Our new partner organization: All in One Womens Association
By Ella Verheugen
What can we do but stand together during these difficult times? As an umbrella organization, Kota brings like-minded people and organizations together in order to strive towards the mutual goal: gender equality. Defending women’s rights is a battle we need to continue fighting, especially now. We recently welcomed a new community partner organization, All in One Womens Association (ALOWA), an association of women that was founded with the collective goal to enhance, promote, and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of women in Uganda. We interviewed Marion Kyokuslima, the current Executive Director of ALOWA to learn more about their work in Uganda.
Could you describe what your organization does? What kind of concrete actions do you engage in?
“As a national organization representing women since 2004, ALOWA’s mandate is to achieve equality for all women in Uganda. One of our key objectives is to work towards ending the hostility and violence that LGBTQ individuals in communities face. ALOWA is working to ensure individuals who identify as women, Trans or with a gender identity are protected. We work to claim and secure their Human Rights, support them to live with dignity and without fear and discrimination. ALOWA is actively involved with partner organizations at the local, National and across the globe towards this goal to end the discrimination against women. We have a vision of communities where women: a) Have an opportunity to develop their talents; b) Have an opportunity to participate in political and decision making processes; c) Are encouraged to live healthy lifestyles by maintaining balance; d) Are encouraged to learn their history and traditional ways; e) Accept and exercise their responsibilities to contribute to a strong community; and f) Are accepted in a society free of inequalities and discrimination. Our Mission is to help empower women by being involved in developing and changing legislation which affects them, and by involving them in the development and delivery of programs promoting equal opportunity for all women.”
How was ALOWA born? What urged you to create it?
“ALOWA was born out of a desire to promote gender equality and empower women in Uganda especially those marginalized and living in rural areas. In Uganda, Women’s participation in decision making processes is still very low. Women’s status in the political and public sector is a very recent phenomena and still their participation is very low. They are still largely underrepresented in decision-making positions at all levels. They have also not made major progress in attaining political power in legislative bodies. The number of elected women representatives is still low; More and more women are engaged in formal employment, but are underrepresented in middle and higher management positions; The number of women leaders and decision makers at the various levels of the decentralized government structure is still very low.
There are variety of reasons why women’s participation in political and decision making positions is very low.
Socio-cultural factors: In many communities, traditions continue to emphasize women’s primary roles as mothers and housewives and to restrict them to those roles. A traditional strong, patriarchal value system favors sexually segregated roles, and ‘traditional cultural values’ militate against the advancement, progress and participation of women in any political process.
Religious factors: Religion is another important source of cultural beliefs in most communities. Arguments about women’s inferiority to men are present across all dominant religions, and religion has long been used to exclude women from aspects of social, political, or religious life around the world
Economic factors: Women’s historical experience of discrimination puts them at a disadvantage position economically. Socio-economic status of women to a greater extent play a significant role in enhancing their participation and representation in political decision making bodies. In this regard social and economic status of women in society has a direct influence on their participation in political institutions and elected bodies. In other word Lack of economic resources is one of the biggest obstacles that prevent women from participating in politics in greater numbers. Making it easier for women to access economic resources, therefore, is a key in expanding women’s presence in the political realm
Gender roles-patriarchy: The family is the main institution of patriarchy, which is an important concept in explaining gender inequality. Literarily, it means “the rule of the father”; more broadly, it refers to a society ruled and dominated by men over women. In many societies women are portrayed as weak and incapable of making smart decisions. They have been depicted across generations to be only capable of trivial matters, constantly engaged in gossip and hearsay, utterly incompetent and less intelligent.
Family work and time constraints: Continuing uneven distribution of family care responsibilities means that women spend far more time than men in home- and child-care. Studies repeatedly demonstrate that women pay a “motherhood penalty,” across fields relating not just to the time, effort, and medical care of pregnancy and childbirth, but to the far greater maternal involvement necessary for breastfeeding, and to the persistent tendency of women to do a larger share of childcare as the child grows. Anyone deeply involved in childcare, whether male or female, would face tough time constraints navigating between family responsibilities and a political position; because the work is rarely equally shared, women are more disadvantaged .”
What are the values you wish to promote?
“ALOWA strives to: a) Be the national voice for women in Uganda b) Address issues of concern to women c) Assist and promote common goals, d) Promote equal opportunities for women, e) Serve as a resource, f) Cultivate and teach, g) Assist women’s groups, h) Advance issues and concerns of women, i) Promote women in leadership and j) Link with other organizations with common goals. “
What are your goals as an organization?
“As an organization, our goals include
To raise awareness of the Gender specific rights of Women by through Radio spot messages and Programs, Community meetings, Roundtables, Public Debates and Sensitization workshops
To mobilize and encourage in Uganda to move from the domestic sphere to public sphere through access to information, networking and advocacy
To empower disadvantaged women and enable them involve actively in decision making processes equally as men do in order to improve their living conditions
Advocating for the Promotion and Protection of LGBTQ Rights in Uganda
Promoting Equal Participation of Women and Men in Decision-Making Processes, with Particular Emphasis on Political Participation and Leadership
To develop the capacity of young women to engage more actively and effectively in the protection of women’s rights and personal integrity; and take a lead in the transformation of patriarchal environments that sustain discrimination, oppression and gender inequalities.
To Integrate ICT into the lives of ALOWA members
To mobilize women in small viable groups and make facilities available through training and access to credit for taking up employment and income generation programmes
We work with all these groups, support and courage them to combat discrimination and stigma, using several strategies and advocacy to ensure that their Human Rights are respected.”
How are you funded?
“ALOWA is funded by both local and international funders. Locally, our members mobilize support for the organization. We have several international agencies that support our work. ALOWA membership is comprised of Women’s groups and individuals including politicians, teachers, social workers, lawyers, physicians, students, LGBTQ individuals and health care professionals. ALOWA is a multispecialty organization dedicated to advancing women in governance and improving women’s Rights. Our members contribute resources to the organization that keeps us going.”
How is the situation of women in Uganda?
“The situation of Women in Uganda is very bad. In the Uganda political context, women have made major political gains. For example currently, women in Uganda hold about 34% of the total seats in parliament, more than 33% of local government seats and about 30% of cabinet positions. Despite more than 17 years of promoting women in politics through affirmative action policies, there is still broad resistance in society against women in politics. This then is the background against which women in politics in Uganda have to operate. On the one hand, a "progressive" leadership has responded to women's demands and created a space in the political process thus providing a powerful opportunity for challenging patriarchy and women's subordination and oppression, but on the other hand a predominantly rural and patriarchal society resists change and creates ambivalence among the "progressive" leaders. The result is that women are able to take their place in the representative bodies but they receive little support from "progressive" male colleagues and meet societal resistance in gender equality advocacy. Many women politicians choose the easier way out of moving with the majority and sticking to the safer issues that do not rock the boat. They therefore have to hold hands and navigate a political terrain where opportunity and constraint, promise and peril are never far from each other. The affirmative action provision was a widely debated subject in the recent constitutional review process. The debate is about whether or not reserving seats for women in parliament and local government has had any positive impact on the lives of women and society in general. Those who think it has had no effect conclude that the provision should be deleted from the constitution. This is irrespective of the fact that the constitution clearly and explicitly states that "women have a right to affirmative action" as a means of redressing historical imbalances. The constitution does not condition affirmative action to the performance of women politicians. In other words, the only situation envisaged by the constitution for removing the provision is when there is a clear possibility of achieving gender parity without affirmative action.”
What do you hope to achieve in association with Kota?
“Through joining the membership of Kota, ALOWA hopes to strengthen its capacity in networking and advocacy and we hope the partnership will support both Kota and ALOWA as members of the same family. Sometimes the problems facing communities seem to defy solutions. But the only certainty is that these increasingly complex challenges exceed the capabilities of any single sector or any organization to solve them alone. Promoting women’s participation in political and decision making positions requires close collaboration with a wide range of strategic partners within government, civil society and donor community. By being a member of Kota Alliance, ALOWA will get an opportunity to foster links with other women’s organizations and partners.
The task of supporting and accompanying Women to achieve sustainable development includes supporting women as they identify and claim their rights. ALOWA’s move to more rights-based approaches includes ensuring support for local advocacy initiatives. This work includes political awareness education, community-based facilitation and institutional support regarding access to government and other jurisdictional structures. In addition, together with its partner networks like Kota, ALOWA will bring a multi-level capacity to address issues at Local, national and international levels and bring local experience into the international public policy debate on key issues about support to women’s participation in political and decision making positions.”
What do you hope to achieve within next year?
“We want to work to achieve gender equality and empower women in Uganda. ALOWA will continue working with Local Governments, Civil Society Organizations, Political parties and key people like Members of Parliament, Political party leaders, academicians, Human Rights activists, Religious leaders, Judicial Officers, representatives from security agencies among others as one way of gaining their support for women’s participation in political and decision making processes. To enhance women participation, ALOWA will continue working to ensure that women’s equal rights with men in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres are recognized. Uganda is supposed to have general elections in 2021. Accordingly, women have the right to take part in the conduct of general elections, public affairs, directly and through freely elected representatives, the right to vote and to be elected to any level of government offices and to be a member of any political organization, labor union, trade organization or employers or professional association of their choice. As a result of this, the number of women in decision making and leadership roles will increase considerably. It’s what we intend to achieve.”