Project

Strengthening Young Women’s Civic Participation and Leadership in Uganda

Grantee: Century Entrepreneurship Development Agency

The project’s objective was to strengthen the political leadership capacity of 1,500 young women from 10 public and private universities based in five districts of Uganda. The grantee aimed to increase awareness among the project’s target group and to provide them with access to information about women’s political life, as well as civic, voting, electoral and democratic processes. This was expected to enhance the leadership capacities of the young women to participate in the March 2016 general elections. Following these elections, an additional component was included in order to create a platform for leadership development of young women in Uganda.
Although women’s political advancement at the time of project implementation was a national priority, the actual implementation of related international, regional and national legal and policy commitments remained an important challenge. This was due to persisting socio-cultural factors, such as the high illiteracy rate among youth and girls, lack of access to appropriate information related to political, human and civic rights, early marriage and sexual and gender based violence. While highly relevant in this respect, the project did not address the significant risk of SGBV that young women are exposed to because of their interest in political participation.