Kampala. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative for Uganda, Elsie Attafuah has asked organizations to put in place policies to end gender disparity at workplaces.
Attafuah said that women across the world who are in the paid labor force are earning a quarter less than men for the same type of work.
She was speaking at the Private Sector Gender Equality Seal Awards 2023. The awards are under the Gender Equality Seal program, organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). In 2016, UNDP Uganda partnered with the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU) to adopt the Gender Equality Seal for Private Enterprises. The program aims at creating an equal and harmonious working environment for both male and female employees.
At the event, 40 companies were recognized for their efforts in gender equality in their workplaces.
Attafuah says the program is going to be rolled out to public institutions, and Makerere University is already piloting the program.
Betty Amongi, the Minister for Gender Labor and Social Development, noted that the effort to include more women in employment still faces a significant hurdle.
“Most companies still see women as not economically viable; they say they are expensive to maintain in a company, statistically, lack of equal pay in most companies accounts for 22 percent, where 22 percent of women are paid less than their male counterparts with whom they are at the same level.”
Sarah Kagingo, the Vice-Chairperson of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) board of directors, said that since the private sector employs more people than the government, it should embrace the promotion of gender equality at workplaces. She said that it should go beyond employing women but ensure a work-life balance between males and females.
According to Kagingo, since the inception of the Gender Equality Seal, the program has grown from 13 companies to 90 that have committed to implementing the program.
