Joyce Namugambe
As the kampala SDG festival gets into the final day, more active discussions have been heard among Ugandans, bringing out the need for people to engage more and learn about the importance of the Sdgs and how they can actively benefit from them.
The 17 sustainable development goals were introduced by the members countries of the United nations in 2005, for sustainable development, setting out a 15 year plan of achieving the goal.They are a call to action to end poverty and inequality among people from the member states, Uganda inclusive and ensure that all people enjoy justice, health and prosperity, Leaving No One Behind.
Among the panel discussions that have engaged active conversations, the Uganda media association (Umwa) one of the organisations that spearhead SDG number 5, has devised all means to see that the media achieves Gender inequality and empower all women and girls.
During their discussions panelist Patricia Akankwasa said parents and guidians should try as much as they can to stop their girl children from spending more time on internet to avoid negative effects that are caused by social media. She noted that engaging them in training skills will help them prepare for their future other concentrating on useless issues.
She expressed the need for regulators to regulate the content that people especially those who mascarade as being journalists put out to the public, that sometimes that doesnot align with media ethics and intergrity. She said that media’s role here, comes in to educate the public about the social media sources where they get information.
Carol Beyanga says the media’s role is to create awareness, educate and sensitise the public about sensitive issues in the country, but the media doesnot have the mandate to force government to implement anything.
She encouraged the media to continue doing alot of media sensitisation to the public through different sources such as radio, television newspapers among others, so that they make some changes to the public.
In the same way, Joan Nankya from the Uganda media association noted that as away of taking the move with SDG number 5, they have on several ocassions trained the media on sensitive gender reporting sothat men and women are given equal voices during their reporting.
She added that Umwa has tried as much as possible to move to differnt parts of the country preaching the gospel about gender equality among men and women in the country saying, they have moved to areas such as kampala, Mbarara, Hoima, Masindi, Masaka, Kitgum and Tororo.
One of the members from the congregation Justine Owembabazi showed concern over the way the SDGs are not known in some parts of the country, leaving some people out of benefiting from them. She noted that in her village in Kannungu, many teanage mothers carter for their own needs and for their children because men dont know anything about the need to take their responsibilities.
She therefore expressed the need for more sensitisation to the public about the importance of SDGs and how people can benefit from them.
Najib Senkumba from Kampala University noted that the biggest blame on gender Inequality goes to their leaders for failure to fight against gender inequality from the grassroot.
