"Digging Deep: New research on Women’s Resistance to Human Rights Abuses in Uganda"

Right now, in Uganda, powerful corporations, supported by the government, are digging for oil, planting large scale crops like sugar cane, and setting up new factories. They’re doing this on the land that’s lived on and used by local people to grow food to feed their families. Women do most of the growing of food and looking after animals, as they are mainly responsible for putting food on the table. Yet when it comes to decisions about the future of the land, it is men’s voices that are heard. Women and their families are being forced from their homes often violently  and losing their livelihoods to make way for big farms and oil plants.

In Uganda a powerful new movement of rural women have come together to stand up to big businesses, and ensure their voices are heard in all decisions about the future of their homes. With over 1,500 women joining the movement in its first year (and growing!), women are finding support and solidarity by coming together to protect their livelihoods. National Association of Professional Environmentalists has worked with Womankind, the National Association for Women’s Action in Development, and the women movement to document issues affecting women and their livelihoods/land in Uganda, and to make the world listen to rural women’s voices. 

Our new report ‘Digging Deep’ raises up women’s voices, and calls for urgent action from corporations, governments and the international community....