The survey.
A deliberate Post War Conflict Women in informal economies centered baseline carried out in early December 2023 has exposed that Fifty-One percent out of Ninety-Four Percent of Women doing income-generating activities in Gulu City cannot meet their full basic needs.
The survey sanctioned by Gender Tech Initiative Uganda with funding from African Women Development funds revealed that the high number of women in business does not measure up to the high level of self-reliance as far as basic needs are concerned.
The survey that looked at women’s engagement in stone quarrying, craft, pottery, tailoring, farming, and other small-scale businesses linked Eighty-Five percent of women to Village Saving and Loan Association (VSLA) as their biggest source of financing.
The Survey also highlighted the linkages between Gender Base Violence and work in the informal economies where Sixty percent of women testified that they had ever experienced Gener Based Violence either at the workplace or at home
Gulu City Women in the Informal Economies: (The Pro-Poor Activities)
These findings resonate with Evelyn Auma, one of the women in the Bardge-Layibi division who has spent ten years doing quarry and routinely spends Ugx 260,000 to buy stones from Nwoya district.
After smashing and selling the stones, Auma on a high note gets Ugx 280,000. She disclosed that the biggest barriers to business growth are the middlemen who get huge commissions from both the buyers and the sellers, poor road network, and work hazards.
“Recently, one of my workers lost an eye when a stone particle hit his eyes while smashing the stones and that drained me a lot financially, ”Auma said.
Judith Anena, 28, another businesswoman with hearing impairment who spoke with the Elephant through an interpreter said her jewelry business is limping since the raw materials are expensive.
“I use Ugx 60,000 to buy the beads for making the necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, but the profit is meager. Sometimes I am forced to drop the prices of the jewels for people to buy,” she said.
Anena added that she also finds a lot of challenges communicating with her buyers, majority do not know or understand sign language.
Oyet Alfred an independent young practicing economist, said the findings are near to what is termed as the ‘Pro-Poor activities’ since the women in question have low disposable income and make all their savings stacked in the VSLA for a year.
“They can’t innovate or reinvest because they have low disposable income, hence they end up over-borrowing and at times fail to pay, their household property like Televisions, beds, refrigerators, and saucepans are ferried at the end of the VSLA opening cycles, making them stagnant in the financial cycle”. Oyet submitted.
Oyet added that in national development creation, such income-generating activities are not taxed because they are not registered hence does not support a public wider tax base for a return effect through improved public services.
Interventions:
Ruth Atim, the Executive Director of Gender Tech Initiative told the Elephant that the findings were vivid and informed them to do several training with the women on business skills and how they could have access to other financial institutions including techniques for mitigating Gender-Based Violence in both workplaces.
Gender Tech Initiative also sensitized the women where to get help due to Gender-Based Violence abuse.
“We took the recommendations of the report such as linking the small–scale businesswomen to markets as one way of having their businesses grow and expand, we created the linkages”. Atim said.
She added that they met various stakeholders in the district and city including the local leaders and promulgated the findings of the survey to them, for long-term solutions.
Atim also believes that the report titled “Mapping Women’s Informal Economies: A Participatory Approach to Documenting and Enhancing Women’s Economic Growth” should inform policies or interest actors in supporting women in the informal economies locally and nationally.
Acoli Subregion has one of the highest poverty status standing at 64 percent, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, June report of 2022.
Attachment:
Read the full report here AWDF Project Baseline Report (Revised)_231213_1145_240114_181348
Ends.
