Uganda has made significant strides in recognizing and protecting women’s rights, both domestically and through international commitments. Despite the existing legal frameworks, women-led civil society organizations (CSOs) in Uganda still face numerous barriers to their existence and operations, including new laws and policies that restrict rights and freedoms, particularly freedom of expression. The 1995 Constitution of Uganda guarantees equality and non-discrimination based on gender. Furthermore, Uganda is a signatory to various international treaties and conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
With support from the Commonwealth Foundation, WOUGNET is currently implementing the Civil Society in Uganda Participation Program, aimed at fostering vibrant and resilient women-led civil society organizations (CSOs).
WOUGNET is working with civil society and Government to contribute to a more open and secure environment for women-led civil society organisations in Uganda by increasing knowledge of policies governing freedom of expression and access to information to improve legal compliance and to address gaps that contribute to misinterpretation and misapplication of policies.
The WOUGNET hackathon aims to unite innovators and stakeholders nationwide to generate groundbreaking solutions and ideas that can be embraced by relevant actors, fostering women’s Freedom of Expression (FoE) and Access to Information (A2I). We invite innovators and stakeholders, whether individuals, groups, or organizations to participate in this exciting event and submit their concept notes by Monday 12th August, 2024
Successful applicants will be contacted to pitch and present their ideas and innovations. Only successful applicants will be contacted.
A cash prize of One Million Five Hundred Thousand Uganda Shillings (1,500,000 UGX) will be awarded to each of the top three innovations.
Theme: Innovate 4 Freedom Of Expression
Objective: Develop innovative solutions that enhance and protect women’s Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and resilience of women-led civil society organizations.
Eligibility: Open to all Ugandans. Participation can be individual or in teams not exceeding three members. A member can only belong to one team only.
Duration: Interested applicants should submit their concept notes by Monday 12th August, 2024. Successful applicants will be invited to present their prototypes, innovations, and ideas to a panel of judges who will evaluate them based on a predefined criteria to select the top three innovations Friday 23rd August, 2024.
Interested applicants should submit their concepts [here].
Evaluation criteria: Applications will be evaluated basing on the following criteria:
- Innovation: Originality and creativity of the solution.
- Impact: Potential of the solution to enhance FoE and resilience of CSOs.
- Feasibility: Practicality, scalability and inclusivity of the solution.
- Technical Achievement: Quality of the technical implementation.
- Presentation: Clarity and effectiveness of the presentation/demo.
- Gender-responsiveness: Gender responsive design and potential to prevent gender backlash.
GOOD LUCK!!!
