Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) is an advocacy and lobbying network of national women’s NGO’s and individuals, operating in Uganda. It was born out of the East African Women’s Conference held in Kampala in 1993 in preparation for the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995. Uganda Women’s Network membership is comprised of national Women’s organizations and individuals. UWONET is a registered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with a Secretariat in Uganda.

VISION

A Ugandan society free of all forms of gender based discrimination

MISSION

To coordinate collective action among members and other stakeholders through networking, capacity building, resource mobilization, policy research and advocacy for the attainment of gender equality in Uganda.

OBJECTIVES

• - To engender policies, laws, programmes, structures and processes in order to address the needs of both women and men leading to the achievement of gender equity and equality.
• - To promote a strong, well-coordinated, interrelated and interdependent network that is strategic and proactive in tackling women’s concerns.
• - To develop a databank of information that is useful in advocacy and helpful in enriching the membership, women and other development partners in knowledge on women’s issues.
• - To develop a dynamic, proactive and all-inclusive system of management that is strategic on issues and approaches and effectively influences policy and decision-making; and provides leadership on women’s issues.

UWONET VALUES

UWONET is committed to the transformation of the unequal gender relations in society and promoting networking among women and other development partners based on mutual trust and respect for one another. The Network is accountable to its members, partners and stakeholders. It is also highly participatory in decision-making, operations and produces quality work.

BELIEFS

Women are the centre of UWONET‘s focus and in order to improve their status and attain gender equity and equality, there is need for a collective voice to challenge the status quo. UWONET believes that the existing gender inequality and poverty impacts more on women than men.

METHOD OF WORK

UWONET’s greatest strength is in policy advocacy, networking, information collection and dissemination and capacity building. UWONET derives its strength from the diversity of expertise and experience of its membership and allies. It strives to articulate plurality and the opening up of democratic space for women’s organizations in Uganda. UWONET has an operational agenda, which combines a foundation of human rights and democratic principles.

UWONET targets policy and decision makers at different levels of decision-making and the implementers of the laws and policies. These include among others: the Politicians (Presidency, Cabinet Ministers, Parliamentarians, and Local Government Officials); heads of government departments; law enforcement structures (courts, prisons, police); local governments; Religious and Cultural leaders, UWONET membership and allies and development partners.