Speaker of parliament, Rt Hon Rebecca Alitwalla Kadaga has endorsed a proposal that 30 percent of all government contracts are reserved for women.
This was during United Nations 63rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women on the topic “Side event on Uganda’s success in Implementing Inclusive Sustainable Infrastructure for Promoting Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and girls.”
She added that she has been an advocate for women related issues for a period of time and was glad to participate in the ongoing 63rd UN Commission on the Status of Women, in New York.
“I endorsed a proposal for the review of Uganda’s procurement laws so as to ensure that 30 percent of all government contracts are reserved for women,” she posted
She urged that she would like to for example see in the adverts that UNRA puts out that the project will go to youth and women.
“I would like to see a situation where we also break the bid bonds into components where women and youth are able to participate,” she stated.
She further added that a bid bond is issued as part of a supply bidding process by a contractor to provide a guarantee that the supplier will execute the contract under the terms at which they bid.
“Bid bonds lock out women because of the enormous amounts of money needed,” she echoed
The speaker also voiced her concerns on accessibility by women and vulnerable persons to social services thus urge government to ensure that socio economic infrastructure responds better to the priorities of women and girls at grassroots level and that governments accelerate ongoing efforts to support women owned business to participate in government funded infrastructure projects.