental principles of the East African treaty is that member states observe human rights which include women’s rights. This principle also calls for legislation against harmful practices like FGM. 

Beyond the blade, what are these woman and gils being subjected to?

HIV/AIDS, Obstructed labor, permanent damage to their bodies, DEATH is the extreme! Must we even have a law against a practice that leads to these kinds of burdens on the victims and their families?

Without even looking at the law and others that are yet to come, how about door to door awareness campaigns? community conversations and yes education campaigns - or literacy campaigns. With matters of life and death, are income generating alternatives even viable? changing mindsets with the end results of FGM as the center of focus are enough a starting point for surgeons, strong believers in culture and the victims - willing and unwilling. Unrelenting advocacy against FGM is what needs to be done. Lets not leave anyone in the dark.

EASSI is at this for the year 2012 - and we are sure that the results will be there.

Bare breasts and the naked face of official brutality

Several armed riot police swooped on Turinawe’s car to stop her from travelling to an opposition rally.

One officer then repeatedly went for her right breast, squeezing it violently as Turinawe screamed and fought him. Eventually, she was yanked out of her car and bundled into a police van.

Until now, police and other security officers who crack down violently on the opposition in Uganda have been promoted.
Indeed, at the height of the Walk to Work protests by the recently banned Activists for Change (A4C), a senior officer who did not violently break up one of the walks was demoted to oversee a decrepit police garage.
The difference this time was that the breast-attack on Turinawe was not just bizarre, but disturbing in a strange sort of way.
The video of the attack that was posted on YouTube sparked notably angry responses.
There are many other stories in this, though. In the 1990s, East Africa witnessed the rise of militant street political activism by women.
Kenya was the epicentre, and the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai the poster girl of the movement.
Women’s activism seemed to die down in the mixed democratisation wave that swept the region, but is now on the rise again.
In Kenya, activist Ann Njogu has been flying the new flag. In Uganda, Turinawe is the face of the new feminism.
There is something unnerving about Turinawe. Literally every other month, she is either beaten up by security officers (sometimes badly), or is arrested, or is in court.
She most spends more time in hospital, prison, at rallies, and in court than in her house. No matter how much she is struck down, she will get up and defy power again.
Second, it is reveals a striking pattern in the way East African Men of Power use intimate body parts to terrorise their people.
In West Africa, both rebels and unruly government soldiers like to cut off the genitals of their male opponents and eat them.
Sourced from the East African Newspaper

Today it is Ingrid, but tomorrow it will be you

The word revulsion does not capture the feeling, but it comes quite close to describing my reaction to images of last week’s sexual assault on Ingrid Turinawe, the leader of the FDC Women’s League, which was perpetrated by a Uganda Police officer, acting on behalf of the ruling regime. Most of the world did not have any doubt about what happened to Ms. Turinawe. The television images and still photographs reached us in Toronto, as they did all over the world, within minutes of the attack. Uganda’s image took another beating, made worse by the feeble response of the regime’s spokespersons, who could not bring themselves to call the attack what it was – a crime of sexual assault against a citizen. I choose my words very carefully and deliberately. So I invite you, Tingasiga, to note that I have not said “alleged sexual assault.” The crime committed by the policeman was captured live on video. Only those addicted to self-deception would waste time discussing the nature of the crime that was perpetrated against an innocent woman. I hear that the government spin-masters are claiming that the criminal police officer was a woman as if the gender matters. The only civilized action that the government must take against the policeman is to arrest him and charge him with assault causing bodily harm, sexual assault and other crimes that the learned fraternity is adept at compiling. One hopes that Ms Turinawe herself will launch a case against the policeman, the police and government. 

 http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/MuniiniMulera/-/878676/1396302/-/6ac25jz/-/index.html

The EAC-GIZ-EASSI Gender week in focus

The East African Community Secretariat (EAC) in collaboration with German Agency for International Co-operation (GIZ), East African Sub-Regional Support Initiative (EASSI) and Arusha Municipality have jointly organized a series of activities to mark Gender Week from 5-9 March, 2012 in Arusha, Tanzania. The event coincides with the World International Women’s Day on 8^th March and linked to the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Campaign to End Violence Against Women UNiTE on 9^th March.

This event will bring to focus the critical need to end gender violence, especially against women and children in our region,’’ said the EAC Deputy Secretary General in Charge of Productive and Social Sectors, Jean Claude Nsengivumwa. 

He added: ‘’Domestic violence is a deadly crime, a social menace, and a costly public health problem. Domestic violence can explode anywhere, anytime. We all have to make concerted efforts to avert the violence through increased awareness.’’

International sports icon Ambassador Dr Tegla Loroupe of Kenya, a former two-time world record holder in women’s marathon, will be special guest during the event.

Ambassador Loroupe is well known in the region as a firm activist against women and children violence. She has, among others, reformed a significant number of armed warring cattle rustlers in Northern Kenya, Southern Sudan, North-Eastern Uganda and Ethiopia and is famed for having brought considerable peace to these troubled- areas which has won her numerous regional and international awards.

Among the highlights of the activities is a workshop to sensitize EAC staff on how to mainstream gender in their programmes and activities on Monday(5^th March) at the Snow Crest Hotel.

The GIZ Support to the EAC Integration Process Programme Manager, Bernd Multhaup says:

The equality of women and men is an integral part of GIZ’s corporate culture’’, adding that GIZ has a long-standing tradition of gender mainstreaming, and its constantly updated gender strategy is based on the assumption that development would only be sustainable if women and men benefit equally from political, economic, social and cultural development, and if they fully exploit their potentials. 

Recent ‘EAC Gender Audit’ has acknowledged the EAC –GIZ Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) component as a best- practice for gender mainstreaming in EAC programmes.