UGANDA: Combating corruption through gender empowerment

*Picture, Care International, 2020

---

Over the past few days, we have had the opportunity at the University of Manchester to listen to different people from Uganda, involved in several urban community projects and initiatives, about the country´s main challenges when it comes to addressing poverty and the different development policies that civil society along with government institutions are implementing to advance development goals. Particularly, those initiatives that aim to improve urban settlements and address poverty through empowerment and mobilization, such as the program “Transforming Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda” (TSUPU) introduced by the Ugandan Government in alliance with the organization Cities Alliance in 2010, and some of the issues faced by urban communities when trying to improve their lives.

One matter in particular has come to my mind through these discussions: corruption seems to be a transversal factor that prevents progress in the implementation of the different initiatives. But beyond corruption, while doing some further research on this issue, what has caught my attention the most is how empowerment and community organization, mainly led by women, have become a fundamental strategy and tool to demand transparency and accountability before public authorities, and therefore for combating corruption. This is what I would like to examine here.

Corruption: a challenge for development policies. In a panel discussion we had with Dr. Badru Bukenya and Prof. Sam Hickey, I was impressed by what Dr. Bukeya had pointed out: "over the past decades, Uganda has been recognized for its remarkable results in creating development policies and even in reducing poverty”. Indeed, according to the World Bank, from 1992 to 2013 the percentage of households living under poverty conditions was reduced in half – from 56% to 21%- (World Bank, 2019). In terms of Human Development Index indicators, between 1990 and 2018, life expectancy at birth in the country increased by 17.1 years and expected years of schooling increased by 5.6 years (UNDP, 2019).

These are remarkable results. However, the implementation of development policies in the country still faces deep challenges which are putting into risk all the achievements obtained during the past decades and the fact that there still are many socio-economic issues that need to be addressed. According to Ngoobi et all (2017, p.20) in terms of policy implementation, there are five main obstacles: poor management, non-coherence in policy implementation, inadequate government financial support, political interference and corruption.

When it comes to corruption, it is difficult to find a consensus about its definition. Different practices are identified as corruption across the globe; some activities considered corrupt in some states are recognized as normal in others. Even international institutions such as the UN, OECD and the EU have decided to establish a wide range of corrupt actions instead of defining it. For instance, the UN Convention against corruption establishes offenses such as embezzlement, misappropriation or other diversion of property by a public official and obstruction of justice (UN, 2004, arts. 17-25). Overall, we can delimit it as any action that “involves behaviour on the part of officials in the public sector, whether politicians or civil servants, in which they improperly and unlawfully enrich themselves, or those close to them, by the misuse of the public power entrusted to them”(OECD, 2007, p.20)

Although it is difficult to establish a definition, one thing is clear: the negative impacts of corruption are large, particularly to human well-being. According to the World Economic Forum, corruption costs USD 2.6 trillion, approximately 5% of the global gross domestic product, while 20% to 40% of official development assistance is lost every year due to it (UN, 2019, p.xiii). Furthermore, the World Health Organization estimates global average annual losses from health care fraud to be 6.19%, out of approximately USD 5.7 trillion spent on health worldwide (WHO, 2019, p.1).

What is worse is that it disproportionally affects the poor and vulnerable groups, mainly women, children and the elderly, by stealing state resources required for basic services and limiting their capacity to participate in civic spaces(UN, 2019, p.40). For instance, there are areas with high corruption risks where women are more exposed. Because they are considered primary caregivers, they experience more corruption in their daily interactions with public officials when accessing services, such as health and water. Also, the relationship between high rates of mortality among females and corruption has been documented (UN, 2019, p. 158)

Corruption in Uganda. But, how does this particular issue affect Uganda? According to the corruption perception index developed by Transparency International (2019), the country is on the most corrupted nations in the world, ranked 137 out of 180 countries. Dr. Bukeya confirmed this assumption during its intervention and highlighted that corruption extends to the implementation of policies in the country and is present at both national and local levels of government.

We also had the opportunity to hear from Muhammed Kisiriza, CEO of Action for Fundamental Change and Development, an NGO that works with youth from slams in Kampala. Muhammed expressed that people from the communities are constantly facing corruption. In this sense, it is common that they have to negotiate with members of the ruling party in the country - the National Resistance Movement- and, in most cases, give bribes to them in order to access government funds to invest in their productive projects. Sarah Nandudu, National Coordinator for Uganda National Slum Dwellers Federation, also voiced her concerns on this issue, particularly because they have to deal with some politicians who want to take advantage of the federation´s work in the communities.

A survey conducted by the Inspectorate of Government, suggests that the most current forms of corruption in the country include the payment of bribes and embezzlement of public money (Martini, 2013, p.2). Even the World Bank expressed concern in 2012 due to some acts of corruption, and in the light of those acts decided to review its development assistance to the country.

As mentioned, corruption disproportionately affects women, and this is not the exception in Uganda. According to Transparency International (2019) land corruption is severely affecting women. Different aspects of the Ugandan background such as cultural norms and practices, the strongly patriarchal system, high illiteracy levels and barriers to accessing information “leave women particularly vulnerable to corruption over land” (p.28).

In this context, empowerment and community organization, led by women, have become a fundamental strategy to demand transparency and accountability before public authorities. How is this working?

Fighting against corruption: the case of the Slum Women’s Initiative for Development (SWID) in Jinja

Corruption is not gender-neutral. In 2003 Joyce Nagobi was about to lose her home in Jinja; her land was going to be sold to a low-wage manufacturing company and she did not have enough resources to buy the land she had been occupying for a long time without any legal documentation. Joyce represents one of a lot of women in Jinja who are facing the same situation and living under a constant threat of eviction from their lands (Torres and Wyant, 2014). In an interview carried out by Torres and Wyant (2014), Joyce explained: “We have gone through a number of offices, and then when we reached a level where we were applying for deed prints, one of the officers in the surveying department asked for money, for example 100,000 Ugandan shillings (roughly US $37) per person. He promised to bring the deed prints within two weeks, but as I speak now we have not received the deed prints”.

In response to this, Joyce and other women affected by lack of land rights in Jinja are working through empowerment to mobilize community members, raise awareness and fight corruption in the land titling process (Martínez, 2014). Women’s empowerment understood as a radical approach concerned with transforming power relations in favour of women’s rights and equality between women and men. An approach that recognizes inequalities, stimulates indignation about injustice and generates motivation to act -individually or in groups- to address their structural causes (Cornwall, 2016, p. 343, 344). As Cornwell(2016) points out, empowerment is a process, a transformative one, that aims to tackle “the root causes of poverty and the deep structural basis of gender inequality, calls for more than facilitating women’s access to assets or creating enabling institutions, laws and policies”(p.344, 345).

In this sense, in 2012 they decided to form the SWID, a collective, grassroots women’s organization that seeks to monitor and raise consciousness of corruption threats in land titling, and improve service delivery and local governance processes (Torres and Wyant, 2014). Thanks to the work done by the organization, more than 150 women in the communities have been able to submit documentation for land recognition. Furthermore, 35 women were able to receive land titles in less than 14 months. It has also built trust between communities and government officials, leading to higher participation, transparency and accountability. Even men in the community are starting to see the organization as an example to follow to obtain legal recognition for their land. Due to the success of the initiative, SWID has expanded its work to other communities in the country (UN, 2019, p.162).

This is a great example of how gender empowerment and community organization have become a central strategy for combating corruption and advance women´s rights. As Gillet(2014) says, “for women, reducing corruption is the means to improve their livelihoods. Breaking cultural patterns of corruption at the grassroots level requires looking at holistic strategies that target the roots of the issue”. This is where organizing comes in: working collectively and empowered, to improve lives.

Although it is important to highlight corruption as a factor that undermines progress when it comes to implementing development initiatives, what is important here is how empowered women have been able to strengthen anti-corruption actions by mobilizing themselves to monitor and raise awareness of corruption threats in the land titling processes and build trust between communities. This is unquestionable evidence of the essential role that organized and empowered women play in their communities to fight against corruption and advance their rights.