An Assessment of Governance Reforms and Women’s Participation in Enhancing Public Sector Accountability: A Case Study of Nama Sub-County, Mukono District.

Abstract

TURYATEMBA MOSES (2007-M083-10008) An Assessment of Governance Reforms and Women’s Participation in Enhancing Public Sector Accountability: A Case Study of Nama Sub-County, Mukono District. The study assessed governance reforms and women‟s participation in public sector accountability in Nama sub-county, Mukono district. Specifically, the study sought to assess:- women‟s participation in the exercise of administrative/managerial authority in local governance; how women‟s participation in public sector accountability enhances good governance and effective social service delivery, and has shown evidence of best practices of governance reforms by women in the district. The study employed a qualitative design combining in-depth interviews with key informants, focus group discussions with community members and a review of secondary data. The main findings show that women were involved in politics and contributed to good governance in Nama sub-county. Women were effective and efficient leaders who exhibited good virtues: patience, commitment, hard work and being good listeners. Their role(s) in public sector accountability were vividly shown through promotion of children‟s education, better social services delivery and fostering community self-help initiatives. With regard to good governance, women leaders caused the planning and implementation of development programmes. Besides serving to provide arenas for local democratic community participation in governance, women contributed to among others gender balance in local councils; more effective and efficient leadership; improved community access to and utilisation of social services. However, the study found that effective women‟s participation in politics and good governance was influenced by socio-cultural, economic and political factors such as: gender biase and social prejudices, unfair division of household labour, unequal power relations, low literacy level and corruption. The study recommends the need to open up further opportunities for women to have full rights and benefit from good governance through increased access to information; provision and improvement of social services. There is also need to extend finance and credit facilities to women to enable them engage in income generating activities (IGAs). The study also recommends that government should put in place measures to promote and sustain women‟s meaningful participation in all governance structures. For further research, the study suggests the need to examine specific programmes initiated by local governments to initiate and promote gender issues at community and household levels. Secondly, there is need to conduct a comparative study of socio-cultural implications of women‟s and men‟s participation in governance on household gender relations in Uganda. Thirdly, further research should be carried out to investigate and document contextual factors that influence women‟s roles in politics and participation in local governance. Key Words: Assessment, Governance Reforms, Women participation, Public Sector, Mukono District