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Patricia Munabi Babiiha, Executive Director
Richard Mugisha, Programme Officer/Research & Publications
Mission
To promote gender equality in all decision-making through advocacy, training research and publishing.
Geographical area of operations
Nationwide
Issues area of operations
FOWODE's objectives are:
To identify and implement strategies to increase women’s participation in all areas of decision making including the establishment of a research and training centre of women’s leadership.
To advocate for gender equality in laws, policies and programmes.
To provide a forum for women and other marginalized groups to influence public policy through dialogue and negotiation.
To sensitise and educate women, people with disability, young people and other vulnerable groups in society about their human and civic rights.
To encourage collaboration of women leaders in the Eastern African sub-region and internationally through information exchange, seminars, workshops and conferences.
To cooperate with other women organisations in working towards the goal of gender equality.
Activities
Activities of the FOWODE Centre fall under 3 programme areas: Training, Advocacy, Research and publications.
Training programme
The aim of this programme is to bridge the gender skills gap by training women aspiring for and in decision-making positions.
Parliamentarians project
This recently concluded project provides training services women MPs and MPs representing people with Disabilities, Youth and Workers.
The aim of this project was to increase effectiveness in parliament and in delivering constituency services. Training materials developed have been used to train women politicians in African countries.
The local Government Project
A large project designed to prepare women who have filled the 1/3 quota of all local government seats for their new tasks.
FOWODE has designed a local government effectiveness-training (LGET) package and conducted training of trainers and training of more than 2000 local government councillors. The LGETcan be adapted and used to train grassroots women in other countries.
The objective of projects in this programme is to advocate for gender equality and equity.
The Gender Budget project
Is being implemented at the national and district levels. Its objective is to advocate for gender-balanced pro-poor budgets, and for more transparent and participatory budget-making processes. FOWODE has been implementing the gender budget project for the last three years. Click here to download a profile of the gender budget project (WORD document).
Using the concept of "The Gender Budget", FOWODE has developed a Gender Budgeting Training (GBT) package which can be used to lobby for gender-balanced national and local government budgets that can address the needs of poor women and men, girls and boys and give full attention to the disadvantaged groups such as people with disabilities. The GBT package is most effective when used by a partnership of Members of Parliament, Local Government Councilors, Gender Research and Advocacy Organisations, Community Based Organisations (CBOs), and Media Representatives committed to the goal of justice and human rights. The package can also be very useful to a CBO or any group which wishes to influence a local government or national budget. Click here to download a GBT brochure (WORD document).
Gender dialogues
The FOWODE Centre organises dialogues on policy issues of topical concern with the aim of widening public policy process especially economic policy.
This programme also includes research studies and workshops all aimed at influencing policy.
Research and publications programme
Includes projects, which document the situation of women and men in Uganda, highlight gender issues and recommend policy interventions. It includes activities to publish and share information.
Current projects include
Women’s Intergenerational learning and documentation (WILD) Project. Women activists of all ages are working together to share experiences and document the women’s struggles for a political voice and to influence the political process in Uganda. The history will be published in a book and several other popular forms.
FOWODE publishes issue briefs for MPs to provide them with a gender perspective and data on issues before parliament.
The FOWODE Centre publishes a Newsletter SPEAK which provides a forum for sharing ideas and experiences and encourages debate on issues of critical concern to women.
The Centre reference library used by women leaders, academicians and NGO activists focuses on gender, governance and development issues. It has an Internet facility, a press cutting service as well as some periodicals, reports and books.
Affiliation(s)
FOWODE belongs to several national, regional and international networks working for gender equality. It has provided training in advocacy, gender analysis and effectiveness in legislatures for women politicians and NGO activists in several African countries. FOWODE works closely with UN agencies and regional bodies such as UNDP and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Dissemination
Listed above under Research and Publications programme.
Target Audience
Women leaders, academicians and NGO activitists.
Additional Information
Organisational profile:
General Assembly
Full membership is open to women and men who share our values and goals of gender equality, democracy, respect for human rights and peace.
Associate membership includes students who share our values and goals.
Every 2 years the General Assemble elects the 9-member Executive Committee, which oversees implementation of programmes and fund-raises. The Centre has 7 full time and 4 temporary staff members and one intern.
Making NAADS work for women: Enhancing women’s entitlements and effective participation in NAADS
In 2004, OXFAM GB in Uganda and Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) conducted an assessment to establish the impact of National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) of Uganda, the most advanced Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) component so far on female subsistence farmers. The intention was to determine the level of consonance between NAADS activities and budgets with the agricultural needs of grassroots poor women and men. A report was published which sparked off a debate on the findings of the research. Among other things it was noted that a wider study on the impact of PMA/NAADS in other districts would have helped to strengthen the research and that important variables needed to be included.
As a follow up to the recommendations that emerged from the previous research, FOWODE increased its sample size to three districts and a research on “Making NAADS work for women: Enhancing women’s entitlements and effective participation in NAADS” was commissioned in 2006. The report of the research is now available from FOWODE.
A two-day Gender budget training workshop in HIV/AIDS
The goal of the training workshop is to impart skills and techniques on how
to use gender budgeting to analyze HIV/AIDS programmes.
The 5th regional one-day annual gender budget Network meeting.
The goal of this meeting is to understand the progress of gender budgeting
in the Eastern Africa Region and design strategies on how to influence the
regional global economic policies and programmes.
The training will run for two days from 12 - 13th while the annual meeting
will be held on 14th June 2006.The annual meeting will be divided into three components. They include:
Shifting gender budget from awareness level to practical level; second
component, Gender Budgeting in East Africa: Sharing experiences, and the
third; Developing a mechanism of engaging CSOs for Gender Budgeting in the
East African Community as an institution.
Participation
Self-sponsorship is highly encouraged from participants for both
foreign and host country. Those who are interested in participating should
submit their profiles by either fax or email to the conference coordinator.
Cost to the conference will include registration fee ($100USD), travel,
accommodation and meals.
FOWODE will sponsor 10 participants from the region: 2 from Kenya, 2 from
Tanzania, 2 from Rwanda, 2 from Ethiopian, 2 from Southern Sudan and 30 from
Uganda. This will cover the cost of travel, accommodation and
meals. Those interested in participating should submit their profiles by
either fax or email to the conference coordinator.
Arrival date
Participants will be expected to report on 11th June 2006 at the hotel of
residence at 16:00hrs.
For more information, contact:
Mr. Mukunda Julius
Program Director, Gender Budget Program
FOWODE
P.O. Box 7176, Kampala
Tel: 256-41-286063
Fax: 256-41-286029
Email: fowode@utlonline.co.ug
Internship Program for Young Women Leaders, Application deadline: 5th May 2004
FOWODE is a non-partisan organisation whose mission is to promote gender equality in all decision-making through advocacy,
training, research and publishing. This year FOWODE has started an internship
program for young women. The objectives of the program are:
to build a young leadership that has a vision and commitment to gender
equality, social justice and social transformation
to give young women with a first degree the opportunity to acquire work
experience
to provide skills to young women in project planning and management
to introduce young women to a gendered analysis of institutions so that
they can deepen their understanding of leadership
Qualifications:
must be between the age of 22-30 years
must have graduated not before 2003
must be interested in gender and women issues
the applicant must be recommended by a women's organization or by an
institution that promotes gender and women issues
Must have a degree in social sciences.
Duration: 6 months
Interested applicants should send their application to the Executive Director,
Forum for Women in Democracy, Plot 80A Kiira, P.O Box 7176, Kampala, or by email
to fowode@utlonline.co.ug.
Closing date: Not later than 5th May 2004.
East African Gender Budget Sub Regional Conference, June 17 - 21, 2002
Forum for Women in democracy (FOWODE) with the assistance from UNDP is organising a gender budget sub regional conference. The rationale for this conference is to share countries experiences of gender budget initiatives in the eastern sub region of Africa and further advocate for gender equity in budgets. This conference is the last activity of our grassroots women leaders project. Other activities done under this project include gender budget training workshop, gender advocacy training workshop and the gender budget advocacy campaign workshop. Click here for the Aide Memoire for the meeting.
The East African Meeting on Alternative Leadership, May 23 - 26, 2002
FOWODE with support from Ford Foundation will convene a meeting of East African researchers and activists working to promote alternative and transformative leadership. The meeting of 40 participants to be held in Uganda will review the existing forms of leadership and explore alternative and transformative modes of leadership and share strategies. The perspectives and experiences of the participants will be documented and disseminated widely in the region in order to strengthen institutions working in this field. Click here for the Aide Memoire for the meeting.
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