Are older women part of women empowerment agenda in Uganda?

The International Women’s Day is both a celebration of women’s achievements and an opportunity to assess what obstacles remain in the way of progress towards gender equality. 

Uganda has a reason to celebrate, as it prides in having made interventions that have empowered women politically, economically and socially over the years. 

Politically, the empowerment of women by establishment of women councils, institutionalising certain positions at parliamentary and local council leadership foras for women has enhanced and normalised women’s participation in governance. 

It is, therefore, not surprising that a number of government parastatals, NGOs and private sector firms are now managed by women. The government’s policy of affirmative action has gone a long way in socio-economic empowerment of women. 

The little extra push given to females in education and during some recruitments has raised a generation of empowered women that continues to dismantle the shackles of patriarchy, including discriminative laws. 

Unfortunately, some well-meaning initiatives do not benefit all women equally, and women above the age of 65 are often left out in some ways. 

On one hand, the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP), an initiative of the government implemented under the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD), for instance, clearly excludes women are more than the age of 65 years, with an assumption that those beyond 65 years will be catered for under the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment of Elderly Persons (SAGE) Programme (and this is clearly stated on the MoGLSD website https://mglsd.go.ug/uwep/). 

On the other hand, the eligibility age for the SAGE grant was raised from 65 to 80 years, thus cutting out a vast majority of deserving beneficiaries. 

Although the grant sum of Shs50,000, payable once in two months, can only do so much,  it also leaves out women in the age group 65 to 80 years, who form the biggest number of elderly women. Could this be a coincidence that such important programmes clearly exclude elderly women? 

Do older women also need to be empowered economically? The logic here appears to be that persons of more than the age of 65 years – women in this particular case – are no longer considered economically productive.

Ironically, time and again, we talk of very successful entrepreneurs, who started at or after the age of 65 years, a case in point is Col Sanders, who started KFC; what a man can do, a woman can do as well. 

Our ongoing study indicates that more than 36 per cent of elderly people in Wakiso District depend on donations from ‘children’ and relatives as their major source of income, 35 per cent earn from farming and related activities, and a few others from petty trade. 

This on one hand shows a great need to support elderly people and women in particular with more reliable and sustainable sources of income, especially those that were never engaged in formal employment, especially given their contribution in taking care of a large number of orphaned and other vulnerable children.
 
Whereas the SAGE fund still has a shortfall and is inadequate to cover all elderly people in the country, the eligibility age for SAGE should be reduced to 60 years, which is the constitutional definition of older persons in Uganda. 

On the other hand, the upper limit for UWEP should be remove. The women movement, its partners as well as individual elderly women should work collectively to push this agenda and also put the newly elected representatives to task so that we can have a more inclusive Uganda in which the welfare and dignity of older women is prioritised.

Wishing you a happy International Women’s Day 2021!

Ms Rehema Namaganda Bavuma is a PhD student and a researcher on Aging and Disability at Makerere University.           [email protected]