Gender\nequality can only be achieved if societies transform and develop, President\nMuseveni has said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nPresident made the remarks today (Tuesday) in Nairobi, Kenya where he joined\nother leaders at the International Conference on Population and Development\n(ICPD 25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nthree-day conference is being marked 25 years after the inaugural summit in\nCairo, Egypt that made a case for gender equality and supporting advancement of\nwomen and girls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing\nthe thousands of attentive delegates at the Kenyatta International Conference\nCentre, President Museveni pointed out that gender inequality was as old as\nman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Human\nbeings have been here for four-and-a half million years. Most of that time,\ngender inequality has been there,” he said. “Therefore, I want to\npoint out that you cannot achieve this equality if the society does not change\nitself.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nadded: “You cannot keep a pre-capitalist society in existence and you\nthink you will achieve easily gender equality and other goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nurge the organisers of this conference to add to their literature the words\nsocial economic transformation of the whole society.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing\nthe case of Europe, President Museveni said they had made strides in gender\nequality because they had managed to change the income fortunes of their\npeople. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You\ncannot keep a traditional society and then make it achieve middle-class goals.\nEven Europe was like this. It was just in the last few centuries when middle\nclass values were achieved. In the UK until 1911, the women were not\nvoting,” said the President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nobserved that creation of jobs is important in this fight because jobless, poor\npeople are vulnerable and susceptible to exploitation. The President added that\nwith joblessness, even good legislation on equality would run into\nimplementation challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Counselling\nthe young people and those making a case for gender equality, the President\nadvised that they must consult the elders and parents, whom he labelled\n“consultants”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I\nheard the slogan ‘girls must own their bodies’. Speaking as a veteran husband,\nfather, grandfather and freedom fighter, I advise that even when you own\nsomething, you must engage consultants. The young people must seek\nadvice,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
UGANDA’S\nCOMMITTMENT <\/p>\n\n\n\n
About\nUganda’s commitment to support gender equality and fulfill the targets set out\nin Cairo 25 years ago, President Museveni said the country would stand firm in\neliminating obstacles that stand in the way of empowering girls including\nteenage pregnancy, child marriage and all forms of gender based violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We\nshall scale up technical and vocational training to create life skills relevant\nto the labour market,” said the President. “We will do this while\nupholding the positive cultural and religious values.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nannounced Uganda’s commitment to promoting universal access to all methods of\nfamily planning and reduce unmet need of family planning access from 28% to 10%\nby 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nwill be complemented with increase in financial support towards reproductive\nhealth and family planning supplies and commodities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr\nMuseveni also, to the excitement of the audience, said Uganda will\noperationalise the national sexuality educational policy framework that the\nMinistry of Education and Sports launched in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This,\nhe said, will provide a national formal direction for age appropriate and\nculturally-sensitive sexuality education in Uganda’s schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We\nwill do this while upholding positive cultural and religious values of our\ncountries,” he said, adding that efforts to transform and modernize\nsociety would also see the country invest in critical sectors like electricity\ngeneration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nsummit was addressed by over 10 heads of state and government, who made their\nown commitments towards achieving gender equality.\n\nThe lively audience was treated to a series of entertainment, including\na performance by legendary Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour, who got a\nstanding ovation following his song “New Africa”. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gender equality can only be achieved if societies transform and develop, President Museveni has said. The President made the remarks today (Tuesday) in Nairobi, Kenya where he joined other leaders at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD 25). The three-day conference is being marked 25 years after the inaugural summit in Cairo, Egypt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":12119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-12118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n