TotalEnergies’ projects with the Ugandan government and the Chinese company CNOOC have been under fire for several years now, not only for their impact on the climate, but also for the infringement of the rights of populations displaced to make way for oil production.

The new report from the Observatoire des multinationales, entitled Women on the Frontline, explores a still neglected aspect of the impact of TotalEnergies’ oil projects in Uganda, including the EACOP pipeline: the concrete consequences for women of the compensation and relocation process carried out by the French corporation and its contractors.

The report is based on a field survey carried out in the summer of 2023 in partnership with the Ugandan NGO Tasha, and gives ample space to the women’s voices from the ground.

It shows how, far from TotalEnergies’ stated aim of combating discrimination and even contributing to women’s emancipation, oil projects have actually worsened women’s situation in many ways:

• Women have not had access to the compensation due to them because TotalEnergies has confined itself to formal and superficial measures, based on a reductionist vision of women’s place, and without ensuring that they are effectively involved in decision-making.

• As a result of the relocations, women have found it much harder to carry out their traditional roles, such as feeding the family, collecting water and firewood, and bringing up children, all of which have been largely ignored in compensation policies.

• The arrival of large numbers of new male workers and a policing force has created a more dangerous environment for women, who are exposed to violence and sexual abuse.

• Women are on the front line in challenging the conditions of relocation, but their complaints and demands are ignored.

TotalEnergies claims to have integrated gender issues into its CSR policies in Uganda, and even claims that its activities in Uganda are helping to reduce gender inequalities in the affected communities. The report Women on the Frontline. Stories of dispossession and survival from TotalEnergies’ EACOP project and Uganda’s oil development confronts these paternalistic claims with the lived experiences of women affected by these developments. Since TotalEnergies refuses to see the concrete consequences of the oil projects themselves on women’s lives, the measures put in place by the company can only remain superficial, if not counter-productive.

A summary of the report in Luganda is also available.