By Precious Naturinda

As the World celebrates International Women’s Day, National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) is standing in solidarity with grassroots women’s movement to call on the government to protect the rights of women and girls and accelerate progress towards advancing economic rights.

In commemoration of the day on March 8th, women organized under NAPE’s Grassroots Women Movement in Kyankwanzi and Kiboga districts appeared on NAPE’s Community Green Radio in Kiboga to demand for collective actions and solidarity against climate injustices, food insecurity, land rights violations, gender based violence and male domination in leadership and decision making positions which are limiting their economic rights.

The women say the government and corporate companies investing in large land based investments like oil and gas industry and large-scale agriculture which are fueling women’s rights violations, affecting livelihoods and household incomes and also increasing climate injustice. 

They want the government to protect their rights and involve them in decision making for sustainable development.

Julius Kyamanywa, the Station Manager for Community Green Radio said the radio is committed to amplifying the voices of women and supporting them in holding the leaders accountable.

This year’s IWD is centered on the theme:  Investing in Women: Accelerating progress and the Ugandan theme is accelerating gender equality through women’s economic empowerment.

Frank Muramuzi, the Executive Director for NAPE says women’s economic rights cannot be realized when their rights to land is still suppressed by convergence of patriarchal social norms and commercial pressure on land and natural resources exacerbated by extractive industries and large scale agriculture. He said this has an impact on women including violence and forced evictions, loss of women’s livelihood and income and increased unpaid care work. 

Muramuzi says the government should invest in protecting the rights of women and girls to be able to achieve their rights.

Rajab Bwengye, the coordinator of projects at NAPE says the NAPE is supporting women to collectively claim their rights and resist land rights violations, climate injustices and build sustainable livelihoods.

The Grassroot Women’s movement started in 2018 mainly concentrating in oil producing districts in the Albertine region and has now extended to Central region in the districts of Kiboga and Kyankwanzi.

Precious Naturinda, who is spearheading the field mobilization drive in Kiboga and Kyankwanzi, says the grassroots women’s movement which fights for the rights of women in addition to energy, climate and environment rights is targeting over 50,000 women by the end of 2027.