Promotion of Gender Equality within the Federation of Uganda

Employers (FUE)Presentation by

Rosemary Ssenabulya,

Executive Director

About the Federation of Uganda Employers

• Established in 1958 as a forum for Uganda employers in the public and private sector

• The most representative employers’ body

• Has 170 corporate bodies and over 3,000 employers covering more than two million members

Mission

• Advocate for interests of employers and to offer advisory, training and consultancy services on employment, human resource management and development issues

• Promote members’ competitiveness by improving productivity and quality of work life

NRW Government strategy to empower women

• NRW Government put in place political, legislative and administrative measures to foster women’s empowerment– Affirmative action policy in the areas of

education– Political participation and representation in key

decision making areas– Micro-finance provisions to economically

empower women

Activities of FUE

• Recruitment of women in the secretariat• Representation of women on the executive council• Inclusion of women on all bodies where FUE is

expected to be represented and in delegations on national, regional and international meetings

• Constitution of a women’s task force responsible for promoting interests of women managers

• Establishing a network with the Uganda Women Entrepreneur’s Association

Active Participation in the Gender Mainstreaming Project

• FUE is represented on the National Tripartite plus Committee

• Coordinator of the FUE Women’s Task Force attended a two-week training programme in Turin Centre of ILO on gender mainstreaming

• Eight members—five women and three men—of FUE are participating in the online training programme on gender mainstreaming (Turin Centre)

Challenges

• While we enhance gender mainstreaming capacity of constituent organizations, the most effective effort lies with changing gender stereotypes and typical prejudices inside and outside the labour market regarding the supposed abilities and appropriate work for men and women as seen by society.