Foreword

There is a growing recognition in Uganda of the need to focus priority on one of society's most disadvantaged groups; the women; in all aspects of development planning. This need in most cases is however not supported by accurate dissagregated data and evidence depicting women's situation.

The call for gender dissagregated data has become more urgent as planning processes demand for figures to support qualitative arguments on the marginalisation of women in development processes as compared to men.

The formulation and implementation of National Plans and Policies should involve an explicit categorisation of the population along the lines of sex, age and economic sectors among others. The categorisation would depict which group participates in and benefits from particular development processes, given limited resources.

Assembling, documenting and disseminating data that brings out gaps is one of the major inputs in gender responsive development planning. Gender specific statistics provides a baseline to monitor women's and men's participation in development activities and help to identify gender based barriers for redress.

Since equal opportunities for women and men in all aspects of life is Uganda's policy, the importance of gender dissagregated statistical information to assess the extent to which this has been achieved and to show what remains to be done cannot be over emphasised.

I therefore, urgently appeal to all policy makers and planners to put to use this very important information.

Hon. Janat Balunzi Mukwaya
MINISTER FOR GENDER AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT