Gender and Economic Justice (GEJ)
Promoting Economic Justice for Women
Overview
Launched in 1998 as the Gender Budgeting Programme (GBP), the GEJ programme emerged from a realization that the manner in which public resources are generated, allocated and utilized mattered much in the fight for gender equality / equity.
Through this programme FOWODE pioneered Gender Responsive Budgeting in Uganda, and has together with the government and sister organizations walked the progressive advocacy journey that culminated into the landmark inclusion of a Certificate of Gender and Equity (CGE) in the Public Finance Management Act 2015, making Uganda the first country in the world to have Gender and Equity certification in law.
Our aspiration of achieving economic justice for women is a bold pursuit of a fair and equitable socio-economic system where women and men, girls and boys in all their diversities have equal opportunity, access, power, and development outcomes. Through the GEJ programme, FOWODE seeks to contribute to the redress of deep-rooted historical, systemic, and structural biases that create and perpetuate economic disparities based on gender.
WHAT WE DO
Build a critical mass for gender responsive budgeting and service delivery
FOWODE empowers communities, especially women, to drive a Gender Responsive Social Accountability model, ensuring citizens are central to planning, budgeting, and oversight. We continuously innovate and strengthen our renown Village Budget Club (VBC) model to promote women’s role in monitoring service delivery, tracking budget execution and mobilizing fellow community members to hold their leaders/government accountable.
We facilitate spaces of engagement between citizens and their leaders as a means of conscientizing communities, promoting civic engagement and fostering a culture of social accountability.
Men and women empowered to take charge of monitoring service delivery and leading advocacy for accountable and gender responsive delivery of public services.
We work towards building a movement of communities with the requisite knowledge, skills and agency to take charge of their own destinies by fostering accountable governance and influencing the gender responsiveness of plans, budgets and policies at all levels. We strongly believe that if adequate numbers of citizens are equipped with knowledge on their civic roles, rights and responsibilities, and platforms of engagement with leaders are promoted, then citizens can freely exercise their power and ensure transparency, and gender responsiveness prevail in the planning, budgeting and service delivery.
https://fowode.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/THE-FOWODE-VILLAGE-BUDGET-CLUB-MODEL.pdf
Enhance capacities of legislators, technocrats and CSOs for gender responsive Macro-economic policies
FOWODE strongly believes that achievement of Gender and Equity responsive policies and service delivery requires a balance between a civil society with necessary knowledge, skills and courage to demand, and duty bearers / leaders with adequate requisite capacities to identify, integrate and mainstream gender priorities in plans, budgets and policies.
We investment in capacity enhancement for duty bearers at various levels including technocrats, councillors and members of parliament in Gender Responsive Budgeting, feminist economics (feminomics) and policy advocacy. We boast a track record of developing multiple capacity building manuals at local, national and regional levels.
We also collaborate with and build the capacities of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) at local, national and regional levels with the aim of contributing to the growth of a movement that can actively influence the mainstreaming of gender priorities in macro-economic policies in Uganda and the East African region.
Advocacy for engendered fiscal policies and budgeting processes
In line with the aspiration to amplify the women’s voice on the economy, FOWODE consistently engages in strategic engagements to influence fiscal economic policy through timely gender analysis, response, research and advocacy.
FOWODE engages unswervingly engages around budgeting processes from the lowest level to national level, leveraging information from beneficiary communities, research and consultations to provide critique and alternative funding and policy proposal to foster gender equality/equity.
Riding on the momentum of our track record in Gender Responsive Budgeting, we have deepened our work to cover new areas of fiscal and macro- economic policy, including Tax Justice, Climate Justice and Public Procurement.
We advocate for more equitable tax regime that deescalates women’s economic vulnerabilities, and this is implemented through awareness creation on the gendered impacts of taxation, capacity building, evidence generation and participation in strategic alliances at national, regional and global levels.