Amongi credits Uganda's laws for surge in women leadership

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The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Betty Amongi, has revealed that Uganda’s enabling laws, which promote equality and outlaw discrimination against women, have led to an increased number of women in leadership positions.

She said the 1995 Constitution’s affirmative action provisions also address existing imbalances, favouring women and marginalised groups.

Amongi noted that women now hold significant leadership positions, with 45% in Cabinet, 34% in Parliament, and 45.7% in Local Government.

She made the remarks at the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 2025 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The session is running from March 10 to 21, 2025.

The laws, according to Amongi, include the Land Laws, Succession (Amendment) Act, Female Genital Mutilation Act, Domestic Violence Act, and the Children (Amendment) Act.

Amongi reaffirmed Uganda’s commitment to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, saying the Ugandan government has registered significant progress on the implementation of the declaration over the last 30 years.

She said women’s economic empowerment has been prioritised, revealing that Uganda has initiated several programmes providing access to affordable capital like the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP), Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), and Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW).

Amongi said Uganda has constructed infrastructure to support women in business, such as markets and user facilities to support business product development. She also mentioned innovation and value addition programmes, running free programmes to help women with certification of their products to facilitate access to markets.

She said they have also supported women to register their businesses, leverage information technology facilities for financial inclusion, and supported programmes to move women’s businesses from informal sectors to formality.

“The government has made reforms in land and property laws to allow women access to land, own property, and secure rights for agricultural land. The Succession Act has also been amended to allow girls to be heiresses for the estate of their family,” she noted.

The minister said the government introduced free education from primary to secondary in 1990 and 2000, respectively.

She said the affirmative action of 1.5 points for women and girls on admission to universities and an additional 1.5 points for girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields.

Amongi said there are also skilling programmes targeting rural girls, especially those who have either never gone to school or have dropped out. She described this as “second chance education” for adolescent girls who get pregnant and those forced into child marriage before completing their education. She also encouraged pregnant or breastfeeding adolescents to complete national examinations.

The minister added that the government has invested in the healthcare system for women by constructing special maternal wards for specialised comprehensive treatments of women and youth-friendly corners for adolescent girls at all health facilities.

She also said the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has transformed the justice system and put in place Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) courts to fast-track reported cases of SGBV.

“Deliberate efforts are taken to ensure survivor and witness protection. GBV Shelters are in place to provide emergency care and support to survivors of GBV,” Amongi said.

The minister said these achievements did not come on a silver platter because the women had to organise, mobilise, advocate, caucus, and build coalitions to push these issues during the creation of the Constitution, laying a firm foundation for women’s rights in all spheres.