Gender gap costing Uganda $48m annually

September 28, 2016 in Business, Land & Agriculture by Editor

Kampala September 28- Ugandan is losing as much as $48 million a year due to gender gaps but could close the Uganda by investing more in agriculture.

Although the African Human Development Report 2016 “Accelerating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa” sees some progress towards gender equity for Uganda especially in the political arena, the same effort has not been replicated in the economic sector.

More investments in the agricultural sector where many women are concentrated is being seen as a faster route to bring about economic parity between the genders.

“So many women work agriculture so to close the gender gap invest in agriculture and create favourable policies,” Maggie Kigozi a board member at the Uganda Women’s Entrepreneurship League said.

Yemesrach Workie a Senior Economist at UNDP says it’s unfortunate that although women depend on agriculture, globally only 1 percent of women own land yet they contribute between 60 to 80 percent of their labour to agriculture.

 “We need to improve the financial situation of women because if we have improved access to financial services, women could be able to empower themselves,” Victoria Byenkya the Manager Women in Business at DFCU Bank said.

However Richard Ssewakiryanga the Executive Director at NGO Forum believes that attaining economic empowerment has to involve both men and women.

“We need to sort the core economy that is the man and woman to have a productive economy. Economic empowerment is very important and fundamental to gender equality, we need to create conditions to ensure that both men and women understand the importance of this and this has to be complemented by a joint voice from all stakeholders in the economy,” he says.