WOUGNET Update Newsletter - April 2005

[Dorothy Okello <dokello@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

WOUGNET Update Newsletter - April 2005
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A monthly electronic newsletter from Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) - 
http://www.wougnet.org
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This month's contents:
1. Women Organisations in Uganda
2. ICT Policy
3. Links & Resources
4. Project News and Events
5. WOUGNET News
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WOMEN ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA
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= Mulago Women in Development (MUWOD)
   http://www.wougnet.org/wo_dir.html#MUWOD
Operating in Mulago parish, MUWOD started in 1998 with 30 members. By then 
women in Mulago did not have a common voice to address issues affecting 
them, individually and jointly. The group was formed to bring women 
together and find ways of improving their status economically and socially. 
With assistance of UGAFODE (a micro financing organisation), members 
acquired skills in finance management and thereafter the group started an 
independent savings and credit scheme which still runs todate.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/muwod.html


= Disabled Women in Development (DIWODE-Uganda)
DIWODE's mission is to impart practical skills so that members can live a 
meaningful life. Since inception, DIWODE has mobilised 99 disabled women, 
50 widows and registered 250 orphans. DIWODE wishes/seeks to put up a 
vocational training centre to equip children with practical skills. 
However, we are still restricted by funds so our mission is yet to be 
accomplished.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/diwode.html


= Hope After Rape (HAR)
HAR is a voluntary women's Non-Governmental Organisation founded in 1994 as 
a result of concern about the increasing number of reports of child sexual 
abuse, rape and gender-based violence.  HAR currently operates in the 
districts of Kampala, Mpigi, Wakiso, Lira and Mbale.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/har.html


= Nakaseke Women's Development Association (NAWODA)
NAWODA targets women, orphans, youth and the disabled in order to provide 
them with information, training as well as to integrate the use of ICTs in 
their political, social and economic aspects of life. This will reverse the 
current trend of unequal gender access to new technologies.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/nawoda.html


= LWA: Fruit juice and paste making project
Lungujja Women?s Association (LWA) was established in 1995 to uplift the 
status of women in Lungujja. Ten years down the road, LWA has 25 active 
members who testify that through LWA they have been enabled to shift from 
small to medium income earners for instance, some have managed to shift 
from kiosks to fully-fledged retail shops. LWA has embarked on a project to 
produce passion juice concentrate, tomato-paste and chili-paste, and herbal 
soap.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/lungujja.html#FRUIT





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ICT POLICY
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= GenderIT.org - Gender and ICT Policy Monitor
GenderIT.org is an information and communications technology (ICT) policy 
portal for women and policy-makers. ICT policy is not just about 
legislation of infrastructure and operators. Good ICT policy can promote 
economic empowerment. It can counter the negative uses of ICTs, such as 
trafficking of women. GenderIT.org promotes the need for gender advocacy in 
ICT policy as well as the ?how to? of pushing for policy change. The 
Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support 
Programme (APC WNSP) developed GenderIT.org to broaden awareness of gender 
and ICTs and to offer a practical tool for ICT advocates, especially 
women?s organisations and movements, to ensure that ICT policy meets their 
needs and does not infringe on their rights.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/ictresources.html#GICT



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LINKS & RESOURCES
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a) Development

= Sustainable Development Initiatives (SDI)
   http://www.wougnet.org/Links/development.html#SDI
SDI's mission is to contribute to national development in Uganda by 
providing communities with opportunities that uplift them from poverty 
through projects and programmes that address health, education, food 
security, water, sanitation, human rights and environment.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/sdi.html


= Development Alternatives Consult (DAC)
   http://www.wougnet.org/Links/development.html#DAC
Based in Uganda, DAC's mission is to provide quality services for the 
satisfication of the clients' needs and interests in the area of gender and 
development. It was founded by 3 professionals with core expertise in 
gender and development especially in gender planning and budgeting, policy 
research and advocacy, gender-training, monitoring and evaluation.
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/dacug.html


b) Education

= Buzinge-Buremba Multi-Purpose Projects (BUBMUPS)
Operating in the districts of Mbale, Sironko and Mbarara, BUBMUPS's mission 
is to provide educational assistance to disadvantaged children through 
sponsorship programmes for Primary, Secondary and Vocational training.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/education.html#BUBMUPS


c) Environment

= Agency for Environment and Wetlands (AEW)
http://www.wougnet.org/Profiles/aew.html
Established in 2003, AEW's mission is to promote sustainable use of natural 
resources through research and publication, training, networking and 
information sharing, and lobbying and advocacy in order to achieve 
sustainable economic and social development in Uganda.
http://www.wougnet.org/Links/environment.html#AEW



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PROJECT NEWS AND EVENTS
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June 2005

= Call for papers and Invitation to a sub-regional conference: "Library 
automation to reduce the digital divide: present and future trends for 
University libraries in East and Southern Africa", Kampala, Uganda, June 6 
- 8, 2005
A workshop was held in South Africa in July 2004 on the theme ?Sustainable 
use of ICTs in African Libraries? for both University and national/public 
libraries, and a report entitled ?ICTs and the Library? was written after 
the workshop. Several issues emerged which need further investigation, 
while some of the issues were not fully covered. This conference is a 
follow-up on that workshop.
There is a growing need to share the experience of automating university 
libraries with limited human and financial resources, but amidst a growing 
number of users. Makerere University Library is planning to hold a 
three-day regional conference on the above theme early June this year. It 
has secured some funding from Sida/SAREC to sponsor paper presenters and 
the production of a book that will be published after the conference.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews05.html#KSRC05



July 2005

= ActionAid International: 'Get on Board'
'Get on Board' by telling the world leaders what you think they should do 
to end poverty. Actionaid International is collecting messages from 
countries in the south to take to the G8 meeting which will take place in 
Scotland on 6th July. This is part of the Global call Against Poverty 
campaign. Get on Board is the epic journey of a small African bus. A 
journey that starts in Johannesburg on 31 March, and ends in Scotland on 6 
July at the G8 gathering of the world?s most powerful leaders.
The Get on Board bus is one with a difference. Rather than transporting 
passengers we will be transporting the messages of people from south and 
east Africa and bringing these to the G8 leaders. These messages will form 
a challenge from the people of Africa to world leaders to support, and not 
undermine, Africa?s own efforts to overcome poverty and injustice. Get on 
Board will be meeting people living in extreme poverty ­ those whose voices 
are rarely heard.
The Get on Board team are from Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and the UK, and they 
will be driving 12,000 miles from Johannesburg, South Africa and through 
Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. People from these countries 
will be getting on board as the bus travels through. The bus will board a 
ship at Mombasa, and from there will sail up the north east coast of 
Africa, through the Suez Canal, and across the Mediterranean to Marseilles, 
France. From there, the bus will travel to Italy and then to the UK ­ 
reaching its? final destination of the G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland on 
6 July. The bus arrives in Uganda on 7 May 2005 via Malaba and leaves on 15 
May 2005 via Busia.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews05.html#GOB



September 2005

= 2005 Tanzania Gender Festival - ?Gender, Democracy and Development: 
Popular Struggles for an Alternative World?, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 
September 6-9
The 2005 Gender Festival [Tamasha la Jinsia] will focus on analyses of 
concrete efforts to promote alternatives to the present socio-economic 
structures and ideologies at all levels. Formerly known as the Annual 
Gender Studies Conference (AGSC), the 2005 Gender Festival is an open space 
for bringing together gender-focused groups, other civil society 
organizations, institutions, activists and other development actors working 
at various levels to meet, reflect and strategize on the progress made in 
struggles for gender equity, social transformation and participatory 
democracy in Tanzania.
The Gender Festival is a collective capacity building, skills building and 
networking fora for civil society and development actors in and outside the 
country.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews05.html#TGF05


= Pan-African Women Invent & Innovate (PAWII) Exhibition, Conference and 
Awards Ceremony: ?Business Women Marketing A Wealth Of Ideas?, Accra, 
Ghana, September 6-8, 2005
The PAWII event is the first of its kind to target Africa?s most 
exceptionally creative, inventive and innovative women entrepreneurs while 
bringing together some of the most dynamic people in the world of 
international trade and intellectual property to share good practice and 
promote the importance of Innovation and Technology in Enterprise.
The event is organised by GWIIN in partnership for the first time with IFC 
GEM (Gender-Entrepreneurship-Markets) Women Mean Business in Africa program 
­ co-sponsored by IFC ­ the private arm of the World Bank Group. It is 
hosted and staged in collaboration with the Ministry of Women & Children 
Affairs Commission (MOWAC) Ghana.
http://www.wougnet.org/Events/projectnews05.html#PAW05



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WOUGNET News
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= WOUGNET/OWA Multi-stakeholder Consultative Meeting: "The role of ICT in 
Socio-Economic Development", April 7 - 8, 2005
WOUGNET in collaboration OWA hosted a multi-stakeholder consultative 
meeting from April 7th ­ 8th 2005 at the Kampala Sheraton Hotel, under the 
theme ?The role of ICT in Socio-Economic Development?. OneWorld Africa 
(OWA) was founded in 1999 and is the Africa center of the OneWorld.net 
network, a network devoted to sustainable development and human rights.
The specific thematic focus of the consultative meeting was on ICT in 
Health, Agriculture and Education as well as on the World Summit on the 
Information Society (WSIS) and its relevance to Uganda as a developing 
country. The primary objective was to develop strategies for mainstreaming 
ICT for Development (ICT4D). Mainstreaming ICT4D is the systematic placing 
of modern information and communication technologies in those 
efforts/strategies designed to realize important development goals.
The meeting was attended by 50 participants from government, civil society, 
media, and UN agencies. A report of the meeting will be made available.



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