Why These Themes?

• Right to Information! When we relate access to information to governance, policy and development, it becomes crucial to make people get access to information as a way of being given an opportunity to make informed decisions and determine appropriate course of action. This is therefore the primary reason why CVL is interested in supporting actions that would increase the flow of information in line with the Constitution of Uganda Article 41: (1) Every citizen has a right of access to information in the possession of the state or any other organ or agency of the State except where the release of the information is likely to prejudice the security or sovereignty of the state or interfere with the right to the privacy of any other person.

• Sexual Health Rights! The promotion of the HIV prevention strategy of ABC over sexual health rights approaches targets mostly adults, while promoting condom use (a prevention tool controlled by men to the detriments of femidom – female condom). Though the existence of VAG is widely acknowledged, its linkage to HIV/Aids as a transmission mode is low; and efforts to address it remain reactive. It is noted that it takes a long time for people to understand and deal with VAG, and its intersection to HIV/Aids and loss of educational opportunities for girls. One reason advanced is the element of stigma attached to both issues. VAG happens behind closed doors or in lonely, quiet places and is surrounded by shame and guilt. HIV cannot be seen by the naked eye until the later stages. As such the girls continue to live in self-denial until it is too late to deal with or rectify the situation.

• Participatory Democracy! Women empowerment has simply become a fashionable slogan without any formidable strength and action-orientation. At CVL, we want to break new grounds by working on the cultural variables of major civic consciousness and action. Women participation has been reduced to the term ‘target’ or ‘beneficiary’ - derived from benefit; with renewed strength to eliminate participation of women in civic-actions. We at CVL contend that; women are not mere targets; but part of the action-force. They are not to be ‘impacted; rather they should ‘impact’”,

• Poverty! Women in northern Uganda define poverty as being beyond income. It results from and brings out new dimensions of powerlessness, exclusion and lack of knowledge/awareness. This means a lack of ability to express ones’ views both at home, and to government. It is a lack of voice and a failure to be heard. (2nd Participatory Poverty Assessment Report – Deepening the understanding of Poverty – Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development – December, 2002, p.xi).

• Right to Food remains a critical element in addressing women nutritional income and hunger poverty. At CVL, our strategic gender concern is with the lack of women’s access, control and ownership of bigger productive resources (land, cows, goats, perennial crops, technology) and differences in Terms of Trade between women and men, especially with cash-crops and market tenders/management.