LESSON
Lesson Learned: Strengthening Young Women’s Civic Participation and Leadership in Uganda
Male perceptions regarding the risks encountered by politically empowered women within their communities need to change. Active involvement of men and boys in the needs assessment would have helped in identifying from the very beginning, specific risks related to sexual and gender based violence that challenged the project, and would have helped gain active support of young men in preventing SGBV and discrimination against young female leaders in Uganda.
Project Partner
Century Entrepreneurship Development Agency
Project Description
The project’s objective was to strengthen the political leadership capacity of 1,500 young women from 10 public and private universities based in five districts of Uganda. The grantee aimed to increase awareness among the project’s target group and to provide them with access to information about women’s political life, as well as civic, voting, electoral and democratic processes. This was expected to enhance the leadership capacities of the young women to participate in the March 2016 general elections. Following these elections, an additional component was included in order to create a platform for leadership development of young women in Uganda.
Although women’s political advancement at the time of project implementation was a national priority, the actual implementation of related international, regional and national legal and policy commitments remained an important challenge. This was due to persisting socio-cultural factors, such as the high illiteracy rate among youth and girls, lack of access to appropriate information related to political, human and civic rights, early marriage and sexual and gender based violence. While highly relevant in this respect, the project did not address the significant risk of SGBV that young women are exposed to because of their interest in political participation.
Evaluation Date
May 2017
Theme
Country