Cultural leaders, civil society organisations and local government representatives Karamoja pledged to integrate the ‘Culture in Development’ Approach in their programming to mitigate violence against women and girls. The pledge was made after a 3 days workshop that took place in Karamoja from 21st to 23rd June, 2022 on the ‘Culture in Development’ Approach.
On behalf of the Karamoja Elders’ Association, the Chairperson, Mr. Nangiro Simon pledged to ” support the mapping of cultural resources with in the greater Karamoja region and create awareness about how they can be used to mitigate violence against women and girls.
The Community Development officer of Napak District Local Government pledged to debrief the district technical planning committee about the ‘Culture in Development’ Approach and to integrate it in their development plans and budgets; create awareness about the existence of traditional value and information transmission systems and how they can serve as a complementary systems to the existing legal systems in handling cases of violence against women and girls.”
Civil society organisations pledged to ” break barriers around negative cultural practices that infringe on the rights of women and girls and integrate the use of positive resources such as cultural leaders to reach out to women and girls in mitagation of violence that is inflicted on them.”
Culture is often blamed for oppressing women and girls. Negative cultural practices such as female genital mutilation that abuse the rights of women and girls have been highlighted and clearly understood by the world. However, there are positive cultural resources such as values, principles and practices that promote the rights of women and girls, and if harnessed, can contribute to the end of violence.
It is against this background that the CCFU, with support from UN Women organised the capacity building workshop, to enhance the capacity of cultural leaders, local government representatives and civil society organisations on how they can integrate the cultural approach in their programming to promote the rights of women and girls. The workshop involved the mapping of such cultural resources and how they can be used. Participants visited cultural resources persons to understand their role in promoting the rights of women and girls.