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Funders:
USAID/ Uganda civil society strengthening
activity
Goal: Empowering women-led civil society organizations
in Uganda with skills and knowledge to defend their rights to freedom of
expression and access to information
Project
Overview
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) will
implement its Freedom of Expression and Right to Access of Information Support
Program for women-led civil society organizations (CSOs) in Uganda. WOUGNET
will produce an assessment of the legal and regulatory frameworks affecting the
operational environment of CSOs with a focus on freedom of expression (FoE) and
right to access to information (A2I) and use this in building the capacity of women-led
CSOs in Uganda to effectively participate and advocate for FoE and A2I law
reforms. WOUGNET will also convene CSOs, media, and other stakeholders to
collaborate in addressing restrictions and expanding protection mechanisms
available to CSOs for violations of rights to FoE and A2I. Through radio and
social media campaigns, WOUGNET will address misinterpretation and
misapplication of relevant legal frameworks for FoE and A2I by both government
and CSO. The needs assessment and input from the meetings and campaigns will
provide information that WOUGNET will use to update its existing Women’s Rights
Online Legal Education Guide. The project is in furtherance of the National
Enabling Environment Action Plan developed by Ugandan CSOs in July-August 2021
under the Uganda Civil Society Strengthening Activity. The project activities will take place over seven months.
Project
Duration: April 2022 to September 2022
Funder: The Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
Target: Local community and Community Leaders
Project
Overview
With support from The
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA); WOUGNET is
implementing an ICT -Governance project entitled: Promoting Citizen Engagement
Accountability and Transparency in Public Service delivery in Eastern Uganda.
The project is implemented in the three districts of Tororo, Pallisa, and Busia
in two sub-counties per district as follows; Tororo district: Rubongi and
Magola, Busia district: Masafu, and Sikuda, and Pallisa district: Pallisa and
Olok sub-counties. The project empowers the local community to engage with
their leaders with aim of improving accountability and transparency in the
service delivery framework. The project aims at addressing institutional
inconsistencies characterized by limited inclusive citizenry participation,
unchecked bureaucracy, corruption tendencies, and information gaps in the
service delivery framework. The intervention promotes the effective and
efficient use of ICTs to improve service delivery. The project empowers local
communities through advocacy and ICTs knowledge and skills to monitor service
delivery processes and document any inconsistencies and engage with their
leaders to address the same. Women and other marginalized groups have been
included to effectively participate in project activities and address issues
that affect them to enable sustainable development. The project employs ICTs as
a medium for gathering and disseminating information within the implementation
processes and to the wider public. The project has employed the SMS platform
centrally managed by WOUGNET specifically to exchange messages between the
community and leaders on poor service delivery concerns.
Funder: SOS Faim
Target: The target
beneficiaries of the proposed PATHS project will be women, men, and youth who
are directly engaged in agriculture between the age of 15 and 60 years.
Project
Overview
In Uganda, approximately 7.4 million
households operate agricultural land/or rear livestock. Women dominate the
agricultural sector by usually undertaking activities such as sowing,
harvesting, head carrying of produce, crop-drying, winnowing, seed selection, and
pig and poultry-rearing. Other tasks, such as weeding, bagging, and crop
storage, are almost equally undertaken by both women and men. However, women
who spend most of their valuable time in agriculture than men own only 31% of
the land, and the rising population and growth of incomes have increased the
demand for food and agro-processed products, therefore, necessitating
identifying and scaling the approaches that can improve livelihoods and
environment based on common learning about organic and agroecological farming. Smallholders
farmers are sinking deeper into poverty with decreasing primary school
enrolment, deteriorating nutrition, and health challenges from increased
pressure on the environment amidst frequent and severe climate conditions, made
worse by the continued dependence on rain-fed agriculture, poor agricultural
practices, low technological adoption, insecurity over land ownership, poor
access to extension services, low-quality inputs, and lack of credit ultimately
causing threats to food security and sustainable agricultural development. This
five years project will work with 6 farmer groups established comprising 30
members each (using the ratio of 70 of women:30 men) in the Uganda-Rwenzori
region (Kyenjojo, Kabarole, and Kamwenge District)
to increase and improve smallholders' farmers' resilience to food
security by instigating the level of transition to a sustainable food system
through inclusive participation and the use of digital technologies for sustainable
agricultural production in Uganda by 2026.
Project
Duration: June 2022 -June 2026
Funders: Alan Turing
Institute and International Centre of Expertise in Montreal on Artificial
Intelligence
Target: Policymakers,
Developers, and Impacted Communities
Project
Overview
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) in
partnership with Alan Turing Institute conducted a research study to enhance
the capacity of policymakers, developers, and the citizens to move beyond just
governance of data and understand the clear relationship between compliance matter
of privacy and ethical design to enable them to prioritize equity and justice
in terms of access to, and visibility and representation in data used in the
development of AI/ML systems in Uganda and globally. Moving beyond data
governance implies that policymakers, developers, and the impacted communities
are knowledgeable about the current state of Data Justice research and practice
and they can identify the existing gaps as well as use the available tools and
guidelines developed to improve their current AI/ML systems practice and use to
understand the needs of policymakers, individuals/communities marginalized by
AI/ML systems, and developer communities.
Project Duration: November 2021-April 2022
Funder: The International
Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL)
Project
overview
Social media has increasingly been a
powerful tool in promoting rights to access information and freedom of
expression globally. In Uganda, social media has been used by the government to
engage citizens on national development policy initiatives. The social media
platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp are widely used in Uganda and
many other African Countries. Recognizing the growth in the number and reach of
social media, several governments and state actors have adopted regulatory and
legal frameworks to ensure online safety and legal use of social media to
prevent illicit online activities and crimes. However, Uganda is one of those
autocratic countries in the world where access to information and freedom of
expression is considered to be dangerous to the ruling government because those
in power prefer not to face inconvenient questions from journalists or the
public. The project’s specific objective was to Improve effective reforms and
implementation of existing national laws and policies that govern the right to
access information and freedom of expression on social media. This Project aimed
aims Enhancing Women’s Rights Online through evidence-based Policy Advocacy and
Media. The project was able to produce a research report, policy brief, and
legal education guide for social media users that increased the level of
understanding and knowledge of existing international and national regulatory
and legal frameworks that govern the right to access information and freedom of
expression on social media.
Project
Duration: February 2021 -July 2021