Lands Minister, Judith Nabakooba has called upon women to engage in wealth creation activities noting that poverty has led to gender inequality.
Nabakooba made the remarks while Kabarole District as she presided over belated Women’s day celebrations at St Paul Nyabweya Seed School playground in Kasenda Sub-County.
She asked women to join empowerment and economic transformation programmes if they are to realise development and improve their livelihoods.
“The president has been preaching about women empowerment and economic transformation and those who listened, we can see the transformation is already happening in your lives,” she said.
Deriving her message from this year’s Women’s day theme dubbed ‘Gender equality through women economic empowerment’ the minister said when everyone is working and earning money, there will be no room for people to complain about gender inequality.
In Kabarole, the minister realised women had taken on government programmes seriously and asked the rest who had not joined to visit their development officers at the district to benefit from the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga or GROW programmes.
She discouraged families against fragmenting their land and tasked them to agree on shareholding and benefit according to the shares held by each member. The minister also asked women to embrace saving culture and plan for their savings by investing in long term projects.
“President Museveni has consistently reminded women to practice commercial agriculture and plant crops that have bigger returns on investment termed as Ekibalo,”she reiterated .
Hope for Bibanja/ Bonafide occupants
Nabakooba said her ministry is working hard to ensure that all people with bibanja are supported to have full ownership of their land.
She said for the land that the government might have bought in the area, her ministry will expedite the process of opening boundaries and systematic demarcation.
The minister thanked district officials for having thought of the bylaw that talks about land administration and asked them to also enact bylaws that protect women.
“I support you to move in that direction as long as your land will be protected and clear processes of land management will be followed by the duty bearers.”
Victoria Businge Rusoke, the State Minister for Local Government who doubles as Kabalore District Woman Member of Parliament, said she has been sensitising and mobilising women to actiely participate in government developmentg programmes.
“I urge all of you who have the money to utilize it properly and pay back in three years as per the condition of PDM so that others can also get it. Government will also release more funds,” she shared.
Mr Festus Bandeeba, the Resident District Commissioner of Kabalore, said to protect land, they are working with the Attorney General to make interim directives concerning land transactions.
He explained that they have directed all LC1 chairpersons to avoid concluding land transactions at their level without sending them to the sub county.
He said that taking matters to the Sub County is ideal since the sub county chief is the accounting officer and can verify that land transactions have been done in accordance with the land Act.
“That is being in check to the growing land conflicts and the district is lobbying to pass that directive,” Mr Bandeeba said.
Ms Phoebe Kisembo, chairperson of the Women’s council in Kabarole, thanked the government for thinking about women and bringing them on board through developmental programmes.
Ms Kisembo said women in Kabarole from all the 347 villages have greatly benefited in these programmes.
Some of the programs that have since changed women’s lives include Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) with 125 groups of women so far progressing. Other programmes are PDM, Emyooga, and GROW programs.
GROW is a government programme funded by the World Bank designed to offer several programmes that have proven to be effective in addressing gender gaps in skills and capital of Uganda women entrepreneurs.
