Integrate gender to achieve local content in the oil and gas sector
On May 21, Parliament passed the National Local Content Bill 2019. The Bill aims at imposing local content obligations on companies and/or individuals using public money, working on public licence, issued a public works contract and utilising the nation’s natural resources to give priority to Ugandan companies and Ugandans in their procurements.
The upstream and the midstream petroleum laws define national content as the level of use of Ugandan local expertise, goods and services, Ugandan companies, Ugandan citizens, registered entities, businesses, and financing in petroleum activities.
The Local Content Policy approved on 25,June 25, 2018 by Cabinet underscores that a Ugandan company is one with at least 50 per cent of Ugandans at managerial level, provides value addition to Uganda, uses available local raw materials, and employs at least 70 per cent Ugandans, and must be approved by the Petroleum Authority of Uganda.
Gender integration is a strategy towards achieving gender equality and involves assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes. There is evidence that resource-rich countries in the developing world, have lopsided impact on gender. Men often reap more from the proceeds and opportunities from resource-based sectors in terms of employment, business opportunities, and decision-making platforms compared to women. The situation is not different in Uganda.
Factors attributing to the exclusion of women in the oil and gas sector include lower levels of education, reproductive responsibilities, and demanding household duties. Cultural and masculinity attitudes also limit the support for women and their willingness to participate in the sector. For instance, there is a perception that men are physically stronger than women, especially when it comes to casual labour.
The objectives of the Local Content Policy are to build the capabilities of Uganda’s human resources to effectively participate in the oil and gas sector, promote employment of Ugandans, develop the competitiveness of Ugandan enterprises, and increase the use of locally produced goods and services in the sector. The policy acknowledges that the involvement of women in the sector is still limited, but vital as it contributes to equitable and social-economic development. The policy also recognises that the required skills are still low among Ugandan women.
Women entrepreneurship is constrained by socio-cultural, family, and economic barriers that impede the growth of their enterprises, including those in the oil and gas industry.
Much as the policy objectives have good intentions, they need to practically factor in gender issues during its implementation as they are broadly spelt out.
It is good to note that many gender-specific interventions are being implemented. One such intervention is organising community awareness meetings that focus on women’s engagement in the oil and sector.
There are also legislative interventions, for example, section 126 (1) of the Upstream Act, which includes instances of gender sensitivity by requiring licensees to submit training and recruitment programmes for all stages of petroleum activities that consider gender, equity, persons with disabilities and host communities.
Furthermore, section 17 of the Act also highlights that at least three members on the board of the Petroleum Authority must be women. The Ministry of Gender has developed a National Strategy and Action Plan for gender mainstreaming in the oil and gas sector, but pending approval for implementation.
Therefore, it is recommended that gender integration should be adopted as a cross-cutting strategy to monitor the success of the local content policy objectives. Specifically, the on-going development of the Local Content Monitoring and Evaluation strategy should provide disaggregated data to help track how women are benefitting from the sector.
Some key questions to ask while monitoring gender integration should be how many women are benefitting from the employment opportunities, trainings, scholarships, and supply of goods and services.
Ms Petronilla Lamunu is a research officer, Oil Governance and Environmental Sustainability Project @ ACODE Uganda,
[email protected]
