Africa-Press – Uganda. Men have been urged to abandon rigid cultural norms to actively engage in helping their wives in handling household chores.
Speaking during the third annual Eastern Africa Agency Social and Gender Norms Learning Collaborative (EALC) at Hotel Africana in Kampala, Dr. Aramanzan Madanda, the senior gender technical advisor at Care International Uganda noted that it is high time men supported their wives in carrying out domestic chores.
“Men should participate in domestic duties. In some homes, you may find that actually the wife has potential to earn more than the husband, but because of our culture, you don’t want to do anything. You’d rather be at home and reach your way to go and bring money, because you, you are going out, but you are coming back with very little. So a serious man should analyze and share in the responsibility.,” Dr.Madanda said.
He further noted that a shared home fosters development because productivity increases when everyone has enough time to attend to their responsibilities, adding that in a family, it is the men who benefit the most from this shared approach.
“Sharing responsibility even increases benefits and income and productivity. Families where the couples have accepted to shift on understand and work together and share in their responsibility, they become happier, they become more prosperous.”
Madanda noted that since its establishment in 2019, they have provided valuable insights into positive social norms, identifying those who promote or challenge them, and enabling the design of effective methods to address and shift harmful norms.
He revealed that, in an effort to shift certain norms, they designed a project that has encouraged families and communities to share work more equitably, noting this has led to significant development within families, as the workload is no longer borne by one side alone.
“We’ve just finished a very successful pilot project where we’re dealing with shifting norms on unpaid care work in the household, where all the work, and all of it is left for women and girls. And then, you know, like they begin failing in school, they begin having excessive workload, and, you know, they get sickness and so on. So we designed a small project which helped now families and communities to begin sharing work fairly, and this eventually leads to development in the family, because everybody is contributing, they are not leaving only one person to go to do the digging,” Dr. Madanda said.
The third Annual Eastern Africa Agency, Social, and Gender Norms Learning Collaborative Conference is the first since the rebranding of the EALC to include “agency.”
This year’s event is under the theme,”Agency, gender, and norms transformation: Catalyzing social and behavioral change.”
Ambiliasia Mosha, a lecturer at Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy in Tanzania, emphasized that it is not wrong for a man to take on domestic duties while his wife is resting.
She encouraged men to actively participate in household responsibilities to support their wives. ”
The 3rd Conference was officially opened by Mr. Martin Orem, who represented the UN Women Country Director. In attendance were various stakeholders, CSOs, policymakers, researchers, and agency representatives from across the region.
In his remarks, Mr. Orem expressed appreciation to EACL, Makerere University’s Gender Studies program, and Care International Uganda for their efforts in making the conference possible.
Orem stated that there are still questions about how social and gender norms can be addressed, emphasizing that their journey to tackle these issues has only just begun to ensure these questions are answered.
“I do acknowledge that scholars, practitioners, have made great strides in define social norms and gender norms over the years, however these efforts have not yet completely resolved the quest of common understanding. We still need to ask whether we have a common understanding or what we call a furry if change. Do we have a common furry of change?”
Orem urged conveners to align with feminists and the women’s movement in their beliefs and in challenging the dominant powers of men in society, stating that this is one of the key reasons for the conference.
He revealed that the tolerance for gender-based domestic violence is decreasing and added that the community’s attitude towards social and gender norms has also improved and all this is because of the efforts being made by EALC.
“Almost 50% of women used to think that if a man beats you, then he loves and about 48% of men would say yes as a man in the house i have to do that. But those perspectives are changing.”
He called upon everyone to work closely with women movements and also to spare no effort in having systematic monitoring and evaluation of the gender based violence program. He hailed Care international Uganda for organising the conference
“Use the outcome of this conference as a catalyst to accelerate our collective efforts, and i know that with particular emphasis with goal number 5 which focus on gender equality we will improve the scorecard of the gender development goal.”
Appolo B. Gabazira, the Country Director of Care International Uganda, welcomed delegates to the third annual EACL Conference.
He shared that the project began in 2019, conceptualized by himself and Dr. Madanda, with an initial goal of securing USD 70,000 in funding.
Fortunately, the funding was successfully obtained in 2020.
Reflecting on the project’s progress over the past four years, he expressed satisfaction with its success and urged everyone never to stop dreaming.
He encouraged participants to prioritize women- and girl-led initiatives while emphasizing the importance of ensuring their projects are locally driven.
“Always put at the forefront, two things women and girls, as well as program being locally red. Let’s not forget.”
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