Kampala – The Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region Her Excellency Ms. Mary Robinson met some of the Ugandan women human rights and peace activists to brief them about her mandate and in particular her ‘framework of hope’ in the region.

Her key message was ‘I would like to see things being done differently to end violence in the region and in particular in the DRC. She expressed her belief in women bringing this change through many initiatives. Ms Robinson would like to see a platform of women’s groups active in the implementation of the National Action Plan for UNSCR1325. She informed the group about the Regional Plan of Action Initiative that is being spearheaded by Femmes Afrique Solidarite (FAS), where she would like to see every country in the region engaged.

Activist shared with her the several ongoing initiatives such as the ICGLR which would be instrumental in this process, given that all Heads of States in the region have embraced its processes. Ms. Ruth Ochieng of Isis-WICCE briefed the Envoy of the ongoing efforts supported by Urgent Action Fund to enhance the skills of women in eastern Congo in conflict resolution and negotiations.

She also called upon the Special Envoy to encourage Heads of States in the region to prioritize and fund their UNSCR1325 National Action Plans, since this is the only way the Regional Action Plan will make strong impact. She further asked the Special Envoy to take the voice of the women in the Great Lakes Region regarding the Intervention Brigade to prioritize the protection of women and children.

Program design: The Exchange programme was well designed, and specifically had a good result orientation and clearly stated expected results at different levels (training, research, lobbying and giving back to community) with respective indicators.

Through various trainings and outreach work, (research and giving back) Isis- WICCE has been able to engage the alumni in discourses and/or analysis that help surface important issues and concerns that inform Isis-WICCE work and their own program designs. Most of the respondents indicated that the Isis – WICCE training and filed work addressed their strategic priorities and critical needs, and that the objectives of the same were realistic and achievable.

Relevance: The exchange programs and research actions supported by Isis – WICCE were quite relevant to the context in Nepal; the thrust on women’s human rights was equally well aligned to various national development agenda. What is striking is that Isis – WICCE has over time made various adaptations in its strategies, systems and practices to be in line with the needs of different countries in which it works. For example in Nepal, issues of caste were taken into account as well as sexual minorities. The research done was largely in line with the Isis – WICCE mandate as well as the priorities of the various alumni. More specifically, some of the research was done among the most vulnerable and neglected groups such as LGBTIQs, disabled women, dalit women, and migrant workers. It also covered sensitive areas of sexuality. Similarly the research in many instances complemented very well the activities of the sending organisations and the work being done by human rights defenders . There seems to be much more buy in from the ‘sending organisations’ than is the case in Africa. That is the organisations where the Institute participants come from,

The above positive findings notwithstanding, there were a few areas of attention noted by the participants especially with regard to issues of language.

Delivery and efficiency: Isis -WICCE has set herself a niche in the world of conflict and post conflict countries. Note: Isis – WICCE also has basic monitoring and evaluation frameworks/ tools and practices in place, although these need to be further structured and streamlined.

Effectiveness: The evaluation noted that Isis -WICCE has done extremely well as far as creation and or contribution to positive changes in the quality of lives of women in Nepal especially women human rights defenders is concerned. All the evaluation respondents expressed very high levels of satisfaction with the effects of Isis – WICCE package…. In particular, Isis -WICCE support has significantly contributed to the building of the Nepal women’s movement, facilitating their capacity to mobilize, participate effectively in strategic processes as well as enhance their resolve and determination to promote women’s human rights.

Below is a recent statement from the women’s pressure group of Agago district about the current status of issues in the area.

Lira Palwo Women’s Pressure Group (LPWPG), WORUDET and Isis-WICCE commend the leadership of Agago District and its Sub-counties in responding to the regional disparities in development that were caused by the longest armed conflict in the region. We particularly appreciate your administration in planning, resourcing and implementing the Peace, Recovery & Development Plan (PRDP) that has given a ray of hope to rural communities. Specifically, rehabilitation of roads, building schools and health centres, and provision of agricultural inputs has greatly improved the welfare of citizens in Agago.
We however, would like to bring to your attention the gaps in service delivery that we are witnessing on the ground through the monitoring work of LPWPG in Lira Palwo and Lamiyo Sub-counties. We trust that with your leadership, the issues brought here will generate dialogue on how best to address them.
Health: Healthy nations start with health of mothers. Women’s access to quality health services is important to the wellbeing of communities and enables women to effectively participate in decision making and in development. Health centres lack facilities such as latrines, labour rooms and lack lighting facilities for women giving birth. We have also interacted with women in the communities, who for lack of information, fear the use of family planning giving rise to unwanted children who also become a burden to the families, the district and nation. Lira Palwo HCIII has no mortuary, accommodates female and male patients in one ward, and has no toilets for health-care staff. Lamiyo HCIII has no incinerator and lacks adequate lighting. Obolokome HCII has had to deliver mothers due to the long distances to HCIII, but lacks a placenta pit and labour ward. We are aware that even with good antenatal care, up to 15% of births are complicated by potentially fatal conditions, yet skilled attendance is only available in 38% of women in Uganda. Many mothers end up dying from avoidable pregnancy-related complications. Health Management Committees in our sub-counties are not functional and are male dominated. We therefore, urge the leadership to:
-Partition for labour rooms and provide lighting at all Health Centre IIIs;
-Provide bicycle ambulances at all Health Centres;
-Recruit adequate numbers of health workers;
-Compel in-charges to order for adequate medical supplies from the National Medical Stores;
-sensitise communities on the value of spacing children, along with the continued provision of family planning services.

Education: Girls and women of school-going age are disadvantaged due to cultural norms and poverty which undervalue girl-child education. Girls are currently faced with defilement by teachers who are supposed to protect and mentor them; and many have been forced into early marriages- a habit that hinders their health, social and economic development. In 2012, a 15-year old pupil of Lira Palwo Primary School was impregnated by her teacher, while a 14-year old in Abolokome Primary School was defiled and was never able to sit for exams. The school environment is not conductive, with lack of separate toilet facilities and lack of senior women teachers. We have also noticed delays in replacement of transferred teachers, creating staffing gaps in some schools. We therefore recommend that:

-Bye-laws on early marriage are developed;
-School Heads should support Senior Women Teachers to enhance their work of counseling and career guidance. Wherever possible, counseling rooms should be provided;
-The district scholarships should take priority of girls;

Agriculture: Women are major players in agricultural production and household food security strategies, through which they become significant contributors to local and national economy. However, with high illiteracy rates, limited access to land, savings as well as credit schemes, women become unable to contribute to food security. Currently, communities in our area are faced with poor quality seed inputs, inadequate storage for crop yields and poor access roads to markets. We therefore recommend that:

-provide training opportunities for female farmers;
-Enforce NAADs guidelines on women representatives;
-Develop bye-laws for drinking during working days.

We are confident of your leadership and trust that you will continue to respond to challenges faced by the women in particular and the community in general.

Ongoing deliberations at this year’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York are revealing a number of creative and effective strategies that the women’s movement is using to fight Sexual and Gender Based Violence.

Isis-WICCE Session on Weaving Women’s Power into Peace and Nation Building

Held at the Salvation Army Auditorium, NY on March 5, 2013 highlighted a number of these strategies.

The session aimed to showcase efforts by Isis-WICCE and Institute participants to address sexual and gender based violence in armed and post conflict situations. Women human right defenders’ made presentations from Nepal, South Sudan and DR Congo.

Jolly Kamuntu Isis-WICCE Institute alumni from the DR Congo shared the innovative strategy used by the Association of Women Journalists of South Kivu to combat gender-based violence. It is a well known fact that sexual and gender based violence crimes have caused huge devastation to women and communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The strategy entails empowering local women to understand the different forms of violence and taking action immediately a woman is violated. The women groups operating in the eight provinces of South Kivu were given phones with radios and recorders, which enable them to record the incidence, and immediately transmit to the radio station. The radio developed a data system to collect information on incidences and data is used to lobby for justice for survivors through community dialogues with leaders. This process led to the decentralization of the justice system to the community level that has enabled the prosecution of perpetrators. Such actions increased confidence among communities towards the justice system and led to more survivors coming out to speak, thus breaking the silence around sexual violence.  This strategy has proven to work where government has failed to play its role to protect women from violence.

The example from South Sudan shared by Hon. Hannah Lona, the Deputy Speaker of Western Equatorial State profiles how women in leadership can influence and make changes at the community level using their leadership positions. South Sudan society is highly patriarchal and due to the long period of war, sexual gender based violence has been normalized. Using the church, public events and parliamentarian spaces, Hon. Lona has been able to advocate for the rights of women, through sensitization on women’s rights as stipulated in the South Sudan constitution and other International instruments. Despite the efforts of Hon. Lona and other women human right defenders, violence against women continues unabated. There is need to domesticate international Conventions such as CEDAW and the National Action Plan on 1325 to ensure the protection of women’s rights.

The Nepal case is very similar, the state is currently working to shrink civil society spaces and continue systematic attack on women human rights defenders, but Dr. Renu the founder Executive Director of Women’s Rehabilitations Centre (a long standing partner of Isis-WICCE) has mobilized women survivors of violence to stand up and fight for their right, through public campaigns, and advocacy and lobbying for gender responsive policies. Furthermore, Dr. Renu established the network of Women Human Right Defenders in Nepal, to enhance their protection and galvanize their strength for the promotion and protection of women’s right.

For the past six years Isis-WICCE has focused its work in these three countries; from the discussions it was obvious that in all cases governments have signed all the women’s rights instruments, while DRC and Nepal have domesticated most of the instruments, South Sudan is still in the process of domestication. This provides an opportunity to influence and ensure women’s needs are reflected.

However, the government structures seem not to be clear about how to engage women in the process. For the Democratic Republic of Congo, the current conflict waging the Eastern part has made the government to focus more on military spending, making the protection of women’s rights not a priority area of concern, even though the war is impacting hugely on women and girls.   The weak institutional frameworks and laws to address Violence Against Women in these countries has also been affirmed by the UN Secretary General’s report on Violence Against Women, that states ‘little work has been done towards fulfilling the obligations of States in respect of prevention and response to reduce violence.

The common thread in the three countries include the lack of a clear mandate for the United Nations entities, either as peace keepers or development support organizations; and the lack of adequate resources to address the root causes of violence against women. Beginning this year, Isis-WICCE will intensify her effort to hold governments accountable for the implementation of laws and policies on Violence Against Women and equip women leaders with skills to demand for implementation and gender responsive policies to protect women from violence of any form.

Her journey to starting the specialised medical facility started in the about six years ago when she was part of a team of Isis-WICCE medical doctors undertaking a health intervention for women in war torn Liberia. Just like in conflicts everywhere, during the civil war in Liberia, women faced all forms of atrocities and up to today, many are still facing several complications as a result.

In all Isis-WICCE approaches, health interventions for survivors take on a holistic approach that focuses on healing, the body, mind and soul as a way to full recovery. During the 2006 medical intervention Dr Jallah while working with the JF Kennedy Medical centre, together with the Isis-WICCE reached out to over 1000 women. Many needed immediate surgery while others had severe trauma.

At the end of the process, she was convinced by the Isis-WICCE model and dreamt about opening a specialised centre that would offer a holistic approach to survivors of conflict. Today Dr Jallah’s dream has come true. She resigned her official government post at JF Kennedy hospital in Liberia and started her own centre. The Hope for Women Medical Centre was borne out of Isis-WICCE’s unique approach.

Lira Palwo Women’s Pressure Group who visited the Health Centre III in Lira district and were briefed by the in-charge Nurse of the health centre; who decried the poor state of the infrastructure

Isis-WICCE has continued to provide training to women leaders in post conflict northern Uganda to upscale their capacity to ensure smooth implementation of post conflict programmes in their communities. From Monday 14- Saturday 19 January 2013, Isis-WICCE and Women and Rural Development Network (WORUDET) hosted a step-down skills enhancement training programme for the members of Lira Palwo Women’s Pressure Group (LPWPG) from Agago district. The training which was carried out under the theme ‘Women’s Leadership for Peace and Security’ was technically supported by Womankind Worldwide.

On 18^th January 2013, Isis-WICCE held a high-level dialogue with district leadership at Lira Palwo Sub county Hall given the decentralization of the implementation of PRDPII to district levels. Under this arrangement, district leadership will have room to prioritize their needs and allocate resources accordingly. The forum was critical for informing policy holders of the gender specific gaps with a view to influencing policy discourse in the district.

The press statement released soon after the stakeholders consultative meeting with Agago district leadership indicates the challenges and the practical needs and priorities of women in post conflict northern Uganda.

Press statement

Lira Palwo Women’s Pressure Group (LPWPG), Women and Rural Development Network (WORUDET) and Isis-WICCE commend the leadership of Agago District and its Sub-counties in responding to the regional disparities in development that were caused by the longest armed conflict in the region.  We particularly appreciate your administration in planning, resourcing and implementing the Peace, Recovery & Development Plan (PRDP) that has given a ray of hope to rural communities. Specifically, rehabilitation of roads, building schools and health centres, and provision of agricultural inputs has greatly improved the welfare of citizens in Agago.

We however, would like to bring to your attention the gaps in service delivery that we are witnessing on the ground through the monitoring work of LPWPG in Lira Palwo and Lamiyo Sub-counties.  We trust that with your leadership, the issues brought here will generate dialogue on how best to address them.

Health: Healthy nations start with health of mothers.  Women’s access to quality health services is important to the wellbeing of communities and enables women to effectively participate in decision making and in development.  Health centres lack facilities such as latrines, labour rooms and lack lighting facilities for women giving birth.  We have also interacted with women in the communities, who for lack of information, fear the use of family planning giving rise to unwanted children who also become a burden to the families, the district and nation. Lira Palwo HCIII has no mortuary, accommodates female and male patients in one ward, and has no toilets for health-care staff.  Lamiyo HCIII has no incinerator and lacks adequate lighting.  Obolokome HCII has had to deliver mothers due to the long distances to HCIII, but lacks a placenta pit and labour ward. We are aware that even with good antenatal care, up to 15% of births are complicated by potentially fatal conditions, yet skilled attendance is only available in 38% of women in Uganda. Many mothers end up dying from avoidable pregnancy-related complications.  Health Management Committees in our sub-counties are not functional and are male dominated.  We therefore, urge the leadership to:

-Provide partition for labour rooms and lighting at all Health Centre IIIs;

-Provide bicycle ambulances at all Health Centres;

-Recruit adequate numbers of health workers;

-Compel in-charges of health centres to order for adequate medical supplies from the National Medical Stores;

-Sensitise communities on the value of spacing children, along with the continued provision of family planning services.

Education: Girls and women of school-going age are disadvantaged due to cultural norms and poverty which undervalue girl-child education.  Girls are currently faced with defilement by teachers who are supposed to protect and mentor them; and many have been forced into early marriages- a habit that hinders their health, social and economic development. In 2012, a 15-year old pupil of Lira Palwo Primary School was impregnated by her teacher, while a 14-year old girl in Abolokome Primary School was defiled and was never able to sit for exams.  The school environment is not conductive, with lack of separate toilet facilities for boys and girls and lack of senior women teachers.  There are also noticeable delays in replacement of transferred teachers hence creating staffing gaps in some schools.  We therefore recommend that:

• Bye-laws on early marriage should as a matter of urgency be developed;
• School Heads should support Senior Women Teachers to enhance their work of counseling and career guidance.  Wherever possible, counseling rooms should be provided;
• The district scholarships should take priority of girls.

Agriculture: Women are major players in agricultural production and household food security strategies, through which they become significant contributors to local and national economy.  However, with high illiteracy rates, limited access to land, savings as well as credit schemes, women become unable to contribute to food security.  Currently, communities in the area are faced with poor quality seed inputs, inadequate storage for crop yields and poor access roads to markets.  We therefore recommend that:

• Provide training opportunities for female farmers;
• Enforce NAADs guidelines on women representatives;
• Develop bye-laws for drinking during working days.

We are confident of your leadership and trust that you will continue to respond to challenges faced by the women in particular and the community in general.