Uganda: It is time to sort out women's political participation (opinion)

August 14th, 2009

Kampala (Uganda) - Denial is said to be one of the forms of resistance. Often, when we say, political parties are structured in women's disfavour, those who hold power in the parties resort to denial of any existence of unfairness to women.

This, however, is not because they are unaware, but the message is that; 'we are well aware but are unwilling to execute any reforms'.

Yet, at another level, where such reforms have been done, the policies have been executed so poorly that often, the said policy has lost the intention it was meant to serve. I will use the example of the women's political affirmative seat. Uganda was one of the first countries to embrace the Beijing recommendations of women's affirmative policies. Today, because of the poor implementation of the policy, the women's political affirmative seat has almost lost its meaning.

Figures in the 8th Parliament put Uganda above the 30 per cent Beijing recommendation for women representatives. Disappointing however, is that this figure is a result of the continued creation of districts rather than anything else. Even with the transition to multi party politics, women have continued to be fronted for only the women's seat while at the same time, very few women hold key positions within the party structures.

A study done by Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) in December 2007 showed that DP had 36 per cent representation of women in its highest decision making organ; FDC had 31 per cent, while NRMO had 23 per cent. The analysis did not reach UPC but, there are no miracles to expect either. Using the recent reshuffle in the UPC party, there is almost only one seat for women- the party president.

A delve further into compositions of the various party executives shows that women are either heads of the 'ghettoed' women's leagues or simply deputies. It is in DP that there are three substantive positions for women - National Treasurer, Publicity Secretary and National Youth Leader; in FDC, there is only one position of Secretary General; UPC as mentioned has one position of the party president (who will soon relinquish the position); and disappointingly, there is no substantive position in the NRMO party. The three women on the Central Executive Committee in the NRMO party are in the positions of the Vice Chairperson; the Deputy Secretary General and the usual Women's League Chair.

Such compositions within party ranks pose great challenge for women's future political participation especially that the NRMO party -considered as majoritarian party- has not prioritised women. Examples around the world show that women's political participation has often been strengthened after being prioritised by majoritarian parties. In Germany, there was resistance against women's political participation until the Social Democratic Party (SDP) embarked on mass recruitment of women.

When the SDP established an indicative quota of 40 per cent, the Green Party (GP) mandated an obligatory quota of 50 per cent. In Sweden, when the Liberal Party (LP) adopted the quota procedure, stipulating that 40 per cent of its leadership posts be held by women, the Social Democratic Party quickly followed suit. In South Africa, it was after the massive recruitment of women within party ranks of the African National Congress that other small parties followed suit. The challenge for Ugandan women therefore, is that the seemingly dominant party-NRMO- is yet to consider women within its party ranks. With such a trend, women may find themselves simply deployed in their traditional role as mobilisers. The way to go now is to demand for electoral reforms, which hopefully, should be discussed at an appropriate time.

 

source.The Monitor (Uganda), by Margaret Wokuri