Indicator 5.5.1 Proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments and (b) local governments

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Target 5.5: Proportion of seats held by (a) women in national parliaments and (b) local governments

Indicator 5.5.1: Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location.

December 2021

Indicator 16.7.1: Proportions of positions (by age group, sex, persons with disabilities and population groups) in public institutions (national and local), including (a) the legislatures; (b) the public service; and (c) the judiciary, compared to national distributions.

Uganda Bureau Of Statistics

Uganda Bureau Of Statistics

Ms. Pamela Kakande

Demography & Social Statistics (DSS)

Senior Statistician

+256 772 303441

P.O. Box 7186Kampala

pamela.kakande@ubos.org

Definition:

Indicator 5.5.1(a) measures the proportion of positions held by women in a national parliament.It is expressed as a percentage of elected positions held by women in the national parliament.

Indicator 5.5.1(b) measures the proportion of positions held by women in local government. The proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments, currently as at 1 January of reporting year, is currently measured as the number of seats held by women members in single or lower chambers of national parliaments, expressed as a percentage of all occupied seats.

National parliaments can be bicameral or unicameral. This indicator covers the single chamber in unicameral parliaments and the lower chamber in bicameral parliaments. It does not cover the upper chamber of bicameral parliaments. Seats are usually won by members in general parliamentary elections. Seats may also be filled by nomination, appointment, indirect election, rotation of members and by-election. Seats refer to the number of parliamentary mandates, or the number of members of parliament.

Concepts:

A Local government is one of the sub-national spheres of government and a result of decentralization, a process of transferring political, fiscal, and administrative powers from the central government to sub-national units of government distributed across the territory of a country to regulate and/or run certain government functions or public services on their own.

The definition of local government follows the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) distinction between central, state, and local government (para 4.129). Local government consists of local government units, defined in the SNA as “institutional units whose fiscal, legislative and executive authority extends over the smallest geographical areas distinguished for administrative and political purposes” (para 4.145). What constitutes local government of a given country is defined by that country’s national legal framework, including national constitutions and local government acts or equivalent legislation.

Each local government unit typically includes a legislative/ deliberative body and an executive body. Legislative/ deliberative bodies, such as councils or assemblies, are formal entities with a prescribed number of members as per national or state legislation. They are usually elected by universal suffrage and have decision-making power, including the ability to issue by-laws, on a range of local aspects of public affairs.

Executive bodies, consisting of an executive committee or a mayor, may be elected, appointed or nominated and they prepare and execute decisions made by the legislative/ deliberative body.

Elected positions are the most common manner of selection of local government members. They are selected in local elections, based on a system of choosing political office holders in which the voters cast ballots for the person, persons or political party that they desire to see elected. The category of elected positions includes both elected persons who competed on openly contested seats and persons selected during the electoral processes on reserved seats or through a candidate quota.

By comparison, members selected on appointed positions (the least common manner of selection of local government members) are nominated, typically by government officials from higher-ranking tiers of government. Appointed members of local government are more frequent among the leadership positions, such as the heads of the executive body, representatives of specific groups (e.g., women, disadvantaged groups, youth); and, temporary committees/delegations/caretakers appointed by government officials when a council has been dissolved.

Number (Hours)

The 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA)

Administrative data based on electoral records recommended data source by the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary commission in Uganda

Data is collected as administrative records during the exercise of conducting and post-election documentation from the Electoral Commission, Ministry of Local Government and the National Parliament.

Every five years

Parliament of Uganda, Electoral Commission, Ministry of Local Government

Uganda Bureau of Statistics

The UBOS Act 1998 provides for the development and maintenance of the National Statistical System (NSS) to ensure collection, analysis and publication of integrated, relevant, reliable and timely statistical information. It established the Bureau as the coordinating, monitoring and supervisory body for the National Statistical System.

Women’s and men’s right to exercise their political rights on an equal basis, and at all levels of decision-making, is recognized in the SDGs and enshrined in many human and political rights declarations, conventions and resolutions agreed to by most countries in the world. Indicator 5.5.1(b) measures the degree to which gender balance has been achieved in, and women have equal access to, political decision-making in local government.

Indicator 5.5.1(b) complements the Indicator 5.5.1(a) on women in national parliaments, and accounts for the representation of women among the millions of members of local governments that influence (or have the potential to influence) the lives of local communities around the world. All tiers of local government are covered by the indicator, consistent with national legal frameworks defining local government.

Non

The proportion of seats held by women in national parliament is derived by dividing the total number of seats occupied by women by the total number of seats in parliament. And multiplied by 100. There is no weighting or normalizing of statistics.

Indicator 5.5.1(a) = ((Number of seats held by women in national parliament)/ (Total number of seats held by women and men)) x100

None

Guidance is not required to provide information for this indicator (i.e. current number of members and total number of women members in a given single or lower chamber of a national parliament).

Data for this indicator is input and housed within the Parliamentary databases for election results.

Parliament has dedicated staff for data collection and management, a Network of Correspondents to provide data updates, and a constant exchange with electoral commission and Ministry of Local government.

There is no significant statistical processing required for this indicator aside from checking coherence overtime

Not Applicable

Data availability:

Data on women’s and men’s representation in elected positions of legislative/ deliberative bodies of national and local government levels are currently estimated as available for all 153 districts 10 Cities in Uganda. This estimate is based on a count of gazetted districts and Cities in the country.

Data disaggregation:

Sex and Districts.

There are no discrepancies. Data are reported by entities of National Statistical Systems, including Electoral Management Bodies and National Statistical Office

UNDP, 2014. Gender Equality: Women’s participation and leadership in governments at the local level. Asia and the Pacific 2013. Bangkok, UNDP. UN Women, 2017. Review of National Constitutions and Local Government Acts. Unpublished. UN Women and UNDP, 2015. Inclusive Electoral Processes: A guide for Electoral Management Bodies on Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Participation. https://molg.go.ug https://www.ec.or.ug.