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Good practice Imported

Uganda's Gender and Equity Certificate — Mandatory Compliance Scoring for the National Budget

Uganda · Kampala · See the Uganda profile · See the Kampala profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 26% 85/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Under the 2015 Public Finance Management Act, every Ugandan ministry, department, agency and local government must score at least 50% on a gender-and-equity assessment before its budget framework paper is approved; national compliance rose from 68% to 70% in FY2026/27.

79 sectors
Sectors meeting the compliance threshold, first certification round (FY2017/18)
149 MPSs
Ministerial Policy Statements meeting the 50% qualifying threshold (FY2026/27)
68 to 70 %
National average gender-and-equity compliance score (FY2025/26-FY2026/27)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Equal Opportunities Commission (Uganda)
Period
2015–present
Keywords
public finance, gender budgeting, government, public administration

Context

Uganda's Public Finance Management Act (2015) requires every ministry, department, agency (MDA) and local government to demonstrate that its Budget Framework Paper and Ministerial Policy Statement address gender and equity issues before the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development will approve it.

Objectives

To ensure gender and equity considerations are embedded in national and local government budget planning documents as a condition of budget approval.

Activities

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), a constitutional body, assesses each institution's plans against a standardised checklist and issues a Gender and Equity Certificate to those scoring at least 50%; the first certificates were issued for FY2017/18 after 79 sectors met the threshold. The certificate has since been extended to local governments.

Results

Institutionalisation has grown steadily: for FY2026/27, all 149 Ministerial Policy Statements assessed reached the 50% qualifying score, and national average compliance rose from 68% to 70% year-on-year, according to the EOC's own assessment reports.

Conclusions

The mechanism has limits: a 50% pass threshold is a low bar, EOC scoring focuses on process compliance rather than verified downstream outcomes for women and marginalised groups, and independent Ugandan media have reported that some entities still risk being excluded from the budget process over compliance gaps. It nonetheless remains one of the most systematically documented, government-run mandatory gender-budgeting compliance regimes in Africa.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Annual assessment conducted by an existing constitutional body as part of the routine budget cycle; no separate programme budget is reported.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Mandated under the 2015 Public Finance Management Act; first certificates issued FY2017/18; assessments ongoing through FY2026/27 and extended to local governments.
Staffing & skills
Equal Opportunities Commission (Uganda), a constitutional body, conducts the assessments; Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development approves certified budgets

Conditions for success

  • Certification tied directly to budget approval, giving MDAs a binding incentive to comply
  • A standardised checklist applied consistently across all MDAs and, more recently, local governments

Common failure modes

  • A 50% pass threshold is a low bar, and scoring measures process compliance (whether gender/equity data appear in planning documents) rather than verified downstream outcomes
  • Entities risk exclusion from the budget process over compliance gaps, per independent Ugandan media reporting

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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