Grace Acan

DURING THIS QUARTER, the Gender Justice Unit was able to implement the following activities under its three programmatic areas.

Under our Legal Programme, we have been conducting a survey on gender needs in transitional justice in northern Uganda. The purpose of the survey was to establish unique needs of both women and men in post conflict northern Uganda as well as to identify gender gaps in ongoing transitional justice processes. Last year we conducted interviews and focus group discussions in five Districts and this year we have been compiling the data as well as preparing to begin verification workshops in the five Districts. We hope to launch the findings in early April.

Under the Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN), the department held two meetings with the representatives of various groups belonging to WAN. The purpose of these meetings was to review activities implemented by WAN last year as well as discuss which activities WAN will be conducting this year. During the meetings, the members agreed to expand community outreaches from four communities to six communities, discussed topics of the radio talk shows and the need to continue with activities from last year which include mediation and tracing of children’s paternal families, a very important aspect of the Acholi culture. They also discussed doing advocacy both at local and national level..

Under the Ododo wa program, the department integrated three new groups. These groups are based in Pader, Koch and Atiak. The department held a first meeting with the groups to introduce themselves, the project as well as assess the needs of their members. We shall be meeting the groups quarterly to hold storytelling sessions with them.

Other activities that the department implemented included an end of year evaluation meeting.  Since the department was established at the beginning of 2012, the meeting was important to evaluate our work, its impact, lessons learnt and way forward. During this meeting, the department was able to decide activities and priority areas to work on in 2013.

The department also conducted a gender mainstreaming workshop for the organisation. The objective of the one day training was to train staff on gender and how to incorporate gender aspects in the work of the various department.