KAMPALA: A move by the government to move funds under the Uganda Women’s Empowerment Project (UWEP) to finance the Parish Development Model (PDM) has hit a snag after lawmakers rejected it.
Established in 2016, UWEP is an affirmative action involving revolving funds to empower women to improve their income levels to spur economic development. The project’s beneficiaries include unemployed women, women with disabilities, and widows, among others.
This means that the UWEP’s budget has been cut by 29.2 billion out of 32 billion. That leaves 2.98 billion for administrative costs.
The MPs led by Speaker Anita Among Annet on Wednesday blocked the re-allocation during a day-long plenary in which they debated the report of the Committee on Gender, Labour and Social Development on Wednesday. “When you want to give birth to a new baby, why should you suffocate the old one?” Rose Obigah, the Terego District Woman Representative, questioned the government.
Adding that, “UWEP is the only thing I feel in Terego, and therefore, we are not accepting that this money be shifted when we do not even understand the Parish Development Model,” Obigah declined.
Flavia Rwabuhoro Kabahenda, the female MP representing Kyegegwa District, also opposed the e-allocation of funds, claiming that it would have a negative impact on the lives of women.
Special interest groups have been given money in the PDM, but the majority of money goes to agricultural businesses, and most women in Uganda don’t have access to important resources like land.
Meanwhile, the Speaker chimed in, saying the government will “suffocate” a well-performing livelihood improvement program in favor of a new program whose impact and success are unknown.
“That one is a no-go area. You cannot transfer the money from the UWEP to the PDM. Women need their money because not all women will be in the PDM’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Society-SACCOs, “said Among.
She directed that UWEP funds must not be altered because they have vastly contributed to the well-being and happiness of vulnerable women, recording a 72 percent recovery rate from the funds loaned to the various women’s SACCO groups in the country.
Betty Amongi, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, welcomed Parliament’s resolution to halt the transfer of the money. In 2021, last year’s cabinet resolved to transfer 29.2 billion under UWEP to be merged under the PDM.
Amongi said that if the House thinks that the money should stay, the line committee report should be changed to show this.
The Minister also informed the House that there is a pending Presidential directive to allocate 34.7 billion recovered from loans under UWEP to facilitate the revolving fund for both the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) and UWEP. Several other MPs further rejected the plan.