BY OUR REPORTER
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) this morning convened a stakeholders’ engagement for the review of Local Government Budget Framework Papers (BFPs) on compliance with Gender and Equity requirements, bringing together technical officers, planners, and gender specialists from Local Governments across the country.
Opening the engagement, the Commissioner for Compliance and Enforcement, Mr. Mugisha James, welcomed stakeholders and outlined the purpose of the review: aligning the Gender and Equity Compliance Assessment Tool with the Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV, 2025/26–2029/30) and the Programme-Based Budgeting framework. He noted that the exercise, guided by the Public Finance Management Act, is aimed at strengthening how Local Governments across Uganda’s 16 sub-regions are assessed for Gender and Equity compliance. Mr. Mugisha called on stakeholders to offer constructive, technical input to ensure the revised tool is both practical and effective in advancing equal opportunities for all Ugandans.
The Principal, Compliance and Enforcement, Mr. Manase Kwihangana, then took participants through the tool’s background and rationale, drawing on lessons from ongoing assessments across Uganda’s 176 Local Governments. He explained that the tool is anchored in the 1995 Constitution, the Equal Opportunities Commission Act, and the Public Finance Management Act, which forms the basis for issuing Gender and Equity Compliance Certificates.
Mr. Kwihangana noted the tool is currently being revised to align with NDP IV’s Programme Implementation Action Plans, the Programme-Based Budgeting structure, and the plan’s anchor sectors of Agro-Industrialisation, Tourism, and Minerals. He highlighted several persistent challenges affecting the assessment process, including delayed submission of BFPs, limited capacity among Local Governments to internalize gender and equity issues, and significant gaps in disaggregated data. He also walked participants through the tool’s six-Assessment section, with a scoring framework of 155-point, which is used to grade the level compliance and guide more inclusive planning and budgeting nationwide.
Discussion then turned to how well the tool captures Local Governments’ actual contributions to NDP IV. Participants raised the need to maintain long-term development goals within the tool, while improving visibility for specific government projects, such as the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID), that are implemented within Local Governments but do not always appear clearly in their Budget Framework Papers.
Mrs. Kisembo Agnes, commended the progress made in promoting equity through the tool, while acknowledging that understanding of gender equality remains comparatively weaker among Local Governments. She proposed developing a simplified checklist to guide assessments of specific gender issues, such as gender-based violence, to make the tool clearer and more effective in tracking progress for women, men, and other vulnerable groups.
A separate segment of the discussion focused on enhancing the Programme-Based System (PBS) to better capture and assess Local Government performance on gender equity and data systems. Suggestions included introducing a dedicated budget code for gender-related spending, improving sensitisation efforts, and developing an operational manual to clarify assessment parameters for both assessors and Local Governments.
Participants stressed the need for a more comprehensive tool to track gender-related interventions, noting the ongoing challenge of integrating cross-cutting issues such as gender into existing budgeting systems. The discussion also underscored the importance of clear accountability for budget allocations, as well as adequate human resource capacity to ensure gender and equity initiatives are effectively implemented.
On capacity building, it was noted that only four of Uganda’s 176 districts were identified as underperforming in the previous financial year, reflecting overall progress but also highlighting the need for continued support to the few lagging behind districts. Participants also welcomed the increase in the character limit for planning documents from 200 to 2,500, noting that it addresses a longstanding constraint on how much detail Local Governments could previously include in their submissions.
Discussion also centred on the need for a clear, evidence-based approach to any proposed budget code, along with a stronger emphasis on mainstreaming gender and equity considerations across all planning processes rather than isolating them. Participants identified inconsistent data collection, a lack of uniformity in mid-term reporting, and weak tracking of commitments and outcomes as key challenges. The group agreed to prioritise refining the existing tool, focusing on specific, relevant areas for each Local Government, before considering the development of any entirely new instrument.
Further discussion focused specifically on refining the BFP assessment tool’s scoring mechanism. Participants raised concerns about the current standardised BFP format, calling for a more detailed and specific scoring checklist. It was suggested that the checklist reference specific supporting documents and clearly capture relevant gender and equity elements. Facilitators clarified that assessments are based strictly on the Budget Framework Paper itself, rather than on District Development Plans, in line with the legal framework governing the process.
Delegates agreed to harmonize the scoring checklist to ensure it clearly and consistently captures the issues assessors are looking for, and a request was made for a section-by-section review of the tool to ensure thoroughness. The overarching goal is to improve the accuracy of planning and assessment, ensuring Local Governments remain aligned with national development priorities.
The engagement closed with a discussion on how specific interventions, such as an irrigation scheme benefiting local farmers, including women, connect to broader gender and equity outcomes. Participants emphasised the importance of clearly understanding the underlying goals of any intervention, whether that is about participation, empowerment, or food security, and how these in turn address challenges such as gender-based violence and malnutrition.
It was agreed that assessments must be grounded in the context of national development plans, budget strategies, and broader government approaches aimed at improving the well-being of vulnerable groups.