1. Fredskorpset (FK) exchange programme funded by the government of Norway

NAWOU has been on the exchange programme since 2006, first under the partnership with HURINET and later with partners from Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia, as a coordinating partner. The current partners from the countries are Tanzania Association of Non- Governmental Organisations (TANGO), Non-Governmental Coordinating Council (NGOCC), Union of Ethiopian Women Charitable Associations (UEWCA) and NAWOU. Other partners who were regional organisation in Tanzania and Ethiopia were dropped in exchange of the current ones. The focus area of this partnership is human rights with the aim of strengthening networking. We currently have a participant in Zambia. We are hosting a participant from Tanzania.

The project falls under the strategic area of “Empowerment Network” of the FK. Its essence is to build a strong and sustainable network of women empowerment organisations in Africa through exchange of experiences and practices.
The project is coming to an end in June 2016 as the priority areas for the government of Norway have changed to focus on education, health and business development.

2. Combating Gender Based Violence against Women Project” in the Districts of Apac and Mubende with support from Womankind Worldwide UK

 

The project aim is to combat violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Apac and MubendeDistricts. The project seeks to build capacities of local communities and local government service providers to respond to eliminating violence against women and girls.
The overall goals in to contribute to elimination of violence against women and girls in Apac and Mubende Districts through sustainable community based response systems. The objectives of the project are:

• To create community based response mechanisms for prevention and elimination of VAWG in Apac and Mubende Districts.
• To increase women and girls’ access to appropriate legal, medical and psycho social support services.
• To increase community participation and response in prevention and elimination of VAWG in Apac and Mubende Districts.

3. Organisational Assessment and Review of the Strategic Plan

Womankind Worldwide (WK) UK has been a long term partner of NAWOU. It has continued to support NAWOU to grow into a strong women’s organisation. As a result, in March 2014, funding was obtained by WK from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, for organisational assessment and review of the strategic plan. These have been done and the outcome is several institutional development actions that NAWOU has to implement including performance review and review of the human resources manual, Board and staff development, IT support and development of policies.
NAWOUs organisational governance at national and District level is fit for purpose by the end of year two. This entails specifically;

• Ensuring the national governance structure is functional and follows sound governance principles
• Strengthening the District network governance structure so that it is able to provide a platform for promoting the rights of rural women
• Ensuring the policies of the Association guide co-ordination, professionalism, accountability and inclusion with staff, Board, members and partners including donors
4. Capacities to promote gender equality increased in Hoima District

The goal of the project is to enhance the capacities of Member Organizations (MOs) in Hoima District to promote gender equality in policy, programming, and practices in their communities and Districts. Funding was obtained from We Effect (formerly Swedish Corporation) in March 2014 of 600,000 Swedish Kroner per year for three years. This is approximately Shs.237,000.000 per annum. We are in the 3rdyear of implementation. Project performance was not very good in 2015 with budget utilisation of about 89%. We have also not followed up the groups effectively, neither have we documented achievements. The project requires a lot of innovation this year and better performance for us to be selected in the next round.
The development objective of the project is to promote the growth of a strong women’s movement in Uganda that claims the rights of women and enhances their social economic status.
The project overall outcome is: NAWOU Member Organizations in Hoima and Buliisa Districts capacities enhanced to promote gender equality in policy, programming, and practices in their communities and Districts.

The expected outcomes that the project activities are designed to realize are:
• Self-sufficient MOs having capacities to engage with their communities and leaders sustainably to promote gender equality by 2016.
• Up to 50% of the population will be aware of gender equality principles and be gender responsive in the day to day actions and decisions by 2015.
• Male champions, cultural and religious leaders and actively promoting gender equality principles among men and in their communities by the end of 2014 onwards
• The total budget for the project in year one is UGX.237,000,000= (Uganda Shillings, Two hundred and thirty seven only). Budgets for the second and third year are subject to effective delivery in the first and second years respectively.

5. Rapid response to epidemics like Ebola and Marburg (RARE)

The project was borne out of the above relationship where We Effect obtained funding from its partners in Europe to respond to epidemics. They opted to work with existing partners. NAWOU submitted a proposal that was accepted.The aim of the project is to build partners capacities to effectively communicate regarding epidemics. The project was implemented in collaboration with MOH, ACFODE and 5 other We Effect partners. It ended in July 2015. The funding for this project wasShs 99,700,000. The final report for the overall partnership was good and we could use it to justify resource mobilisation in a similar project in future.

6. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

We have been supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) to hold dialogue meetings. The last was dialogue on youth employment held in November 2014. There was a follow up application to developthree policy briefs to lay an advocacy agenda on youth unemployment. It has been difficult to pull this through due to human resources related challenges.

7. The Marketing Department
The Marketing Department continues to deal in crafts. There are supposed to be catalogues that we can upload on the website and photos as well.
8. The Economic Justice for Women Project (Luwero)
Feedback from the women, partners and the recently concluded organisational assessment indicated that NAWOU’s approach to economic empowerment is not diverse and unable to reach all the women of Uganda. It is also not empowering as the Marketing Department sells the products for the women instead of building the capacities of women to produce, add value and market their own products. The Economic Justice for women in Luweero is an agri-business project targeting good farming practices, value addition, value capturing and marketing, working with 26 groups, 2 from each of the 13 Sub-Counties. This is a 2015 project whose funding was obtained in May 2015. It is implemented in partnership with EASSI and FIDA.

NAWOU plans to achieve the following.

Overall: Women organised in influencial and sustainable groupswhose members enjoy economic development.
Specifically;
• Up to 36 Women groups in Luwero District equipped with capacities for improved organising, production methods, value addition and marketing by the end of 2016
• Number of women groups that are members of Luwero women District network by end of 2016.
• Up to 36 women groups in Luwero with have influential voice on productive assets, marketing and related policies by 2018
Advocacy Initiatives
We continue to engage in and be part of national advocacy initiatives.
1. We were part of the influencing the NGO Act Amendment Bill, which has now been passed. There is a general feeling that we got some gains. Some Human Rights Lawyers however do not agree. Overall, if we had not engaged at all, the law could have been worse.
2. With other women’s rights NGOs, NAWOU engaged in the following:
• Advocacy on technology based violence against women which involved circulation of nude pictures of public figures through the media – it seems there has been a reduction in this
• The Marriage and Divorce Bill – we got the Inter-religious Council to support us, which meant dropping off some of the contentious areas
• The engagement with KCCA on treatment of roadside vendors with huge implications on women – we agreed that women’s organisations would partner with KCCA to train Law Enforcement Agents of the Authority. We are also improved relationships between KCCA and vendors
3. Advocacy on good governance
• The Black Monday movement
• The Citizen’s Manifesto
• The previous Women’s Manifesto (not the current one since we believed one Manifesto would suffice).
• Free and fair elections campaign
• Women with a whistle campaign
4. We participated on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2015 in New York. A side event is planned in 2016.
NAWOU had a Consultative status with the ECOSOC but lost it – due to failure to provide annual reports. We need to regain that status.