Summary of Research

The National Union of Women with Disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU) is an indigenous umbrella organization of national and district-based organizations of women with disabilities. Its mission is to promote social, cultural, economic and political advancement of girls and women with disabilities through advocacy.

Although NUWODU has strong national and regional connections with disability and women’s groups, they lack the research capacity to conduct formal research projects to generate the data they require to justify their requests for supports and services, and to lobby government to make positive change for women and girls with disabilities.

In order to build its capacity to conduct research and collect data, NUWODU formed a partnership with CCDS in 2008.

Phase I (2009)

After conducting a review of previous research on women with disabilities in Africa, and in Uganda specifically, several themes emerged as negatively affecting women and girls with disabilities. These themes were: a) a lack of education, b) difficulty accessing resources, c) stigma and negative cultural beliefs about disability, and d) finding a place in traditional gender roles. Consultations were held with various stakeholder groups to identify which of the thematic areas was most important in the lives of women and girls with disabilities in Uganda, and to describe their understanding of the issues within those themes. We found that most participants stressed the importance of addressing all thematic areas and understanding how they overlap.

At the end of Phase I, two problems remained. First, NUWODU had little demographic information on women and girls with disabilities. Second, NUWODU needed more first-hand accounts of the lived experiences of women and girls with disabilities.

Phase II (2010-11)

Six women with disabilities in the central region of Uganda were trained to interview people with disabilities about their experiences of living with a disability. Each woman went into the field and interviewed ten people. These women were also trained to analyze the data they collected.

The Project Teams in both countries then analyzed the data and discovered six issues which significantly impact the experiences of people with disabilities in Uganda:

1. Inconsistent implementation of policies and programs
2. Lack of educational opportunities
3. Lack of accessibility
4. Financial instability and poverty
5. Family instability
6. Negative social attitudes about disability

Research Reports

Phase II Reports

PROUWD Research Report
PROUWD Technical Report
Plain Language Analysis Summary

Phase I Report

Summary of Phase I

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada.