Training Women to Hold Governments Accountable - Uganda July 2010

In July, 2010, Inclusive Security traveled to Entebbe, Uganda, to help women leaders strengthen their advocacy skills and identify actions to take that would hold the government accountable for recovery and development in conflict-affected Northern Uganda.

This training was organized by the Ugandan-based Isis-Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange. It convened 22 members of the Women’s Task Force for a Gender Responsive Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda, a coalition of 18 women’s organizations from the north and Kampala.

The PRDP is a post-conflict recovery plan designed to regain and consolidate peace in Northern Uganda. Its mission is also to lay the foundations for reconstruction after more than 20 years of civil war and population displacement.

The goal of the Women’s Task Force for a Gender Responsive PRDP is to ensure the effective inclusion of women in PRDP implementation. The task force has conducted a participatory needs assessment, played a role in PRDP monitoring and coordination structures, and led awareness activities and capacity building at the national and local levels.

Training sessions focused on gender, advocacy, monitoring, and evaluation and featured exercises on ally and target mapping, advocacy messaging, and strategic planning. Participants worked in groups divided by sub-region to draft advocacy action plans. The groups representing the north primarily focused on district-level advocacy while women from Kampala developed action plans for national-level targets.

Task force members engaged in lively discussions about the challenges of taking part in advocacy and impact monitoring with few resources and sticking to organization mission statements, not bowing to donor whims.

Training participants agreed on the steps they need to take individually and collectively to ensure gender perspectives are incorporated and women assume leadership roles in recovery efforts in the North.

For more information about Inclusive Security's training in Uganda, or Inclusive Security's work in Uganda more generally, please contact Evelyn Thornton.