I choose Uganda as it is low in the gender equality index provided by the UN (can also be found at this link), but not so low that it is the worst in the world. Uganda falls into the 63-94 ranked range, at about 65th rank, not terrible not great.
Overview of Uganda
This country is small, and came into existence around October 9th, 1962 but was founded by Nilotic speaking immigrants in 1500. The main languages spoken there is Swahili, and English. The countries capital is Kampala.
In terms of the countries culture there are certain ways that women from different parts of the country are expected to dress. In central and eastern Uganda they are excepted to wear a dress with sash tied around their waist and an item to enlarge their shoulders called a gomesi; in the west and north west a long cloth called a suuka is draped around the their waist and shoulders; there are many other kinds of dress in other parts of the country too. In this country most of their holidays are concerned with religion, as the population is mostly christian (85.2 percent). The only other large religious group here is Muslims making up 12% of Ugandas religious population. There government is fair simple, they have a unitary dominant-party presidential republic, so they have a president, vice president and a prime minister.
Most land in Uganda is used for mining, and farming. This is due to the large deposits of copper, cobalt, limestone, and salt. As well as other my precious untapped minerals like gold, nickel, platinum, and marble. The main crops of Uganda are plantains, cassava, sweet potatoes, millet, sorghum, corn, beans, and groundnuts.
I chose to make the plan to talk to a transgender person in Uganda, here where my questions for them: What would most improve your life in relation to this gender inequality? Have you ever experienced gender based violence or hate crimes, if so when? What is a small thing that would improve your life? Where do you find support in your life? Are there places in your life that you feel you don’t receive support? Explain please. What challenges do you face in regards to gender inequality?
People I have reached out to with these questions are Outright (email), an organization that helps LGBTQIA+ people worldwide, and Transgender Equality Uganda (email).
Sparknotes
For my spark notes project I read this article, titled Sustainable Development Goals: pandemic reset by Robin Naidoo & Brendan Fisher. To summarize the article as about the impact of COVID-19 on the UN sustainable development goals. The researchers found that most of the 169 targets of the SDGS will not be met by their target date (2030). Achieving some of the goals could worsen the impacts of the pandemic. The researchers also found that redefining the goals would lead to better success with the SDGs. They said to redefine the goals based on three questions: is this a priority, post-COVID-19; is it about development not growth; and is the pathway to it resilient to global disruptions? In addition to updating the goals now the researchers also recommended that the UN work out how and when to update the SDGs and asked. Below is a table about which goals are effected, which ones we should for-fill, examples of the targets affected, and which targets could worsen the impact of COVID-19.
Questions for Transgender person in Uganda
After some thinking here are the questions I settled on:
What would most improve your life in relation to this gender inequality? Have you ever experienced gender based violence or hate crimes, if so when? What is a small thing that would improve your life? Where do you find support in your life? Are there places in your life that you feel you don’t receive support? Explain please. What challenges do you face in regards to gender inequality?
I have emailed the following places about these questions: