UWOPA, Women Movement Organizations Want Government – to Drop Proposal to Merge UWEP WITH Parish Model
Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA), the women movement organizations supporting women’s matters have applied to the government not to merge the Uganda women entrepreneurship program(UWEP) fund with the parish development model program because it will affect the achievements made.
Addressing the media at FIDA -Uganda headquarters in Nakawa, the chief executive officer FIDA- Uganda Lillian Byarugaba noted that merging the UWEP fund will derail Uganda’s efforts to realize the sustainable development goals especially SGD 5 on gender equality and SDG one on poverty.
“We call on the government to re-evaluate the implementation of the proposed parish development model to make it Gender-responsive and transformative to its intended beneficiaries ’’, Byarugaba noted.
The women’s movement also urge the MPs to add their voice to call for the preservation and capitalization of the fund to translate into substantive economic empowerment for Uganda.
They say the fund must be maintained as an independent, women –centric initiative under the supervision of the ministry of gender, labour and social development.
Lillian adds that amalgamating funds under (UWEP) to finance the parish development model further means that women of Uganda will return to the difficult position of having to compete for the limited resource basket as it was before the program was rolled out.
Ronah Babwetera head of gender at UGAnet noted that with the fund available women are presented with an opportunity to access interest-free credit, market information, and technical expertise.
They say that the plan defeats the very purpose for which the women-centric (UWEP) was created to improve access to financial services for women and equipping them with skills for enterprise growth.
They say (UWEP) being women-focused takes into account the status of women and the unique barriers they face accessing credit and capital.
The women organizations included Landnet, a forum for women’s democracy, UWONET, women’s international peace center, UGANET, among others.
