Report of the Evaluation of the Women’s Economic Participation and Rights Programme in Uganda

Background

The programme (2015-2018) consists of two pillars: The Women’s Economic Justice (WEJ) and the East African Program for the Empowerment of Grassroots Women (EAGWEN) and brings on board the complementarity required to deliver lasting change by addressing issues of discrimination, oppression and poverty that have contributed to the denial of women’s economic rights.

It seeks to promote women’s economic independence through five key result areas:

1.  Women have increased ability to claim their economic rights
2. Strong women’s groups with influence on productive assets, marketing and related policies
3. Women actively participate in the Local and National Markets
4. Increased knowledge on and investment in improved farming practices in the Luwero District
5. Women with disabilities actively claim their economic rights.

Purpose/objective

The evaluation covers the period from Jan 2015 - 30th January 2018 – which represents the ¾ mark of the programme with an objective to provide an overview of the programme's achievements thus far and assessment of the results achieved against the stated programme objectives, outcomes, and outputs. In addition, the evaluation highlights conclusions and key lessons learned, and provides recommendations for the remaining period.

Methodology

Desk review of the programme documents as indicated in the ToR Focus group discussions (FGDs) with beneficiaries and some staff Interviews with staff at the five partner organizations in Uganda Key informant interviews with field staff of NAWOU, EASSI and FIDA Key informant interviews with district officials in Luwero district Direct observation A validation meeting and additional information received from the partners. Key informant interviews with FOKUS and the Norwegian Women’s Association

Key findings

Steady progress is being made towards realization of the programme outcome: ‘women more economically independent in Luwero district.’ Indicators of women’s growing economic independence include: i) a significant increment in the number of women in Luwero district who own businesses – from 22% in 2015 to 43% in 2017; ii) a modest 7% increment in the number of targeted women who own and have obtained titles for their land; iii) an additional 50 individual women and groups that have sought support to register their agro businesses; and iv) increments in monthly incomes. 71% of the women in the targeted groups have seen their monthly incomes rise from the baseline level of UGX 72,724 in 2015 to UGX 150,000 and above as of December 2017.

Potential impact: Respondents also confirmed that the programme has contributed positively to driving change, at the individual and institutional levels. For the most part however, this change has been at the individual level and includes increases in household income, improved household welfare and food security; increased ownership and control of assets, increased self-esteem to mention but a few.

The programme is relatively effective and has gone far in certain areas to produce targeted results. However the programme is a complex one with numerous implementers and a complex intervention logic which sometimes makes it difficult to assess in precise terms the effectiveness in solving targeted problems. Nonetheless at this advanced stage there are good grounds for optimism.

There has been little change in household roles resulting from women’s increased work burden. On the other hand, there is an increasing awareness and appreciation of ordinary women´s economic roles in society. But in some cases, women’s increased contribution to household expenses has also resulted into some negative outcomes i.e. diminished financial support from their spouses.

The programme has been highly relevant in addressing key barriers to women´s economic empowerment. It is also especially relevant in targeting marginalized women such as Women with Disabilities and Women with HIV/AIDS.

The programme has made a conscious attempt to promote sustainability, particularly by fostering the development of appropriate institutions which are considered to last.

The programme is found to be relatively efficient in converting inputs (largely financial) into outputs. However, the numerous partners and programme outputs and components that are labor intensive has necessitated a relatively high share of administrative costs.

Several partner organizations have established appropriate M&E routines. However, there are differences in practice between organizations and M&E routines and procedures should be harmonized so that all reporting is comparable.

Recommendations

• Widen the scope of community dialogues and engage communities, cultural leaders and institutions on discriminatory social norms.
• Engage in evidence-based advocacy at district and national level on land tenure systems (FIDA), particularly in relation to the land grabbing that appears to be affecting the programme area, Luwero. Strengthen linkages between grass-root implementation and policy advocacy at national, regional and international levels.
• During the remaining phase, restructure collaboration with the existing local government (CDOs, extension workers) and where possible engage them in order to obtain more easily accessible local resources.
• Develop an entrepreneurial training and mentorship strategy for all the groups to promote sustainability.
• Support value chain integration by linking more producer groups to processors and engaging the processers in training about quality and standards, but also in guaranteeing markets.
• Support capacity building interventions and mentorships for women groups engaged in crafts and fruit drying to promote quality of products.
• Develop market linkages with agro-input suppliers to ensure consistency in seed quality.