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Kampala, Uganda | Julius Businge | Women activists are calling on government to put in place reforms that are necessary for improving social protection within the informal sector.
Social protection consists of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks.
Social risks in this case refer to unemployment, sickness, disability, old age and more.
Speaking to The Independent on the sidelines of a social protection half day meeting held in Kampala at the end of last week, Eunice Musiime, the executive director for Akina Mama wa Afrika said that government needs to push for social protection reforms targeting the informal sector workers who are currently working without contracts and related legal terms and conditions.
At the same meeting, organised by Akina Mama wa Afrika together with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Musiime also said that reforms should target women who risk losing their job while they are away for maternity leave.
“We know these conversations have been ongoing but not so much centering on women and girls,” Musiime said.
She added that every year there is a meeting that takes place in New York called ‘the commission on the status of women’ which discusses issues regarding gender equality.
This year, the theme of the meeting that will take place next month is ‘social protection, public service and sustainable infrastructure.’
Musiime said the meeting will come up with concrete resolutions which governments will take to advance social protection areas from a gendered perspective.
Commenting on the recently passed Minimum Wage Bill into law that awaits the President’s signature, Musiime said that as actors “we do hope the president will assent to it.
“It is a tool for social protection,” she said. She added that when “you have a minimum wage in place it means you are protecting those in the informal sector who have no social protection.”
“Even domestic workers will be able to negotiate with their employers,” she said.
According to the passed law, the minimum wage has been revised from Shs6, 000 to Shs130,000.
But an independent board will in future determine the actual wage for workers in different sectors which will have to be above the Shs130, 000.
For proper implementation to take place, Musiime said that there is need for raising awareness on the matter so that workers can advocate for their rights.
“But for Uganda this is a step forward,” she said.
In a presentation, the Executive Director at Makerere’s Economic Policy Research Centre Madina Guloba said that the informal economy is not good because workers have no, or insufficient access to any form of social protection that is healthcare, benefits in case of injury, sickness, maternity or old age.
She said that Ugandan workers in the informal sector make up over 90% of the labour force.
And that this group is not subject to standard labour legislation – whether in law or practice (no contractual arrangements), income tax, social protection or entitlement to the employment benefits specified in a national definition.
“Social protection has the potential to reduce insecurity for workers and help to formalise employment contracts, thereby promoting decent work,” she said.
Guloba also said that having social protection initiatives is a means of Uganda attaining 12 of the Sustainable Development Goals.
