THESIS PROJECT
Department of Social and Economic Geography
The Effects of NAWOU’s Gender Training Programmes A case study in central and north Uganda
Kristin Boman Alida Walfridsson
Course: 2KU039: Thesis Project STS - Social and Economic Geography, 15.0 c Semester: Spring 2020
Supervisor: Aida Aragao-Lagergren Course director: Cecilia Bygdell
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
For their contribution to this project, we would like to thank a group of people. Firstly, we would like to thank Executive Director of NAWOU, Monica Emiru Enyou, for welcoming us to visit and for answering questions in advance. We would also like to thank the whole NAWOU office and give a special thanks to Miriam and Loyce, together with Michael, Josephine and Monica who during our stay helped us tremendously with contacts and arrangements of meetings. This project would not be possible without the interaction with the NAWOU organisation. We also want to thank all members of NAWOU we have met during our stay in Uganda, both ToTs and grassroot women, for your patience, your understanding and all helpful information you have provided us with. We would also like to thank the course director Cecilia Bygdell for the support when performing this project and lastly, our supervisor Aida Aragao-Lagergren, for the input which significantly improved this report.
ABSTRACT
Boman, K. & Walfridsson, A. 2020. The Effects of NAWOU Gender Training Programmes:
A case study in central and north Uganda. Thesis Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University.
This report investigates how and to what extent knowledge sharing through the NAWOU gender training programmes empower the members, in the central and north region of Uganda, together with examining the members’ experiences from the programmes. Through observations, interviews and a survey during a qualitative case study in Uganda empirical data was collected and by using thematic analysis the data was analysed. The findings show that knowledge is shared on all levels and directions within the NAWOU network and is also spread outside the network to families and communities. Challenges faced by Ugandan women are today many and even though women are entitled to rights, the unawareness of them, together with social constructs, culture, sparse resources and accessibility are daily challenges to overcome. After participating in the gender training programmes, the members have become more self-aware with an increased self-esteem and self-confidence. They have gained a strong group belonging and together they accomplish social transformation. The awareness of women’s rights has increased among members and cultural structures are challenged. The members’ economic status has also increased by learning new practical skills. Even though empowerment is a process, the presented outcomes indicate that women participating in NAWOU programmes are being empowered.
Keywords: Uganda, gender training, knowledge sharing, women empowerment, equality.
Supervisor: Aida Aragao-Lagergren
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TERMINOLOGY 1
1. INTRODUCTION 2
1.1 Background 2
1.2 Aim 3
1.3 Research questions 3
1.4 Delimitations 3
2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH AND THEORETICAL CONTEXT 3
2.1 Gender 4
2.2 Empowerment 4
2.3 Knowledge sharing 6
3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS 7
3.1 Interviews 7
3.2 Survey 9
3.3 Observations 9
3.4 Thematic Analysis 10
3.5 Ethical Considerations 11
3.6 Limitations 11
4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 11
4.1 Personal 12
4.2 Groups 13
4.3 Community 13
4.4 Government and Laws 14
4.5 Culture 15
4.6 Resources 16
4.7 Monitoring 16
4.8 Network 17
5. DISCUSSION 18
5.1 Empowerment 18
5.2 Knowledge sharing 19
5.3 Challenges 21
6. CONCLUSION 22
6.1 Future studies 22
REFERENCES 24
APPENDICES 26
Appendix A - Questions for Mpigi meeting 26
Appendix B - Survey 27
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TERMINOLOGY NAWOU
National Association of Women Organisation in Uganda is a non-governmental organisation working for a world where women are free of injustice and individually self-reliant. They work together with groups and women organisations across all Uganda.
ToTs
Trainer of Trainers is the idea that a trainer educates and passes on their knowledge to others who become trainers. The trainers can then pass on knowledge further to their families, communities, organisations or companies.
Grassroot women
Are locally based women in groups, in most cases women led, that work to empower women and advocate for women’s rights. In this study the grassroot women are the base of the NAWOU members network.
COMBAT
The COMmunity Based Action Team are volunteers in the communities. They can be religious leaders, cultural leaders, young people, men and women who have committed to address violence in their community.
FGM
Female Genital Mutilation is a ritual of circumcision conducted in some parts of Uganda. FGM infer either cutting or removal of some, or all, of the external female genitalia. It is mostly carried out on young girls, has no health benefits and is a violation of human rights.
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1. INTRODUCTION
In the late 19th century, Uganda was declared a British protectorate which lasted until their independence in 1962 (Tamale, 1999). When colonised, Uganda was introduced to capitalism which strongly affected the relationship between men and women because of their new differences in financial status. According to Tamale (1999) colonial policies also influenced sex role definitions and opportunities for women negatively. To fight for women’s rights and independence, Ugandan women formed the Uganda Council of Women in the mid-20th century and the National Resistance Movement became the first postcolonial government to include women in formal politics in 1986. This led up to that 18% of the parliament consisted of women after the election in 1996 (Tamale, 1999) and 35% in 2019 (The World Bank, n.d.). Despite the increase, this percentage is not enough; women still need to collaborate with men to get majority in the parliament to fight sexism and patriarchal privileges (Muzee & Mbongo, 2019).
Uganda faces major gender equality challenges where women's empowerment and integration in economic and governmental position are two addressed problems today (UNDP, n.d.).
Uganda has had economic growth and poverty has reduced over the last twenty years; this growth has not been inclusive to women according to UN Women Africa. The Government of Uganda has improved women’s rights and the Constitution prohibits laws, customs and traditions that clash with women’s human rights. Despite the efforts made, discrimination and marginalisation are faced by Ugandan women. Attitudes about women’s rights are slowly changing in society together with a change in both culture and practices of public institutions.
Because of deeply rooted cultural and traditional practices women are still limited in many ways (UN Women Africa, n.d.).
The National Association of Women Organisation Uganda (NAWOU) is one of the oldest Ugandan women’s organisations and is a non-governmental umbrella organisation that aims to enhance gender equality through knowledge spreading (Cherukut interview). Through their gender training programmes NAWOU wants to promote the growth of strong women in Uganda and enhance their social, cultural, economic and political status. To do this, NAWOU uses what they call Training of Trainers (ToTs) in their programmes to reach as many women as possible with new knowledge (Cherukut interview). The idea is that the trainers pass on knowledge to their families, communities, organisations or companies (NAWOU, n.d.).
There is ample research on gender training but, according to Mukhopadhyay and Wong (2007), most of the existing literature deals with the practical dimensions of gender training itself - that is with guides, checklists and what tools to use when conducting the training. Less attention has been given to what effect participating in gender training has on the participants and people around them. This project will therefore contribute to this research gap, to highlight the change the gender training has on the participants and in what ways knowledge is transferred further to others.
1.1 Background
NAWOU, top down, consists of the board and office workers, ToTs, trainers and grassroot women. The grassroot women are too many for NAWOU to meet with individually; instead they are formed into groups where multiple groups form a network (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). The groups exist all over Uganda, vary in size and can consist of women, men, girls
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and boys. The number of women in the groups is by far the most. The groups often meet outside working hours so that as many as possible can attend. All women groups and organisations operating in Uganda are included as members of NAWOU. This means that a project arranged by a women organisation, but not directly funded through NAWOU, still is a NAWOU project (Luweero meeting). During meetings with ToTs, leaders from different groups gather in workshops and lectures to learn new skills and knowledge to bring back to their group members. ToTs also meet to discuss and share new strategies, good practices and challenges they have faced to learn from each other's experiences (Luweero meeting).
Between 2015 and 2019 the NAWOU organisation had structured their gender training based on four main themes: economic empowerment & livelihoods, peace & security, governance & leadership and institutional development (Luweero meeting). During 2020, NAWOU has five ongoing programmes together with different collaborative organisations.
The organisations are funding the projects which is vital for the possibility of following through the project’s aim and in the long run to reach the vision of NAWOU (Cherukut interview). The projects are reflected in what skills the members learn in the group meetings. The vision of NAWOU is for every woman to be individually and collectively free from injustice (Cherukut
& Mugisa interview).
1.2 Aim
The purpose of this study is to investigate how and to what extent the NAWOU members (employees, ToTs, trainers and grassroot women) in the central and north region of Uganda are empowered from the NAWOU gender training programmes. Furthermore, the aim is to examine the experiences of NAWOU members from the gender training programmes.
1.3 Research questions
- How is knowledge spread throughout the network of NAWOU?
- What challenges are faced when conducting knowledge sharing within the NAWOU network?
- What is the NAWOU members’ own perception of the outcomes of their participation in the gender training programmes?
1.4 Delimitations
The study is delimited to the central and northern regions of Uganda. The outcomes of this study are based on information gathered from field work in the districts Mpigi, Masaka, Mukono, Luweero, Kampala and Mubende from the central region and Gulu from the north region.
In this study respondents have been delimited to NAWOU members. Other parts of the NAWOU network like political leaders, governments and founders have not been interviewed due to time restrictions.
2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH AND THEORETICAL CONTEXT
To contextualise the work of gender training programmes and possible effects, previous research is used. From this a theoretical context is substantiated to help with explaining and
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understanding the collected empirical data. Central for this study are the concepts of gender, empowerment, knowledge sharing and knowledge network and will hereby be explained further. Hirdman’s (1988) text is used to realise how gender, as a cultural construct, can explain the outcome of gender training. To understand if the participants of NAWOU gender training programmes become empowered Strömquist’s (1995) four components of empowerment are used. During the programmes knowledge is shared throughout the NAWOU network. Van den Hooff and de Ridder (2004) explain the theoretical context of knowledge sharing while Phelps, Hiedl and Wadhwa (2012) distinguish between knowledge networks. Creech and Willard (2001) substantiate the importance regarding knowledge networks while Wu and Lee (2017) describe the advantage of having empowered leaders when conducting knowledge sharing.
2.1 Gender
Yvonne Hirdman (1988) writes that the word gender is a cultural construct. It is a pattern of learned behaviour aligned to an individual due to their sex. Hirdman questions the general phenomenon; why women are being subordinated to men both historically and geographically and finds gender to be a structure built on two logics. The first logic is that female and male attributes are not supposed to get mixed whereas the second logic infer hierarchy. It says that being a man is the norm which constitutes the normal and the general in society. The more powerful the first logic is the harder it is to challenge the norms set for society. This means that when women can do what men usually do, the weaker the norm of men becomes (Hirdman, 1988).
Instead of focusing on the origin of the logics and what made them so integrated in society, Hirdman puts focus on how the gender system works. She describes the gender system theory to be built upon the idea of an invisible gender contract which expresses thoughts on how men and women are supposed to act, look and think. It is built on the contrast where male attributes are seen as positive while female attributes are seen as negative. By using the invisible gender contract, the limitation for women can be described and most certainly the understanding of what is interpreted as female and male things to do. When the gender contracts boundaries are stretched conflicts can arise. If the women's contract is expanded, often the male contract needs to be reduced (Hirdman, 1988).
2.2 Empowerment
Empowerment is generally described as a process. It starts when you are unempowered and ends when you are empowered. To understand the meaning of this process empowerment needs to be defined. In this report empowerment will be defined through Strömquist (1995) and accordingly a full definition of the word needs to include the components: cognitive, psychological, political and economic. The components can be visible or fulfilled depending on where in the process of empowerment you are.
2.2.1 Cognitive
Women’s understanding of the self and what choices she makes together with the understanding of patterns of behaviour refers to the cognitive component. It includes understanding the cause of subordination together with understanding the need to make decisions that may challenge cultural and social expectations. It also includes increased
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knowledge to create awareness about gender relations as well as destroying structural gender ideologies that are part of old and patriarchal beliefs. Under the cognitive component, laws and legal rights are included. Often legislation for gender equity or laws to help the subordinated exists but are well ahead of practice. Women need to have knowledge about these laws for them to be enforced and implemented.
2.2.2 Psychological
The psychological component includes the feeling that women can act to modify and improve their environment at both a personal and societal level as well as the feeling that they can succeed with the change. This feeling can open up problem solving techniques and suppress the passivity and self-sacrifice attributes many women of primarily low-income households often possess because of the sex role socialisation. Self-confidence and self-esteem attributes cannot be taught, it is provided through development within favourable conditions.
2.2.3 Political
The ability to, through mobilisation and organisation, meet social change is entailed by analysing the surrounding environment. Both in political and social terms. This means that a process needs to involve not only individual awareness, but collective action to meet a social transformation.
2.2.4 Economic
The workload in the household is often the woman's responsibility which means an extra burden if women were to take an outside work as well. The access to and engage in a productive activity or work that conclude in any, however the size of it, financial provision increases the economic empowerment for women. A problem with income generating projects is that they are inefficient in the start-up phase and due to poor design and planning projects often result in failure. It is necessary to acquire knowledge about marketing, accounting and sufficient funding for such projects to improve over time.
2.2.5 Possibilities
Strömquist (1995) then describes how to create empowerment among primarily low-income adult women in the context of transformation and social justice. She writes that if the husband has large authority in the house it is necessary to get the woman out of the house and participate in some kind of group activity to develop a sense of independence and competence. To meet in small, cohesive groups is paramount. The close connection between the women of the group is of importance to gain experience and confidence from each other while the activity is secondary for the total transformation and increased self-esteem and competence. Strömquist finishes by writing that empowerment success is established if the training can easily be identified through the women’s everyday experiences together with that the training builds on the intellectual, emotional and cultural resources the women already have (Strömquist, 1995).
2.2.6 Challenges
Lastly Strömquist (1995) describes the biggest challenges which according to her is to assemble the women who are in most need of these empowering activities. Low income women spend both energy and time to meet family needs, they often also need to deal with an unsafe
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community environment and social expectations. Participating in training or engaging in empowering activities is often impossible since they are busy facing critical survival situations.
To meet this and other challenges Strömquist describes that empowerment needs actors to work for the most time-consuming parts. For example, institutions who provide necessary funds and create the opportunities of running empowering projects and programs (Strömquist, 1995).
2.3 Knowledge sharing
Knowledge sharing is defined through van den Hooff and de Ridder (2004) as the process of individuals mutually exchanging knowledge and together creating new knowledge. They also write that knowledge sharing consists of both serving and retrieving knowledge. It is two active processes where one either communicates to others what they know or actively consulting others to let them teach you what they know. Both processes can be influenced by other factors such as technologies, motivations, culture and social climate. For example, the relationship between individuals can affect the knowledge sharing potential both in a positive and negative way. The motivation factor is influential in knowledge sharing because when people are convinced their knowledge is useful and appreciated from the environment they tend to be more willing to share their knowledge. Synonymously the social climate influences knowledge sharing where accessibility and openness is key factors. Together with a horizontal information flow and reliability of transparency vertical through the organisation (van den Hooff & de Ridder, 2004).
2.3.1 Knowledge network
Phelps, Hiedl and Wadhwa (2012) define the knowledge network as a set of nodes interconnected by social relationships. The nodes can be both individuals or collectives and the nodes are enabled to transfer, create or acquire knowledge between them. They also describe that knowledge arises from collaborative relationships among individuals, groups and organisations (Phelps et al., 2012). Creech and Willard (2001) see potential in using networks to change policy and practice that a single institution could not accomplish. The network advantage is presented as that the whole is better than the sum of its parts, which means that each member of the network makes the network stronger. Creech and Willard present communication and engagement strategies as essential where the members of the network need to build relationships with each other for flow of information, influences and to work for change. It is important for such a network to monitor and evaluate collective activities to reach its full potential. The greatest challenge observed was to create both a network of information sharing and to collective work towards a solution. Knowledge networks require collective commitment but also commitment from an organisation for accountability, continuity and commitment of resources (Creech & Willard, 2001).
2.3.2 Knowledge sharing from empowered leaders
Previous research of knowledge sharing connected with empowered group leaders is slim which increases the interest of the research Wu and Lee (2017) have done within this field of study. The study was conducted in Taiwan on 64 different groups consisting of a total of 537 group members. Wu and Lee state that knowledge sharing does not arise spontaneously and due to its positive effect is something an organisation should prioritise in their regular work.
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Today, work often is conducted in groups which highlight the importance of investigating the impact of knowledge sharing in a group context. Since the group leader often has a big impact on the group, the leader's position is specifically interesting. Wu and Lee saw that empowered group leaders want their subordinates to share received knowledge, to a greater extent than other group leaders, since this improves the group performance. At a group level empowering leadership influences the knowledge sharing and individually an empowered leader can improve subordinate’s self-development which in return increases the capability for subordinates to perform knowledge sharing (Wu & Lee, 2017).
3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
To conduct this project the organisation NAWOU in Kampala, Uganda, was visited for a five- week case study during January and February 2020. The empirical data was collected from observations, interviews and a survey where the NAWOU network contributed with information. In Table 1 all interactions with the NAWOU network are presented. This chapter describes how empirical data was collected, how ethical considerations and limitations were faced as well as how the method of analysis was used.
Table 1. Collection of empirical material divided into geographical position.
NAWOU office in Kampala Luweero Mpigi
Interview with Cherukut, Miriam, program manager at NAWOU.
Observations at a meeting in Luweero with 12 members of NAWOU.
Interview with Bwanika, Betty, Executive Director at ASWERID Worldwide.
Interview with Cherukut &
Mugisa, Loyce, both program managers at NAWOU.
Survey with all 12 members attending the Luweero meeting.
Separate interviews with two NAWOU groups from Mpigi district.
Two interviews with Tophias, Lucky, Design and Production Personnel at NAWOU
Individual interviews with
“Emily”, “Patricia” and “Sysonie”, members attending the Luweero meeting.
Observations at a meeting with 10 employees of NAWOU.
Interview with “Yanica”, grassroot woman in NAWOU Handmade project.
3.1 Interviews
The interviews were designed differently depending on given circumstances. Semi structured interviews, with a guide of questions was one of the used interview strategies. According to Dilley (2000) the guide for semi structured interviews should help to keep the interview on
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track towards answering the research questions but should not prevent from following up interesting side-tracks (Dilley, 2000).
A more unstructured interview approach was chosen for some of the interviews because they were conducted spontaneously in between other activities. The intention of, according to Zhang and Wildemuth (2009), unstructured interviews are to expose the researchers to unexpected themes and to get a better understanding of the respondents. It is also common to incorporate unstructured interviews into an ongoing study based on observations. During unstructured interviews it is important that the researcher keep the purpose of the study in mind and make sure the interview goes in line with this. The control over the interview is minimal but the researcher should still encourage the respondent to relate their experiences and perspectives to what is of interest to the researcher (Zhang & Wildemuth, 2009).
To decrease uncertainties resulting from misinterpretations because of language and other cultural differences, follow up questions have been used. According to Bolderston (2012) follow up questions are asked after listening to the first response to help and encourage the respondent to tell more. This can also add richness and validity to collected data since follow up questions often clarifies the meaning of the participants' answers. Using this method during interviews can sometimes lead to a stiffer interview climate and make the respondent be defensive (Bolderston, 2012), but it is also shown through experiments by Aliannejadi et al.
(2019) that better results are achieved by asking more clarifying questions during data collection.
The project started with a meeting on the 21 January at the NAWOU office together with Miriam Cherukut1. Present was also Loyce Mugisa2. During the meeting, a plan for the collaboration was made and general information about the organisation was shared. The first interview was held with Cherukut and Mugisa at the NAWOU office on the 24 January in a conference room. The interview was designed in a semi structured way where the focus was on them introducing themselves, their work and the organisation.
During a two-day meeting in Luweero 27-28 January three unstructured interviews were held with members about their experiences and challenges as a trainer and the outcomes they have recognised in their communities from their work. From the meeting in Luweero contact information to Betty Bwanika3 from Mpigi district was received. Bwanika’s women organisation works within the NAWOU network and has 25 ongoing groups in the district. On the 17 February ANSWERID Worldwide’s office in Mpigi district was visited and a 30-minute unstructured interview was conducted with Bwanika regarding the organisation and the groups in the district. ANSWERID Worldwide is a member of NAWOU and is a part of the NAWOU network.
After the interview two of Bwanika’s groups, within Mpigi district, were visited together with Monica Nantume4 from NAWOU. Because the language spoken by the groups were Luganda, Bwanika and Nantume acted as translators. A survey had been prepared in English but could not be handed out due to the language barrier. Instead the questions from the survey
1 NAWOU Program Manager.
2 NAWOU Program Manager - Results.
3 ANSWERID Worldwide Executive Director.
4 NAWOU Assistant Program Officer - Membership.
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were read to the members and they answered verbally in front of the group. The questions asked can be found in Appendix A. In the first group, nine members were present and all participated in answering the questions. In the second group about 40 members were present where some chose not to share their thoughts. In both groups, men were present but outnumbered. It cannot be ruled out that the members were inhibited to speak their inner thoughts and shared information that made them look good in front of Bwanika and the group.
Bwanika has a good relationship with the groups and the climate felt open within the groups.
At the NAWOU office women from the handmade programme meet on Thursdays. On the 30th of January Lucky Tophias5 was interviewed about the programme and the network of the groups. Another unstructured interview was made with Tophias on the 20th of February where focus was on the development and potential of the groups and what she and the groups have learnt from the programme. The same day a grassroot woman, “Yanica”, from the group was interviewed about her goals and achievements since joining the group.
3.2 Survey
Surveys have different and possibly complementary strengths and weaknesses to interviews according to Harris and Brown (2010). Surveys are viewed as a more objective tool since the researcher cannot influence the participant. The result can instead be threatened by factors including faulty or biased design and wording, misunderstanding and errors in coding or processing. Harrison and Brown also describe that participants can respond differently to an interview compared to a survey because of social structures. Surveys instead permit a wide range of responses (Harrison & Brown, 2010).
During the meeting in Luweero a survey was given to all members participating, 12 people, all answered the survey. The questions asked concerned why they are participating in the programme, what changes they have seen, the most important subjects they teach others about and what challenges they have faced. The survey can be found in Appendix B. Using a survey in this specific research was to collect answers from more participants than would have been possible if only interviews had been used because of limited time together with the participants.
The answers from the survey were used to find important themes, thoughts and subjects for further investigations in later interviews.
3.3 Observations
During the five-week case study the NAWOU office was visited several times which gave an understanding of the organisation and its work. On the 17 February, a start-up meeting was attended which was held at the NAWOU office in Kampala by Monica Emiru Enyou6. The meeting was the first meeting of 2020, with the agenda to set targets for 2020 and bring up challenges of 2019 to improve on in 2020. Attending the meeting were 10 employees of NAWOU.
Non-participating observations were also made during the visits in Luweero and Mpigi.
The meeting in Luweero was focusing on women leadership and the meeting objectives were:
share experiences to improve, develop & learn, get new ideas from each other, networking and
5 NAWOU Design and Production Personnel.
6 NAWOU Executive Director
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leadership role review. Holding the meeting was Nantume and Josephine Namatovu7 from the NAWOU office and attending were 12 members. In Mpigi, two group meetings were visited in their original setting and observations about meeting agenda, group dynamics and facilitations were made. Observations were chosen as a method to overcome cultural differences and to generate a deeper understanding for the women and their situations.
3.4 Thematic Analysis
Thematic analysis was used as a theoretical framework for identifying and analysing patterns from the interviews and the participants' experiences. Braun and Clarke (2006) explain that when conducting thematic analysis, it is important to define and to be transparent about assumptions and the nature of the data. If the assumptions are transparent, thematic analysis can be used effectively to examine how events, realities and experiences are the effects from operating within a society. It can also make meaning from experiences but still retaining focus on the material (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The method of using thematic analysis might not have been the most effective method when collecting empirical data during a longer time and from different areas. All data needs to be collected and summarised before starting the thematic analysis.
There is no right or wrong for determining the prevalence of a thematic analysis, consistency needs to be present when determining a theme and that the theme captures something important in relation to the overall research questions. Investigating underlying ideas and assumptions related to the research question to identify features which give the findings a form and meaning on a deeper level. The thematic analysis put the focus on socio cultural context and structural conditions rather than individual motivation or psychologies (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
The theme analysis, described by Braun and Clarke (2006), consists of six phases, each containing important steps to result in a trustworthy conclusion. The thematic analysis method of analysing empirical data was chosen as a method to structure the collected empirical data to make it easier to identify the relevant parts of the data and divide them into sections. From the six phases the analysis part became, in contrast to the more insufficient empirical collective period of the project, more specific with a clear path on how to evaluate the collected empirical data.
First, we familiarised us with collected empirical data, that is, transcribed interviews, taking notes about insights and summarising ideas about what the data contained and the most interesting about it. The data were extracted and coded to describe their content. A large amount of data was reviewed to identify as many potential themes as possible. A long list of codes was divided into different potential themes, overarching themes were merged and some themes were removed due to irrelevance. At this phase we considered whether the themes were an accurate representation of the total collected empirical data.
The themes essence was identified which made the themes easy to describe by a couple of sentences and the themes were given names. Each theme was analysed to make sure that they did not overarch. We felt comfortable that our themes now explain a complicated story in a
7 NAWOU Project Officer - Peace and Security
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clearer way. This helped to convince the reader of the validity of the analysis. Lastly, focus was on presenting the story in a logical, concise, non-repetitive way while at the same time being engaged and interesting. The result was an illustrative argument in relation to the research questions which went beyond the description of collected data.
By following Braun and Clarke (2006) phases potential mistakes were avoided. One pitfall is to not analyse the data, only present it more concisely. Another pitfall is to use the research questions as themes and in that case, there has not been made any analysis to make sense of patterns in the data. Lastly, one mistake is to have overlapping or weak themes that do not make convincing analysis. It misses parts of the data or fails to provide a rich description of it (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
3.5 Ethical Considerations
All participants got information about the purpose of the study before conducting an interview, survey or observations. Participants of the gender training programmes also received information about them being anonymous. In the report members’ names have been anonymised with fictional names. Employers of NAWOU are presented with names as well as the Executive Director of ANSWERID Worldwide.
3.6 Limitations
The events planned by NAWOU are preliminary until just a few days, or one day, before the events are supposed to happen. Then the event can be either set or postponed. Because of postponed events, short notice and sometimes insufficient communication the number of events attended were fewer than expected. However, the attended events gave sufficient information for the study.
Uganda as a former British colony has English as one of their official languages but they have developed the language in their local context which means that they now are speaking Uglish (Shearlaw, 2014). The new variety of English means that some misunderstanding may have occurred during observations however the eventual misunderstanding is believed to affect the results of the study only insignificantly.
4. FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
To analyse the findings established through collected empirical data, themes have been substantiated through the thematic analysis. The themes are: Personal, Groups, Community, Government and Laws, Culture, Resources, Monitoring and Network. In the first three themes, Personal, Groups and Community, the empirical data comes from the members own experiences about their own growth, the meaning of the group and outcomes in their communities. The themes Government and Laws and Culture include structural issues and victories for women regarding political and social structures. The analysis concerning financials and materials, which are an important part of the programmes, are compiled in the theme Resources. Lastly, Monitoring and Network, describe the flow of information back to NAWOU and the different nodes and connections of the network, respectively.
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4.1 Personal
Individuals and other women organisations have gained knowledge through the work together with NAWOU. Practical skills gained are farming strategies and producing products that can be sold on a market, for example soap making and mushroom growing, either locally (Luweero meeting; Mpigi group interviews) or globally (Tophias interview 1). From the possibility of selling products, by learning how to save money and/or training in financial literacy all of the respondents mention that they have increased their economic status which has made them more socially included and it has strengthened their self-esteem. It is also stated that the gender- based violence has decreased due to a more equal economic situation in the homes (Mpigi group interviews).
NAWOU has enhanced that accessibility is important for ToTs and encourages them to work more with their confidence, assertiveness and self-esteem to increase their accessibility even further (Luweero meeting). Through gender training women’s problem-solving skills have increased which in multiple ways have made them more independent (Luweero survey).
One trainer expressed the importance of being connected with other women and to the community and said: It is important for you [the women] to be connected, once you keep quiet, problems will keep arising, and the more you speak, the more connected you get, the more influential you get (Luweero meeting).
Increased self-esteem and/or self-confidence is identified both at ToTs and grassroot level and is mentioned as an effect of being a part of a women group working towards the same goal (Luweero survey; Mpigi group interviews; Tophias interview 2). Women from these groups can to a larger extent now have leadership positions (Luweero survey). Through training about laws and rights for women the women have learnt how to handle their partners and one of the women has become a paralegal for the community (Luweero survey; Mpigi group interviews) which means she is responsible to report violations.
Gender training has generated personal growth, intellectually and socially (Luweero survey; Tophias interview 2) and through increased communicative skills women are, to a larger extent, respected by male leaders in the community (Luweero meeting; “Sysonie”
interview). There is also a feeling of being more self-aware of their capabilities and an eagerness of continued development (Luweero survey; Tophias interview 2; “Yanica”
interview). For example, “Yanica” said: I want to be better, to get the finishing here, to be better. Smoother while she points at the crafted pot she has finished. Bwanika also expresses the feeling of content, when they see development among their groups, is confirmative. Though the workload for ToTs sometimes can be high and the complicity of getting an open and comfortable environment in the group at the beginning of the session are two problems addressed by the ToTs (Luweero survey; Tophias interview 2).
Some women face problems attending the gender training according to the groups in Mpigi. Women who have been able to start businesses after gaining knowledge through gender training have trouble attending meetings because of a conflict of interest. A member said: some have businesses, they cannot attend meetings for more than one hour because they cannot leave their shop. Conflict of interest, they also want to come to learn more (Mpigi group interviews) and multiple members agreed.
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4.2 Groups
The women groups can vary in size (Cherukut & Mugisa interview) and the groups act at a local level (Bwanika interview) which means that the members often live close to each other.
This makes the approach easier for the trainers since they often know the members well (Luweero meeting; Bwanika interview). The way groups are formed, often the bonding between members of the group is strong which has decreased the pressure on the individuals since there are multiple people looking after one another (Mpigi group interviews).
In the groups, the members learn how to respect opinions and ideas, ask questions (Luweero survey), work together, influence and teach or learn from other members in the group (Mpigi group interviews; Tophias interview 2). Trainers have faced problems from husbands to women participating in group training, where the men are confronting the purpose or being negative to the training. The trainers express the importance in ignoring and not accepting these negative attitudes from the husbands (Luweero meeting).
Both grassroot members and ToTs experience that they, through meetings with the group members, learn a lot (Luweero meeting; Mpigi group interviews; “Yanica” interview). From the groups it exists a clear prosperity to see other members keep developing and by working together they can see a change (Luweero survey; Mpigi group interviews). For example, one trainer said: Through the several trainings I have gone through me and my group members we have learnt to be visionary leaders and we all have personal visions (Luweero survey). On the contrary there are also difficulties with working together in a group. Multiple members express that high expectations are a problem in their groups together with selfishness from some of the group members.
Some members said it is easier to get gender training as a group and to learn from each other by observing and through sharing experiences with equals (Mpigi group interviews;
“Patricia” interview). There are also challenges to lead women from the beginning to the end through gender training or a project (Luweero meeting). Women is basically farmers, and when they are farmers, when you bring in these new interventions and you don’t support them very well they can not, they can not maintaining the idea that you brought (Bwanika interview).
Therefore, an advanced preparation is required from the ToTs together with making sure to have a feedback loop integrated into the project to make sure that the project comes off as intended (Luweero survey).
4.3 Community
The effects from having women groups in a community can vary. The groups describe that geographically closeness between members of the groups makes social contact easier. When a group has learnt a new skill, they call others in the community so that they also can learn it.
Acquired knowledge is then forwarded to others (Mpigi group interviews). When gender training is held, rural and remote areas can be a problem. These areas can be hard for the trainers to access together with a limited facilitation in the field (Luweero survey). There are also some projects that become unsuccessful due to lack of continually monitoring of the programmes which is a bigger problem for rural areas where monitoring is more difficult (Luweero meeting).
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Since groups in the communities started to exist, women have become braver and today they work harder for themselves and their rights (Luweero meeting; “Emily” interview).
Sometimes when women become stronger and more independent their husbands feel threatened (“Patricia” interview). One approach to face these situations is to equip the women with knowledge and support and then let them teach their family about gender equality (Luweero meeting). Often husbands and other men in a community think they are more important than women which make it important to involve men in gender training (“Patricia” interview). There are already multiple communities addressing this problem, where some men have changed their attitude towards supporting their wives (Luweero survey). Other men encourage their wives to attend meetings with the women groups since they have realised that they benefit from it, often financially (Mpigi group interviews). Often the problem is ignorance from the husband, or men in general, which makes it important to inform and include men in the projects addressing these problems (Luweero meeting; Luweero survey). To do this, public speeches have been held and by talking about gender-based violence and domestic violence, the violence in the communities has decreased (Mpigi group interviews).
One problem at community level is that violence often is normalised. Men think it is okay for women to be beaten or raped (Cherukut & Mugisa interview) and sometimes the support from local leaders is limited (Luweero survey). One project that NAWOU implemented is to target these attitudes with the work of community-based action teams, COMBATs (Cherukut
& Mugisa interview). NAWOU train them in gender equality and the female genital mutilation (FGM) law. From the COMBATs there is information coming through to the authorities, which can result in both increased monitoring and arrests by the police (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). COMBAT projects are said to still have good capacity in the community, even after NAWOU stopped financing the projects (Luweero meeting).
ToTs can see that what they are doing has an impact in their communities (Luweero meeting; “Emily” interview; “Sysonie” interview). For example, girls that have dropped out of school realise that education is important and they now see an increased number of girls returning to school (Luweero meeting). There has also been an increase of hygiene maintenance in the communities (Luweero meeting; Luweero survey; Mpigi group interviews) where women who have gained knowledge about hygiene maintenance organised education for others in the communities (Luweero survey). Hopefully by copying their families and parents, the children adopt the good qualities and knowledge to continue the increased hygiene maintenance further (Luweero meeting).
4.4 Government and Laws
NAWOU consult district leaders, political teams and local governments about achievements, challenges and gaps that exist in the service delivery and what more they can do to improve women’s situation (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). A big problem is the police’s inability to handle gender-based violence.
Many times, policemen are poorly funded so they are unable to do a good job in evidence collection, following up, apprehending the suspect [...], like if I’ve been bitten [...]. Then I run to the police and then the police is required to probably arrest my husband, then they have no fuel, then I have to pay the police to go
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get fuel to arrest. And many of our women are really poor, like they have no resources (Cherukut & Mugisa interview).
Political leaders have a tendency of playing on both teams. In communities where there are negative cultural practices, like FGM, political leaders who commit to address the problem are sometimes promoting what NAWOU fights against in their own community. The role of the political leaders is therefore both positive and negative and it is important to have interventions to get them to do the right thing (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). In the Luweero meeting members promoted to get women up higher in boards and in leading positions because they thought that women know what is needed for like-minded (Luweero meeting). For Bwanika the network with other women organisations is important for gaining knowledge in politics for her to educate her members to know their rights and to get more women into politics (Bwanika interview).
From the gender training women have; learnt their rights and referral places to report their cases and women have joined leadership politically (Luweero survey). The members in the meeting in Luweero think that the system enhances patriarchy and they blame the system for rapes. The system is said to not be trusted and that the system cannot protect the women (Luweero meeting). FGM is illegal, both to execute the action and to be circumcised. This means that the girl is both the victim and perpetrator. The law is not only bad, many girls want to be circumcised because of cultural premises so the law is a way to discourage girls from being a part of the process (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). There are a lot of challenges with laws and governance when working with questions concerning women (Luweero meeting).
4.5 Culture
Cultural leaders and institutions have a lot of influence. Even though laws and government are taking action for women’s rights fathers are influenced more by a cultural institution called the Clan which acts as an invisible hand in the affairs of the family and pressures the head of the family to marry away their daughters for example. In books the mother is portrayed as the one encouraging and pushing girls into circumcision and marriage but behind them are the fathers and the Clan pushing (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). In some districts in Uganda FGM is a huge problem (Luweero meeting) and the ritual is for the girl to be circumcised before marriage. If she is not circumcised the father will not get cows for his daughter when married and she will become abused and denied access to resources (Cherukut & Mugisa interview).
Since the new FGM law was established, 2010, there is a new trend around circumcision. Now the girls are circumcised after marriage since parents fear the law and do not pressure their daughters to get circumcised (Cherukut & Mugisa interview).
Within gender training, NAWOU encourages women leaders to speak more. Culture says that when a man speaks a woman listens and the members in the Luweero meeting agree that women need to get their voices back. It is not until women get room to speak they can advocate for their rights (Luweero meeting). In an interview “Emily” said: People tell me that ‘you do things like a man’ but I don’t, I just do things. There are underlying rules on how to act as a woman according to culture structure (Luweero meeting) and new members tend to have
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difficulty adjusting to the equality trend. Strong and effective approaches are needed to mitigate the belief of men being superior (Luweero survey).
Girls who are menstruating are regarded as dirty, not pure. During menstruation women are set to sit in the bush and are not allowed to participate in anything. Because of these cultural beliefs women sometimes are not even supportive of their own daughters. Sexuality issues are rarely discussed and girls have to find a way of managing their menstruation without the support of their parents. You can’t get pads, information [...], all odds are against you really (Cherukut & Mugisa interview).
4.6 Resources
Through the NAWOU gender training programmes the trainers can see that women have learnt how to save money and by saving in the group the women have got credit capacity to make larger investments (Luweero survey; Bwanika interview; Mpigi group interviews). Women do not own anything and it is unusual for a woman to get a loan from a bank (“Patricia” interview).
By investing in their business, like buying tools for farming, they can make it more efficient which results in a larger profit (Luweero meeting; Bwanika interview). When the women involve themselves in business, they are able to provide for their families (Luweero survey), many women can at the end of the year pay school fees for their children (Luweero meeting).
The funds for the programmes are limited which is a challenge when conducting gender training (Luweero meeting; Luweero survey). Trainers find issues with that they have limited resources to support the cause of the group. Support from technical and resourceful persons are limited and due to a small budget, all women who want to be in the group cannot (Luweero survey). Facilitation for group meetings is also not obvious (Luweero survey), for example we observed during the interviews in Mpigi that one of the groups met in a house and the other group met outside on tarpaulins.
It is hard to get funding according to Bwanika, she only managed to get funds for her groups through NAWOU and the network (Bwanika interview). Different projects get different amounts of funding. The programmes within leadership and governance have not had any direct funding since 2015 (Luweero meeting) and the Handcraft programme receives less funding than other projects (Tophias interview 2). The problem with funding is also the other way around. Three NAWOU projects in 2019 could not use all the money they had received because of the difficulties with planning ahead in time (NAWOU meeting).
Menstruation is holding girls back from going to school. Menstrual products are expensive and many families cannot afford it. Add that schools do not have appropriate sanitary facilities, latrines and changing rooms for girls meaning that even if girls went to school it would be a problem during their period (Cherukut & Mugisa interview).
4.7 Monitoring
In NAWOU’s ToT programme the trainers are given reporting tools so they can meet groups in their community and take register on the participants. The trainers write an activity report after conducting gender training which is handed through the network back to NAWOU. To show the impact from a project NAWOU compiles all collected activity reports to one report.
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Everyone reached through training is registered as NAWOU members (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). It is important to monitor and report the impact from the gender training to evaluate the value for the work NAWOU execute and to fulfil the requirements in the donor framework.
NAWOU gets progress information from: interactions with founders, program officers, COMBATs and ToTs through the network (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). At the Luweero meeting monitoring and evaluation of activities was lifted as a good practice and at the same time the importance of putting a lot of work and time into planning activities was mentioned (Luweero meeting).
Not many of the group leaders attending the Luweero meeting had annual targets. Set targets to yourselves to measure your performance (Luweero meeting). It is pointed out in the meeting that the goal can be small things, for example to increase the group members. It is important that the targets are manageable (Luweero meeting).
4.8 Network
There are perks of being a member of NAWOU. The members get a joint voice under one umbrella and can together learn from each other’s successes and mistakes. When facing a problem, the network helps to handle the issue (Luweero meeting). Other women organisations can benefit from the network by having activities implemented through NAWOU (Luweero survey). ANSWERID Worldwide is a women's organisation that never has received direct funding, only through the network from NAWOU (Bwanika interview). Many projects start from multiple organisations collaborating (Luweero meeting). Through the network, ANSWERID Worldwide has been able to mobilise members and start to train them in different crafts. Also, one woman has been able to attend a longer gender training funded by the Netherlands thanks to being a part of the NAWOU network (Bwanika interview). So she will come and share her knowledge, that she has got, in her groups and the community in large (Bwanika interview).
When NAWOU receives funding, it can either be them designing a project and approaching donors or the donors can be asking for collaboration. Donors have frameworks of what they want to achieve in the same way NAWOU and other organisations do. Donors also often have their own donors so there are many levels in the network. And everyone has an agenda (Cherukut & Mugisa interview). A project can also start from the other end, the members. If someone comes up with a good concept for gender training, they can come to NAWOU and be connected to donors for funding of the project. It is easier to get funding when being a larger known organisation (NAWOU meeting).
To reach as many women as possible through their groups NAWOU uses ToTs who return to their communities and teach what they have learnt. The trainers are participating in NAWOU’s gender training programmes because they get a platform to share their ideas and share their knowledge (Luweero survey). Groups in the community form clusters in the network for the information to spread as efficiently as possible (Cherukut & Mugisa interview).
Interconnecting groups to one another is important in the community for knowledge spreading.
The network within the community can be used to learn new things from the other groups, If someone has a skill or they want to share something […]. They can network (Bwanika
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interview). Tophias describe that when NAWOU wants to teach women a new skill they can pick out a few from one group that attend the training and then go back to teach others and spread knowledge to adjacent groups. The network with NAWOU also means that women producing products can export them to countries like Australia and New Zealand where they can be sold for a higher price and the women can earn more for their work (Tophias interview 1).
5. DISCUSSION
The discussion is divided into three main parts: Empowerment, Knowledge sharing and Challenges. Each section overarches the other in terms of the general focus on gender which can be found in all three parts. The themes, identified in Findings and Analysis are put into perspective to the theoretical context.
5.1 Empowerment
Culture influence how families treat their daughters, making them get married young and to go through FGM even though it is illegal. In the cognitive component of empowerment as Strömquist describes, it is important to understand the need to make decisions that challenge cultural expectations. From gender training, the members of NAWOU have learnt their rights and now know where to report when their rights are being violated, like when their families want them to go through FGM. For laws, like the FGM law, to be enforced and implemented women need to have knowledge about them. Culture advocates for women’s silence but the women want to take their voices back and start reporting violations against their rights. The women have understood the cause of subordination and now make decisions to challenge the expectations. For example, a NAWOU member has heard she does things like a man but she is only using her voice to get what she wants, she challenges the expectation society has on women, which is a typical example for fulfilling the cognitive component of empowerment Strömquist has described. Women express concerns about the patriarchal system in their society because it cannot protect the women from injustice. This concern shows that the women are creating awareness about gender relations and ideologies in the same way Strömquist requires for the cognitive component.
Women in NAWOU’s gender training programmes are divided into groups at a local level.
In the groups the women learn from each other, they become braver and today they work harder for themselves and their rights. COMBATs are used to spread information in the community for social change and to get more information to the authorities. This shows that women, through the described political component by Strömquist, can mobilise and organise groups and people to meet social change. The role of political leaders can be positive when they, through consultation from NAWOU, get an understanding of gaps in the system and they become convinced to do the right thing. By being a part of NAWOU, the members have met the political component of Strömquist since they have gained a joint voice and can collectively meet social transformation.
Even though self-confidence and self-esteem cannot be taught, according to Strömquist, the effect of being a part of a women group has been strengthened self-esteem and self-
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confidence. This is shown in multiple ways; women promote other women to take on leading positions and they now, to a larger extent, establish themselves in leading positions or higher up in boards. The result of this is that the respect of women from male leaders in the community has increased. The women feel more self-aware and are eager to see continued development.
For further improvement of the environment groups have learnt how to work together, influence and teach others which has resulted in a decreased pressure on the individuals. The psychological component of empowerment, described by Strömquist, is clear since the women continue to speak and stay connected. Furthermore, the women's problem-solving skills has increased which can be an effect of being able to identify successes both from their work together with women groups and in their communities. The suppressed and self-sacrificing feeling low income women often have because of sex role socialisation, according to Strömquist, has decreased and instead men have started to support their wives to continue women’s psychological empowerment.
According to the culture structures that exist in Uganda today, there are underlying rules according to what is expected from a woman which is similar to the, by Hirdman described, invisible gender contract. Through gender training the women have learnt new strategies for farming and producing products to sell on a market which has increased their income and is an example for economic empowerment, described by Strömquist. The women have also, through financial literacy and training in saving money, increased their economic status in their community. This increased economic empowerment can be seen both from grassroot women as well as from ToTs and workers at NAWOU office.
All four components, which together define empowerment according to Strömquist, are seen in observations and in the stories told by members in different ways. This conclude that the participants of the NAWOU gender training programs are being empowered.
5.2 Knowledge sharing
The problems regarding husbands feeling threatened is an example of women being more independent both in general and economic. This is also an example of a, through description from Hirdman, gender contract where the boundaries are stretched. The NAWOU programmes have supported ToTs and grassroot women which made it possible for women to involve themselves in a business or group that has improved their economical position. Implementing income generating projects, which is of importance according to Strömquist, with the groups has become easier because of the knowledge spreading throughout the network.
As leaders of the groups ToTs has a great impact on trainers and grassroot women, the subordinates in the groups. ToTs highly prioritise the group’s performance which enhances the will of getting the subordinates to share knowledge with each other. According to Wu and Lee knowledge sharing does not arise spontaneously. Therefore, it is important for ToTs to continually influence the groups both collectively and individually to improve the self- development for NAWOU members. This in turn can continue the performance of knowledge sharing amongst the groups.
NAWOU is together with other women organisations, groups in the community and funders a set of nodes interconnected by social relationships which define a knowledge network
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according to Phelps, Heidl and Wadhwa. NAWOU uses ToTs to transfer knowledge from the top, down to the grassroot women which helps to keep the vertical flow of information transparent as van den Hooff and de Ridder present as a key factor in a knowledge network together with a horizontal flow of information. Groups in the communities form clusters in the network who interconnect with each other and share knowledge horizontal without connecting with an organisation. The nodes are interconnected by social relationships and the knowledge keeps spreading when received by the women in the groups. The process of sharing knowledge is according to van den Hooff and de Ridder influenced by the social climate and when the women bring the knowledge home to their families and neighbours who can learn as well the relationships has had a positive effect. Furthermore, the women groups spread knowledge about gender issues and rights through public speeches which means that communities can gain knowledge from the network and by this, be part of the knowledge network. Organisations benefit from the relationships with other organisations since they can gain knowledge from each other and get connected with funders. Funding is important for the knowledge sharing projects and resources are transferred through the network. When starting a new knowledge sharing project it can start from the donors who want to sponsor women to learn a specific skill or get certain knowledge. It can also start with an idea from an organisation, a grassroot woman or group who uses the network to present the idea to get funding from donors.
To record the knowledge shared through the network, ToTs are given reporting tools to keep track on how many members reached in each project, which is necessary for the project to reach full capacity. This information is delivered to the funders and used to evaluate projects and the impact it has collectively. The funders and women organisations exchange knowledge to use funding in the best way which also is a part of having transparency vertically through the organisation and this visualises the dependence of serving and retrieving knowledge which is van den Hoff and de Ridder’s definition of knowledge sharing. The grassroot women share knowledge with women organisations to inform about the needs in the community while women organisations share knowledge with grassroot women to improve women’s position in the community. Within the group, knowledge is shared from trainers, who gained knowledge from the network, or from a group member with a desirable skill. The groups can find solutions to problems they have and in that way they together create new knowledge, which is a part of knowledge sharing, and makes the network stronger than its individual parts according to Creech and Willard. Except sharing knowledge, NAWOU uses the network to spread information to communities and to political leaders to make a change not only socially but also structurally.
Selfishness among members is a problem indicated by the ToTs which can be a result of an inferior social climate and lack of motivation among members in the groups according to van den Hooff and de Ridder. If the motivation factor is low amongst the group members it can inhibit the knowledge sharing. It is therefore important for the trainers to convince the members that the knowledge they possess is both useful and appreciated from the remaining group members. This enhances that each member of the network makes the network stronger. ToTs describe the difficulties in connecting the members in the beginning of the session to get a more open climate. Since the social climate influences knowledge sharing capabilities according to van den Hooff and de Ridder it is important to take these problems seriously. Therefore, the
