Uganda Media Women Association rolls out gender equality project

The Uganda Media Women Association (UMWA) On Tuesday rolled out an 18 months project code named; “Media for Gender Equality and Social Justice: Living no one behind”.

The announcement for the project roll out was made at a media conference, held at Mama FM Head office in Kisaasi, a Kampala suburb.

“This project is being implemented in Kampala, Mbarara and Hoima districts. The goal of the project is; improved responsiveness of the media, policy makers and implementers towards gender equality”, said UMWA Project coordinator Doreen Sampa Mwanani.

She added that; the role and contribution of women leaders has not been well represented in the media industry, despite Uganda being a signatory to various international treaties and the enshrinement of gender equality provisions in the 1995 Uganda Constitution.

“About 20 per cent of the space in Uganda media is accorded to women despite making over 50 per cent of Uganda’s population. Gender inequality still exists in the media”, she added.

Clothlida Babirekere, UMWA Program officer, enumerated the 18 months project activities to include; enhancing the knowledge and skills of media practitioners in gender sensitive reporting, working with seven media training institutions to mainstream gender in their training curriculum, monitoring the packaging and presentation of media content with the view of having gender sensitive reporting and conducting awareness learning visits to selected media houses for mentorship, coaching and follow up among others.

Nankya Sanyu, also a Program officer at UMWA said their organisation has so far; conducted a needs assessment for journalists on gender sensitive reporting, consulted media training institutions, developed media monitoring guidelines and conducted a needs assessment of women in Hoima and Mbarara districts among many others.

“Gender equality is not just the concern of half of the world’s population; it’s a human right, a concern for us all because no society can develop economically, politically or socially, when half of its population is marginalised”, she said.