On 18th February 2021, GRA conducted a follow up on previously trained secretaries of gender, probation officers, CSOs, security officials, community based monitors, religious and cultural leaders in the Albertine region to establish progress made by different stakeholders towards implementing commitments made during previously conducted trainings on gender and extractives. The meeting also accorded us a platform to capture the emerging and prevailing gender issues affecting the extractives sector and device strategies to address the same.

Some of the key milestones registered at this follow up was the report from Buliisa District Local Government stating that following prior trainings on gender, the District had been able to develop a Gender Policy to ensure gender responsive planning and budgeting. However, we also got feedback from the communities in the Albertine region who echoed the need to deliberately engage cultural and religious leaders in the gender discourse considering that they are strategic points of entry for communities and contribute largely to shaping community perceptions and mind-sets on particular issues of concern. It also goes without saying that religious and cultural leaders should be deliberately engaged because they have for long been perceived as the leading perpetrators of gender inequality and patriarchy.