Preface

The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto is a political document. It lays out critical issues of concern to women street vendors and makes demands for addressing them.

The Manifesto is a direct result of the insufficient attention given to critical issues affecting women street vendors and the general failure to recognize their contribution to Uganda’s economy. Given the unique challenges that the women street vendors are confronted with, it is important to put in place mechanisms that would draw attention to and address their needs and concerns and enable them to participate actively in public affairs.

The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto therefore provides a platform for women street vendors to present a common set of demands which support the larger aims of gender equality and equity and sustainable national development. It has allowed women street vendors to raise these key demands and issues ahead of the 2021 Elections. Women are thereby empowered to use their votes as a bargaining tool and recruit others to do the same. The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto provides female and male candidates with an agenda once they are elected to parliament or the District level (Kampala Capital City Authority). Finally, it will ensure political party accountability to female voters as politicians can be assessed on the basis of where they stand in relation to issues that concern the street women vendors as outlined in their Manifesto.

Initiated by the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa - SIHA Network, the Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto brings together various demands made by women street vendors over the years as part of their struggles for national development and women’s rights. The process of developing and promoting the Manifesto also built upon the experiences of the women street vendors’ cooperative union that brings together women from Kawempe, Naguru, Nakawa and Wandegeya in Kampala District.