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Government Programmes in Uganda - Awareness Raising National Women’s Day (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development)The MGLSD organizes and coordinates annual celebrations for the commemoration of National Women’s Day at national and lower levels, when women’s issues are raised and women at grassroots levels are made aware of their rights. Capacity Building (Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development) The MGLSD, through the Department of Gender, has carried out capacity building on gender equality and women’s empowerment for various target groups. The Ministry targeted Permanent Secretaries, Directors and heads of departments in Government, politicians as well as heads of departments at the district level, district planners, statisticians and community development officers who handle gender mainstreaming functions at the district level, as well as NGOs. Safe Motherhood Initiative (Ministry of Health) This is originally an NGO activity which has been brought into the main stream of the Ministry of Health. The Initiative is a community-based intervention that aims at mobilizing the community to increase awareness of safe motherhood practices including family planning. The initiative trains both male and female counsellors. The Government, through the Ministry of Health, has evolved a policy of providing informal family planning education to the communities through various programmes. The Family Planning Association of Uganda has a policy of ensuring that all Ugandans get equal access to family planning services. This has been achieved by ensuring that all clinics, hospitals and sensitisation communities provide for family planning. National Radio and Television (Ministry of Works, Housing and Communication) Every week, a series of articles dealing with gender issues are published in the media. The most common issues that are discussed include activities of women’s groups, gender training, women’s appointments or promotions and profiles of outstanding women. In terms of radio and television, there are programmes that specifically address gender issues. The Ugandan Television (UTV) has a weekly programme that covers the “Gender World”. Radio Uganda (the government radio) has regular programmes that cover gender issues and address themselves to sensitizing the audience to the need for a change in mentality towards women and other disadvantaged groups.
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