Wikigender would like to invite you to participate in this online discussion on “Addressing discriminatory social norms: the case of Uganda” from 18-21 May 2015. It will run in collaboration with the following lead discussants:
Caroline Harper, Overseas Development Institute
Grace Bantebya Kyomuhendo, School of Women and Gender Studies, Makerere University, Uganda
Tina Musuya, Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP)
The OECD Development Centre’s gender team
Participate from 9am (CEST) on 18/05 until 6pm on 21/05!
Background
The Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is a global cross-country measure of discrimination against women in social institutions (formal and informal laws, social norms and practices) across 160 countries.
With the support of the Austrian Development Cooperation, the OECD Development Centre partnered with the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) to work on the first country pilot of a SIGI in Uganda, by adapting the Global SIGI framework and methodology to the national Ugandan context. Like the Global SIGI, the Uganda SIGI is a composite index comprised of five sub-indices that measure discrimination against women: discriminatory family code, restricted physical integrity, son preference, restricted resources and assets, and restricted civil liberties. The objective of the Uganda SIGI country study is to inform the design of evidence-based policies to tackle the root causes of gender inequality in Uganda at the sub-national level.
In 2014, the OECD Development Centre and UBOS carried out a first survey on social norms by interviewing women and men across 112 districts in Uganda to examine key areas that impact on women’s rights and empowerment. Based on this survey, the OECD Development Centre’s Uganda SIGI country study helps to provide a deeper understanding of how discrimination against women plays out at a sub-national level by looking at how gender inequalities intersects with poverty, rural/urban differences, socio-economic status, ethnicity and education levels. The findings highlight how discriminatory social norms such as early marriage, domestic violence or restricted access to land have implications for development outcomes.
The presentation of the results of the first country pilot of the SIGI Uganda will take place at a launch event on 27-28 May in Kampala, Uganda. In this context, Wikigender (www.wikigender.org) is organising an online discussion based on the results of SIGI Uganda and to open the discussion on how discriminatory social norms impact on women’s empowerment and rights in Uganda.
Guiding Questions
Setting the context
How do social norms affect women and adolescent girls’ development outcomes in Uganda? How do they intersect with gender inequality and levels of poverty?
What are the differences at sub-national level? Why are these important?
Data challenges
Where are the knowledge/data gaps in which more investment is needed?
What works?
What are examples of policies, programmes or initiatives that improved women and adolescent girls’ lives in Uganda, both at national and sub-national level?
Which ones worked better to address discriminatory social norms and why? How can we scale them up?
We look forward to your participation! We strongly encourage you to disseminate news about the online discussion via your networks and on Twitter using #SIGI and #socialnorms and the following link to this page: http://bit.ly/1c4fTPS
To participate, simply type your comment below or register directly via Disqus, Twitter or Facebook before typing your comment. Open for comments from 9am (CEST) on 18/05 until 6pm on 21/05.
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Anyone with an Internet connection is invited to participate in the discussion and we encourage you to express your views on this pressing issue.
Please note however that comments will be moderated to ensure that there is no spam disrupting the discussion.
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