By Dr. Joyce Tamale
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I As we celebrate Women’s Week, which precedes the International Women’s Day that fell on March 8th, it’s worthwhile reflecting on a few issues that since passed under our Rader.
Globally, 8th March ushers in the week for the women. These are not just women but great mothers, sisters, friends, wives, daughters, managers, leaders name it.
The International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of change and determination by ordinary women who have played a key role in our organisations, communities and country at large.
This year, the day was celebrated under the theme: “March Forward and Accelerate Action,” calls upon all of us to be pro active. As we commemorate 30 years since the United Nations’ Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for achieving gender equality, we are emphasizing the urgency of making faster strides toward gender equality.
In reference to the role of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in transforming Gender equality, its critical to “Leave no Woman or Girl behind.”
51% of world’s population
Women comprise more than 51% of the world’s population and without them SDGs cannot be achieved. The SDGs have brought a breath of fresh air due to the participatory manner in which gender equality has been embedded in all the 17 goals.
This therefore provides an opportunity for women and girls to position themselves as key actors in influencing prioritisation of our issues in various sectors or platforms such as Health, financial and market inclusion, business, agriculture, tourism, education, politics among others.
In order to embrace the opportunities that will close the gender gaps, women must Accelerate Action not only words! Capital Solutions conducted a study on women entrepreneurs (2020) which availed the fact that women are positioned to bring the necessary change and use social
entrepreneurship as a unique business model. No one argues with the fact that society has problems.
The question is what to do about them. While those on the left side of politics focused on government-funded programs, and those on the right focus on the free market economy, I strongly believe that social enterprises are the solution.
Social enterprise business model
What is a social enterprise business model? Basically, using business as a tool to solve social issues. It certainly brings out a lot of goodwill from the community and breeds beautiful and inspiring visions.
I believe we are seeing the start of something beautiful. While most social enterprises are small, they are growing in number, and have the potential to tackle great issues we face with the environment, poverty, drugs, incarceration, trafficking, homelessness, equality, and mental health.
SDG Goal 5
As we commemorate the Women’s Week, prioritising Gender equality and women’ empowerment is more critical than ever before. While it is acknowledged that women and girls are specifically prioritised under SDG Goal 5, “Achieve Gender equality and empower all women and girls”, it is imperative that SDGs also address gender concerns due to the interconnectedness of women’s rights and realities.
If attempts to implement SDGs only focus on Goal 5 while other goals ignore gender, they risk missing their mark or worse further undermining women’s rights and capabilities.
We also note that whereas SDGs and targets include women and girls. They do not deal with the underlying persistent structural challenges that hinder women and girl’s ability to exercise their rights. The opportunity available for women and girls to for example own land and shelter is compromised by factors such as unequal power relations, decision making, negative cultural norms.
The SDGs seek to actualise the human rights of all people and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
Women acknowledge the significate progress made by government of Uganda in embedding the SDGs in its planning and development frameworks. For instance, the constitution of Republic of Uganda (1995) and the Uganda vision 2040 (2012) capture a number of policies, legal and institutional frameworks addressing the economic, social and environmental dimensions all aiming at improving gender equality.
Full accountability
Women must demand for full accountability at all levels in order to realise the needed Gender equality which eventually will transform Uganda and Africa at large.
Women need to make choices all the time from education, marriage and quality of life for example the number of children and how to space them. Therefore, women should accelerate action to demand for better work environment and a conducive ecosystem for women in business and social entrepreneurship.
I will not look at the 8th March as the only day to celebrate but use the whole week to reflect on progress made to date, celebrate the lives of the “Sheroes” who have made a difference in the lives of women.
There is a lot of work still to be done to Accelerate Action and March forward in all spheres hence balance for equality. I salute all women especially those in the rural areas whose voices sometimes are not heard and need to be amplified for action.
Dr. Joyce N. Tamale (FCCA) is the Co-Founder and CEO Capital Solutions Ltd, and is a Woman Activist.
