Towards gender responsive policy formulation and budgeting in the agricultural sector: Opportunities and challenges in Uganda
This publication (PDF) from CGIAR-CCAFS focuses on Uganda’s approach towards gender responsive policy formulation and budgeting in the agricultural sector. The publication assesses, through a grading system, the level of gender integration of 83 agri-food policies and strategies at national, district and sub-county levels. The study also draws attention to the way men and women are characterized throughout the policy documents. While Uganda is progressively strengthening the gender component of its agricultural policies and strategic planning documents, a sizable proportion of policy documents remain gender blind. Gender issues in policies are largely equated to “women’s issues”, with women generally portrayed as vulnerable and marginalized by society. These stereotypical characterizations might reinforce gender inequalities and even become counter-productive. For an improved exercise of gender mainstreaming, gender issues in agricultural policies should incorporate men’s, women’s and youth challenges, opportunities, perceptions and preferences. Gender allocations in budgets at sub-county and district level remain low, with fluctuations from year to year and with sharp differences between estimated and actual budgets. The authors recommend the central government to encourage local gender planning processes and increase allocated budgets. Gender activities planned and implemented at district and sub-county level remain largely informative and need to be aimed at gender transformative strategies.