Women's Economic Empowerment under the Leadership Empowerment Access and Protection Program in Uganda's South Sudanese Refugee Crisis

UN Women (UNW), grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Since December 2013, Uganda has received 1,053,598 refugees from South Sudan (SSD) (as of Feb 2018, UNHCR), accounting for 75 percent of Uganda’s total refugee population of 1.45 million. [1]  Women and children constitute 86 percent of SSD refugees in Uganda fleeing from a conflict rampant with sexual violence and other heinous war crimes. [2]

Women and girls are the worst affected by the refugee response while they are also the main caregivers and among the first responders in the host communities, holding their families and communities together. Providing targeted livelihood and protection support to women in this setting has a direct effect on the wellbeing and recovery prospects of their families and communities

The rights and needs of women and girl refugees and host communities must be at the heart of the South Sudan refugee response in Uganda. A gender-responsive response prioritizing equality, safety, participation, leadership and economic wellbeing of women result in effective humanitarian and development outcomes.

Under its mandate to support member states to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) gender-related targets in general and in particular SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls); UN Women Uganda is pleased to announce a Call for Proposals (see Annex I for detailed guidelines on preparing the Proposals) from women-led Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) with innovative and high impact programmes on the advancement of gender equality, protection of women’s rights and the empowerment of women to facilitate UN Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection (LEAP) in Uganda’s Refugee Crisis Programme.

The objectives of the LEAP programme are: a) To increase leadership and engagement by refugee women in relief efforts and decision making; b) To increase women refugees and host communities’ access to income from their labor or services; and c) To ensure that humanitarian response planning frameworks and programming are gender-inclusive and responsive.

1. General Overview of services required/results

Through this Call for Proposals, UN Women seeks proposals from women-led CSOs and NGOs with strong track record in advancing Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Focus of this Call for proposals is on Women’s Economic Empowerment for refugee women and women from the host communities. UN WOMEN is therefore looking to partner with organizations that have proven capacity to develop and implement an innovative and transformational programme to increase target women’s vocational/entrepreneurial skills, economic opportunities and incomes in the districts of Yumbe and Adjumani.