Current
Policy Areas of Focus:
A
COUNTRY-WIDE STUDY, GIVING INTERESTING AND ASTONISHING REVELATIONS
ABOUT THE NGO STATUS IN UGANDA - A MUST READ!
A country-wide study tour recently conducted by the Uganda
National NGO Forum gives interesting, at times shocking revelations
and poses great opportunities and challenges to the NGO fraternity
in Uganda. Some of the highlights of the study are:
- Most CSOs in Uganda do not address the
most popular intervention areas for poverty alleviation
in Uganda such as women, youth, environment, children, water
and sanitation, health and agriculture. Services most rendered
are related to peace, conflict, faith and religion!
- There are more CSOs in Eastern Uganda
that other parts
- Most of the CSOs in Uganda restrict their
operations at District level
- Most of the CSOs in Uganda are registered
under their District NGO Fora
- Most international NGOs (almost 50 percent)
are found in Central region.
- International NGOs mostly employ female
staff, while local NGOs mostly employ male staff
- NGOs in Uganda recruit more volunteers
that full time staff
- Most CSOs prefer association with NGO
Forum and using their brand
- Most CSOs prefer to register their District
NGO Fora as branches with the Uganda National NGO Forum
- Most NGOs want use of NGO Code of conduct
for all NGOs to regulate their activities
- Overall recommendations by CSOs for NGO
Forum to renew its mandate and strategy to reflect concerns
and needs of the civil society at the grass roots.
The
study, which doubled as a mobilization exercise, was carried
out in April 2003 to get an update on the NGO District Fora
activities and find ways of strengthening them. It was also
a sensitization tour aimed at recruiting new members. The
team, which included NEC members and NGO Forum secretariat
staff, was led by the NGO Forum Chairperson Mr Simons Okalebo
Eskia and the Forum Executive Director, Mr Warren Nyamugasira.
For the purposes of the study, Uganda was devided into 4 major
regions, viz. Central , Eastern, Northern, and Western. A
total of 753 CSOs were surveyed.
The
study reveals that CSOs in Uganda do not address the much
talked about intervention areas for alleviation of poverty
such as Women, youth, environment, children, water and sanitation
and health as these were ranked least, compared to activities
such as evangelism, peace and conflict, faith based, and vulnerable
groups, which were ranked highest in all regions. Agriculture,
which is the backbone of the Uganda economy does not also
feature among the priority services rendered by most CSOs,
ranking distant 9th out of the 16 services ranked. This is
a great challenge to the CSOs, the NGO Forum and the country
at large.
Most
NGOs are found in Eastern Uganda. Out of the 753 CSOs surveyed,
Eastern region takes the lion’s share with 34 percent
(259), followed by Western with 25 percent (187), Northern
with 24 percent (178), and lastly Central with 17 percent
(129). Most CSOs are District (32.4 percent), followed by
CBOs (31.4 percent), national CSOs (23.9 percent), and lastly
international CSOs constituting 10.8 percent. Eastern region,
with the largest number of CSOs has the majority of them operating
at national level. Most CSOs operating in Western and Central
Uganda are CBOs, while most in the northern region are district
type. Central Uganda has the greatest concentration of international
NGOs standing at 36 NGOs, compared to western, which has the
least with 6.
The
majority of international NGOs employ international staff
and among these, there are more women 160 (54.4 percent) than
men 143 (45.6 percent). In most cases, however, there are
few international staff in any given organization. Among the
CSOs, there are 3083 national staff, 1613 males (52.3 percent)
and 1470 female (47.7 percent), implying there being more
males than females.
The
study also revealed that there are more volunteering staff
in CSOs (5616), compared to 3772 full time staff. Most of
the volunteering staff are male. It is important to note that
this volunteering staff usually comes as community contribution,
which is seldom monetized and often understated.
Indicators
also show that NGO Forum activities have reached all regions
in Uganda, with 72.5 percent of all CSOs having taken part
in NGO Forum activities, especially through meetings at districts.
Of those who said they did not know about NGO Form activities,
98 percent recommended need to have NGO Forum branches at
district level. The need to belong to NGO Forum is very high
at district level. Most CSOs also prefer to register their
District NGO Fora as branches with the Uganda National NGO
Forum (70 percent), as compared to those who want to register
their District for a as separate CSOs with the National NGO
Board. The NGO Code of Conduct was seen as vital to the self-regulation
of NGO activities. The CSOs recommended that it be translated
into the major Ugandan languages for wider distribution and
comprehension.
SUGGESTIONS
The
CSOs made suggestions to way forward. The proposed strategic
mandate of the Uganda NGO Forum include:
-
Good governance, thematic groups and rights;
-
capacity building, skills development and training;
-
information sharing and networking; and
-
policy analysis, advocacy and lobbying.
The
CSOs therefore urged NGO Forum to adjust their staffing levels
and structures to reflect the changes in the new proposed
mandate.
The
CSOs want:
-
NGO Forum to do more lobbying in areas of fundraising for
the CSOs;
-
political representation;
-
increased and better quality participation in service delivery;
-
reduced corruption at district and national levels;
-
and increased access by district and rural centers, to modern
information and communication technologies such as internet
and computers.
A detailed report can be got from:
The Executive Director,
The Uganda NGO Forum,
email: ngoforum@infocom.co.ug |
