Remarks at the national commemoration of International Women's Day

Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda

The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports

The Minister of Gender Labour and Social Development

All Ministers and senior Government officials

Heads of Diplomatic Missions

Members of Parliament, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be with you here today, representing our United Nations family in Uganda at the National Commemoration of International Women’s Day. I express our sincere thanks to the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the National Organising Committee for a great job in organising this wonderful commemoration.

Your Excellency, the UN system in Uganda recognizes and applauds the Government of Uganda for her commitments to Innovation, Technology and Education in the digital age as important tools for promoting gender equality as outlined in Vision 2040, which identifies ICT as a fundamental aspect to foster Uganda’s transformation into a modern and prosperous country. It outlines interventions under the ICT sector to uplift the most disadvantaged population including women. Relatedly the Third National Development Plan (NDP III), commits government to focus on promoting the use of ICT in the entire economy and society through among others digital inclusion and citizen participation; promoting innovation and commercialization of ICT products; and enhancing digital literacy and developing skills; among others.

This year’s theme "Equal Opportunities in Education, Science and Technology for Innovation and a Gender Equal Future" recognizes the catalytic role that advancing gender equality can have on our overall development agenda. Bringing women and other marginalized groups into technology results in more creative solutions and has greater potential for innovations that meet women’s needs and promote gender equality.

Yet, even as we will continue the work started, the reality is women still enjoy less than their rightful share of the overall development progress we are making globally and nationally – across all SDG areas – in poverty reduction, education, health, decent jobs, etc. Great inequality remains across board, with women faring less well.

In his message for International Women’s Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres notes “Women’s exclusion from the digital world has shaved an estimated US$ 1 Trillion from the GDP of low and middle-income countries in the last decade - a loss that could grow to $ 1.5 trillion by 2025 without action. Investing in women uplifts all people, communities and countries. Let us work together – across governments, the private sector and civil society – to build a more inclusive, just and prosperous world for women, girls, men and boys every where”

The SDG framework offers an inspiring and inclusive vision of the future: a world free from poverty, inequality, injustice, and discrimination; and a healthy planet for present and future generations. It takes a holistic approach to addressing these challenges and prioritizes gender equality as both a standalone goal and a cross-cutting one because we know that without significant progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, the SDGs will not be achieved.  And as the national development plan is the national articulation of SDG implementation, we can draw the same conclusion that we need progress towards gender equality and empowerment for Uganda to achieve its own Vision 2040.

According to the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) 2022 Market Performance Report, the total number of internet-enabled gadgets connected to the networks stood at 10.9 million gadgets, as at June 2022. This translates to only a little over 20 percent of the population of Ugandans that are connected to the internet. The count of feature phones and basic phones connected to the network grew to 25 million gadgets reflecting the growth in adoption of new phones and corporate marketing activities.

Despite this great progress, the benefits of the internet have not reached everyone equally, especially in the underserved areas of Uganda. This limited access to the internet has created a digital divide, which impacts on the country’s development. Uganda still faces significant challenges in expanding internet access to underserved areas. One major challenge is the lack of infrastructure including electricity, internet cables, and telecommunication masts or towers, in rural areas. Secondly, the high cost of internet-enabled devices and limited digital literacy also pose significant barriers to internet access for many people that do not live within urban areas. The cost of internet access remains high at an average of USD 84 per Mbps. According to the ICT issues paper – Budget Consultative Workshop 2019/20, the NITA-U services internet bandwidth is $70/MBs/month, consequently only 1.1% of women and 3.7% men used internet. In addition, according to the 7th Annual Report on the State of Equal Opportunities in Uganda and Gender and Equity ICT Compact 2017, only 0.8% female had email addresses compared to 3.4% male.

Therefore, there is need to expand the national coverage of the national backbone to bring on board all parts of the country and to benefit especially rural women. The increase in broadband access will benefit institutions like schools, Community Libraries, Health Centers, and Local Government offices are not using broadband for efficient and effective service delivery. Increased access to the internet will also facilitate the growth of e-commerce, allowing small businesses to reach a wider market and grow their customer base and increase access online work opportunities.

We should all work together to eradicate barriers at every level in Education for girls such as fees and requirements charged by Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools, which the most vulnerable in society cannot afford. There is need for concerted efforts in admission equity rather than just equality, and a need of curriculum and study material standardisation from the early levels of education in order to avoid inequality.

According to the Uganda Poverty Status Report for 2021 produced by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the poverty rate was lower by 15.75 per cent and 23.07 per cent for households with at least one beneficiary of Senior Citizens’ Grant (SCG) and Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) interventions compared to those who did not receive the intervention. The poverty-reducing impact of these programmes gives hope that interventions planned in NDP III and the Parish Development Model (PDM) could be transformative if they are effectively and efficiently implemented.

Your Excellency,

We pledge to continue working with the Government and other stake holder to advance gender equality which is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Happy International Women’s Day.