Women must be at the centre of nutrition and health initiatives

More than 80 percent of 1.5 million refugees in Uganda are women and children. Thanks to Uganda’s progressive refugee policies, many of these have been supported to live and become a part of the host communities. Whereas having one of the largest refugee populations on the African continent attests to our commitment to standing by our neighbours that are experiencing hardship, it also comes with a heavy bill in many aspects.

As the numbers continue to increase, so does the strain on national and local government resources such as access to basics like health services, food, water, sanitation, and shelter. There is no doubt that a lot is being done to improve services for refugees and host communities. Yet, despite these efforts, issues that threaten the health and wellbeing of refugees persist. One such issue is hunger. 

A 2017 national estimate showed that apart from Lamwo and Yumbe, all refugee hosting districts in West Nile were experiencing stunting rates of more than 20 percent. The districts also had some of the highest rates of anaemia in the country. 

Pregnant and breastfeeding women and children below two years are especially affected by malnutrition. In children, malnutrition prevents linear growth and development while in women it can result into a weak immune system that is unable to fight off diseases. Anaemia in pregnant women can result into underweight babies and this heightens the risk of death in childbirth. 

Ironically, women are the force powering food production in Uganda. In West Nile, it is estimated that more than 70 percent of the agricultural labour force is female. Additionally, women take on more than 90 percent of all caregiving roles in households. 

Therefore, it is not only logical, it is just, and right to put women at the centre of nutrition and health initiatives to allow for access, utilisation and consumption of nutritious foods at household level. 

We continue to have customs and practices that hold women back from fully participating in the social and economic development processes.  In many communities, women continue to be barred from owning land and making decisions on how to spend money earned from their agricultural produce. Women that are unable to have children and widows are especially vulnerable and enjoy little to no social protection.

Additionally, our development programmes are not equipped and have not fully supported meaningful women involvement. Consequently, even though gender has been mainstreamed into our programmes on paper, implementation has been very slow and often uncoordinated. 

For women to meaningfully contribute to health and nutrition programmes and development programmes in general, they must be empowered. Empowerment means opportunities to voice their ideas— opportunities to shape decisions. It means access to the information that they need to improve their attitudes and practices. Finally, empowerment means challenging and reigning in customary laws, beliefs and customs that keep women from realising their potential. We all need to stand against the many negative cultural practices that our fore parents perpetuated and transferred to us to hurt women.

At the heart of this change is public awareness. Unsupportive customs and beliefs are maintained by people. Therefore, to realise change, we must make our people aware of women’s rights, their potential to transform families and communities and how we can support the required shift. Gatekeepers of culture and traditions need to come out straight to support women openly on these issues.

Men are especially important allies in the quest for gender equality. We need to identify male ambassadors that can champion gender equality in communities. These can help to lay a firm foundation for initiatives advocating and pushing women’s rights and gender equality.   Putting women at the centre of development programmes requires resources—money, time and people but the returns are well worth it. 

Mr Paul Bishop Drileba is the Acting DHO of Arua District Local Government.