How can a member
of Government state that gender equality should be emphasized instead of affirmative
action? In saying this, Government has failed to realize that affirmative
action is a component of gender equality, once you cater for affirmative action;
you are taking care of gender equality. This is why as opposition we are saying
that affirmative action should not be scrapped noted Kilenga Joseph Africa –Deputy Leader of opposition final debate.
Women who go to
the Parliament on the woman MP seat are always under looked by their male
counter parts .Unlike those who go on the direct seat who are even more
respected and their views are listened to. It is for this reason that we are
proposing that affirmative action should be scrapped; answred back Esther Nasseke – the Prime minister for the
final debate round.
A team brainstorming on ideas before a debate round.
These
were some of the numerous arguments that were raised on Day 2 of the inter
institutional central region debate tournament organized by ACFODE with support from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. The competition was held at Nob view hotel,
Ntinda between the 7th and 8th of September 2012. The theme of
the debate tournament was: Gender
equality and Good Governance. The
debates used the British Parliamentary format and brought
together students from 5 institutions of higher learning namely; Ndejje
University, Kampala International University, Makerere University Business School,
Nkumba University and Muteesa 1 Royal University.
One of the female debaters fronting her opinion.
The
inter-institutional debate approach is a strategy that ACFODE has used since 2010 promotes to
engage youth in discussing and understanding gender issues in relation to good
governance in Uganda. Through this approach, students' capacity to research,
analyze gender issues, and to lobby are enhanced. The September tournament
covered a range of motions like;
- This house should abolish the woman seat in Parliament,
- This house believes the youth movement has failed gender equality
- This house would recognize cohabitation as marriage
- This house believes that economic growth is more important than gender equality
- This house will legalize prostitution
- This house believes that girls who get pregnant is school should be expelled and;
- This house will scrap off Affirmative action.
Throughout
the debate rounds, some students exhibited good argumentation skills while
others needed improvement as their arguments
were riddled with fallacies. For instance, while debating the motion “This
house believes the youth movement has failed gender equality,” most students
understood the youth movement as comprising only youth organizations.
Therefore, as the debates ensued, those who had not researched well or had loop
holes in their arguments were dropped in favour of those who were good at
putting their points forward.
During
the award giving ceremony, ACFODE's Executive Director Ms Regina Bafaki thanked the debaters
for fully committing to the activity. She expressed her appreciation for the
level of debating that was exhibited by the debaters. While addressing the
debaters, Ms. Bafaki noted that“If all Parliamentarians
had passed through this process before going to the parliament, they would be
making better deliberations and policies while in Parliament.”
The
debaters thanked ACFODE for having reached out to the them as this enabled them
have a clear picture of what women organizations like ACFODE are doing as
regards promotion of gender equality through policy formulation, research, advocacy, mentoring, and capacity building. They noted that participating in
this innovative activity had enabled them to understand how debating nurtures
one into a good leader by imparting on them various skills. They hence vowed to
become gender advocates in their institutions and to set up active debate clubs
in order to carry on the debating culture.
To view a pictorial of the whole event; please click on the link below;
Daphine Agaba
Programs Assistant
Action For
Development
Email:
agabadaphine@gmail.com
