Our new assessment of national funding for women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in Uganda has highlighted an increase in resources allocated to gender and equity programmes over the last five years (2015/16 – 2020/21). However, allocations for WEE remain generally low, the released funds are often less than what has been approved, and the utilised funds less than what has been released. The study, conducted by the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) and commissioned by Publish What You Fund, also found that a lack of disaggregated data means that the support targeted at women and girls is likely to be lower than the estimates suggest.

Women’s economic empowerment is central to realising women’s rights and gender equality. The study aimed at improving understanding of how the Government of Uganda is supporting WEE, as well as women’s financial inclusion and women’s empowerment collectives. It focused on sectors that take a lead in targeting WEE and have programmes which explicitly target women and girls, including the social development sector, agriculture, education, health, water and environment, and energy.