Africa-Press – Uganda. The United Nations through UN Women in Uganda has launched the second phase of the Women Peace and Security programme that seeks to promote women’s participation in promotion of peace and security.
The programme, which largely focus on conflict prevention and resolution, is themed: Women lead and benefit from sustainable and inclusive peace and security in Uganda.
It is aligned with the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1,325, which highlights the disproportionate impact of war on women and the need for their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
Speaking at the launch in Kampala, Ms Pauline Chiwangu, the UN Women Country representative, said Uganda, which was the first and indeed among the very countries to launch the initiative at sub-national level had made notable achievements under phase one of the programme, which ended in 2021.
“The Government of Uganda developed and launched its result-focused third National Action Plan on WPS [Women Peace and Security] (2021-25), which has been cited as the best practice, particularly regarding the inclusive process of its development and this has been complemented with localisation at district level,” she said, noting that key ministries, departments and agencies as well as civil society organisations improved their knowledge of the United Nations Security Council passed resolution and have made a commitment towards the NAP III WPS implementation.
The focus of the programme will in the next four years (2022-26) seek to prioritise the outcomes and medium-term results of NAP III WPS, which will contribute to three of the four outcome result areas such as prevention of all forms of violence and conflicts and the need to address natural and human-made disasters.
UN Women will leverage its expertise and convening role on UNSCR 1,325 to ensure that appropriate technical capacity, tools, and resources are put in place to handle at least 27,000 directly targeted beneficiaries and 2.16 million indirect beneficiaries in 15 key conflict-prone districts in Uganda spread across five regions.
The programme will seek key partnerships from the Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Ms Betty Amongi, the minister of Gender, Labour, and Social Development, said during the launch that government was committed on the implementation of the UNSCR 1,325 on WPS, as one of the mechanisms to strengthen women’s participation in promotion of peace and security within the context of conflict prevention and resolution.
The programme, which is funded by the Embassy of Norway in Kampala with a commitment of $5.2m (Shs19.2b), will ensure that women participation in enhancing social cohesion and reducing interethnic conflicts is increased and encouraged.
On October 31, 2000, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, which acknowledged that armed conflict has a disproportionately negative impact on women and girls.
Therefore, the programme will seek to increase participation of women in the reduction of violent extremism and participate in preventing and mitigating of natural and human-made disasters; and systems and structures.
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