Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has been awarded recognition of the 18-month old UN based African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), during a ceremony at the 2018 Women Leaders Global Forum (WLGF) held in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The AWLN has been recognized for its work in solving conflict and bringing out the issues of disadvantaged women across the African continent.
“The award is a big honor considering that the African Women Leaders Network is relatively new. It has been vocal in among other things sustaining the momentum to ensure the release of the Chibok girls who were abducted in Nigeria,” Kadaga noted.
The 2018 WLGF involved a series of discussions participation; including one on corporate growth and technological entrepreneurship with an emphasis on women inclusion and participation; steered by Malta President Marie Louise ColeiroPreca, MasterCard Foundation Vice Chairman Ann Cairns, and Partners Group Global Executive Board Member Kevin Lu.
Kadaga on her part told the delegates at the session that Uganda still faced a challenge of failure by some institutions and companies to respect the rights of women at the workplace, adding that concerted efforts could improve the attitude to work by corporate women.
“Some institutions limit maternity leave for women whereby if it is given, a woman has to choose between taking the leave and keeping her job. We need to change this standard in our institutions,” says Kadaga.
She also said that a review on the four days accorded to paternity leave ought to be done so as to give fathers more time from work to bond with their new born children.
The Speaker Rebecca noted that albeit the fact that women in Uganda had easier access to information through improved technology, the challenge of cybercrime had to be dealt with to protect users from loopholes that could be negatively exploited.
The 2018 Annual Women Leaders Global Forum brought together women leaders from all over the world including among others Presidents, Speakers of Parliament, Prime Ministers Members of Parliament and CEOs.