UWONET- Fostering Women's Leadership Uga

General

PROJECT TITLE: FOSTERING WOMen#S LEADERSHIP TO ADVANCE WOMen#S LAND RIGHTS AND ADDRESS VIOLenCE AGAINST WOMen AND GIRLS IN UGANDA. The project builds on the concluded 5-year Raising Her Voice Project (RHVP) which was conceived and designed to influence the UgandaGovernment to ratify and domesticate the Africa Union Protocol on Women#s Rights without harmful reservations; and to contribute topromoting the role of women in the decision-making processes affecting their lives. The five-year Project was launched in 2008 and ended in March 2013. This project will be part of the 2nd phase of the RHV which started march 2014. Although the 2nd phase of the project focuses on fostering Local women#s activism and leadership to advance Women#s land rights and fight against VAW, the 3rd yearof the 2nd phase of RHV will continue to consolidate gains made in advancing women#s land rights and VAW prevention and response The project is intended to build the capacity of grass root political women leaders and women#s rights organisations to engage, influence and lobby for gender responsive programmes and interventions on land and to address VAW issues in line with the Maputo protocol.In 2010 and 2013, the Government of Uganda passed the Domestic Violence Act and the land policy respectively. This project aims therefore to expedite the implementation of these frameworks active engagement of the key stakeholders, majority of who are women (70%). The project will also create important connections between decision making spaces at local (Sub county and district), national andregional levels. The Project consortium members will build the capacity and confidence of women and women leaders to equally influence national policy debates around implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, financing for GBV prevention and response facilitiesand the Land policy with emphasis, succession, inheritance and functionality of Land management structures at Local level. The project will build capacity of informal and formal structuresto strengthen coordination and the referral pathway for increased access tojustice. Through the project, 2 main goals will be realised; 1) National women#s rights organisations and district coalitions working on VAW and women#s land rights will haveimproved capacity to influence government and social actors to address women#s rights violations 2) The Maputo Protocol and other regional declarations on women#s rights will be increasingly applied by national governments and traditional justice mechanisms