Muslims have received food stuffs for Iftar as Airtel launches its extensive Corporate Social Responsibility campaign of giving that will be held countrywide throughout the Holy Month of Ramadan.

According to Airtel officials, the campaign is aimed at shedding light on the true Ramadan spirit and celebrating this special time of the year with the local communities.

The CSR campaign begun with a handover of foodstuffs to the Wandegeya muslim community to assist them in preparing their Iftar meals.

Commenting during the handover, Ali Balunywa the Airtel Uganda Sales and Marketing Director said, “We would like to take this opportunity to greet you all on the blessed occasion of the Holy Month of Ramadan.

This month presents a special time for our organization to communicate and interact with the community through our charitable programs. Every year at Airtel we prove that we are a company that pioneers in the social involvement, where we play a big role to give back to the community.”

Balunywa went on to explain that, just like every year, Airtel will be sharing the joys of Ramadan by distributing food stuffs every week throughout this holy month to the underprivileged in over 24 mosques across the country.

The company specifically chose highly populated areas to reach out to the maximum number of people.

Some of the districts earmarked for Ramadan donations include Kampala, Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara, Lira, Kamuli, Fortportal, Gulu, Iganga, Hoima, Jinja, Arua, Tororo, Kabale and many others.

Balunywa added: “Our pledge towards our customers of providing the latest and best technologies has never been broken, and today we continue our promise towards the entire community through our annual Ramadan CSR campaign.”

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Kampala: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Okello Oryem has revealed that there is operational labour export agreement between Uganda and Unite Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a plenary sitting Chaired by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga Mr. Oryem said any labour exporting company that is taking Ugandans for labour in UAE were legally doing it.

“The minister of labour gender and social development is in the process of renewing the agreement that recently expired for Ugandans to access green pastures,” he revealed.

Consequently after taking the floor, Butambala MP Muwanga Kivumbi revealed that when budget committee paid a visit to Jaira state, they found a labour recruitment center which resembles a well organised slave market where highest bid walks away with a helper.

“We were all surprised to see slave market, I wondered why Ugandans sell off their properties to such countries, we always get reports of Ugandans suffering but instead they continue yearning to leave their motherland,” he said in a plenary urging Ugandan government to establish guidelines that are to be followed in case

He revealed that because of mistreatment 16 girls committed suicide in 2017. However, Oryem refuted all allegations saying whatever was said by Butambala MP is a total lie and they have never received that such information.

“Such statements have resulted into s diplomatic protest raised by UAE asserting that such allegations are meant to blackmail the said nation,” Mr. Oryem reacted to Muwanga’s allegations.

Currently there over 40 licensed companies those take Ugandan nationals to Arabian countries for casual labour. However, there has been various reports indicating that Ugandan nationals are mistreated, tortured and some are killed on top of confiscating their travel documents.

When contacted, known phone numbers for Permanent Secretary for ministry of labour Pius Bigirimana all off.

The above allegations follows confirmation of  a general labour recruitment bilateral agreement that was in January signed between Ugandan  Saudi Arabia allowing Ugandan professionals and causal labourers, such as doctors, engineers, carpenters and welders.

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According to the World Bank Group’s 2018 ID4D Global Dataset, an estimated one billion people around the globe face challenges in proving who they are as they seek for services.

The report says they struggle to access basic services, including access to finance and even a mobile phone and may miss out on important economic opportunities, such as formal employment or owning a registered business.

The authors of the report say the implications of “providing legal identity for all, including birth registration go beyond individual rights and opportunities: being able to reliably verify the identities of their population is critical for countries to deliver services efficiently, strengthen their ability to raise revenues, and foster growth in the private sector.”

This week 1,600 delegates including government officials from 47 African countries, development partners, and the private sector were gathered in Abuja, Nigeria for ID4Africa to help accelerate progress in closing the identification gap on the continent, where over half of the 1 billion ‘uncounted’ reside.

Accurate data on who these people are is vital for all stakeholders to close this gap, and especially to “leave no one behind”, says World Bank.

This year, over 40 country authorities provided direct data on foundational ID coverage – a record number. The data also revealed that of the One billion people without an official proof of identity: 81 per cent live in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, 47 per cent are below the national ID age of their country, highlighting the importance of strengthening birth registration efforts and creating a unique, lifetime identity and 63 per cent live in lower-middle income economies, while 28 per cent live in low-income economies, reinforcing that lack of identification is a critical concern for the global poor.

According to the World Bank, changes in the global estimate from previous years’ figures are due to better data sources and improvements in the methodology (for details, please see the ‘Methodology’ tab of the Dataset), as well as progress toward closing the gap.

In addition, to further strengthen understanding of who the undocumented are and the barriers they face, ID4D partnered with the 2017 Global Findex to gather for the first time this year, nationally-representative survey data from 99 countries on foundational ID coverage, use, and barriers to access.

Early findings suggest that residents of low income countries, particularly women and the poorest 40 per cent are the most affected by a lack of ID.  The survey data (albeit limited in its coverage to people aged 15 and older) confirm that the coverage gap is largest in low income countries (LICs), where 38 per cent of the surveyed population does not have a foundational ID. Regionally, sub-Saharan Africa shows the largest coverage gap, where close to one in three people in surveyed countries lack a foundational ID.

The report says that although global gender gaps in foundational ID coverage are relatively small, there is a large gender gap for the unregistered population in low income countries, where over 45 per cent of women lack a foundational ID, compared to 30 per cent of men. 

The countries with the greatest gender gaps in foundational ID coverage also tend to be those with legal barriers for women’s access to identity documents.  For example, in Afghanistan, Benin, and Pakistan, all countries with gender gaps of over 15 percentage points, a married woman cannot apply for a national ID in the same way as a married man.

The report says the poor are disproportionately affected by lack of ID, with LICs showing the largest income-based gaps. “Across the LICs surveyed 45 per cent of those in the poorest income quintile lack a national ID; for the richest quintile, the figure drops to just 28 per cent. The high fees charged for IDs in many countries and the cost of obtaining the required supporting documents is a key barrier for the poor,” the report says.
 

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