UGANDA: Museveni Launches Women Land Movement

October 5, 2010 will forever be engrained in the minds of the 400 plus women who attended the National Women's Land Conference at Munyonyo.

Amidst ululation from women from all over the country and different walks of life, State Minister for Finance in charge of planning, Ephraim Kamuntu, launched the Women's land rights movement on behalf of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

In a speech that commiserated with the women's cause, Kamuntu pointed out that the NRM government was the first to champion women's rights and is indeed committed to making sure more and more women are in position to access, use and own land.

In line with the theme of the day, Equality is not equality of outcomes but Equality of Resources, Rights and Voice, the fundamental role of women in subsidizing the economy as well as their unique role of reproduction and nurturing was recognized.

Women's roles are usually regarded altruistically and seldom appreciated in the public sphere. Kamuntu went on to point out that women, who form over 52% of the country's population, can collectively have the highest concentration of human, economic and cultural resources necessary to occupy an enviable position in the global economy.

“However, the challenge is that only a few women are empowered; the majority still continue to be trapped in the low income category with unacceptable levels of political, economic, social and human development,'' Kamuntu delivered the message to a hopeful audience.

The speech expressed sadness at the fact that todate women in Uganda are not yet where they should be in terms of their rights. It was however full of hope and promises from government to help them.

Whether these promises to the women in regard to the important resource, land, shall be delivered remains to be seen.

New research available at Makerere Institute of Social Research shows that women now own 18 per cent of the land, doubling the 7% that was given by the World Bank Research in the 1980s. More women are also registering as co-owners of land with their spouses.

The women, while appreciating these milestones, were in consensus that there is yet a lot to be done to empower women and ensure that more and more of them have genuine access to land. Currently, most cultures and customs stand in the way of women's land ownership.

These see women as belonging to neither their husband's nor father's home and thus do not demarcate them land or pass it on through inheritance.

Over the next two days of the conference that ended on Wednesday, October 6, women deliberated on better and more ways to further improve the status quo.