CSO STRENGTHENING IN THE SWISS ALPS OF UGANDA

SNV Netherlands Development Organization in partnership with 8 District Local Governments, UNICEF and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) is implementing a 3 year Community Empowerment Programme (CEP).  The programme has four major components;

(a) Water sanitation and Hygiene at school

(b) Community Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

(c) Gardens at School

(d) Civil society organization strengthening

PALS meeting at Nyahuka with NORRACOL and SATNET

Under the civil society strengthening component SNV shall provide support to CSO’s to enhancie their capacity in advocacy and community mobilization to enable them to lobby for evidence based policy change.  This aspect of the programme will be implemented in Lira, Soroti, Kyenjojo, Bundibugyo, Kasese, Arua, Nebbi and Nwoya Districts

Interface Consulting Limited was contracted in April this year by SNV Uganda to provide training in capacity building to five selected Civil Society Organisations (CSOs); CEGED, FURA, BHTF, ANCC and SORUDA in the districts highlighted above.

As part of this work an Interface team has been visiting the CSOs.  This has included a visit to the Ruwenzori region where the lead CSO is the Foundation for Urban and Rural Advancement (FURA)

Meeting the BIC and KALI in Kasese

Graham Carrington and Maria Auma are now on the road with FURA visiting other local partners in Bundibugyo and Kasese. In Bundibugyo they heard how LCBs have been working to encourage parents to adopt some of the new techniques they’ve learned through the school gardens to agricultural practices at home. They have also been steps taken to encourage the community including parents to consider how they can provide midday meals for their children at school as this has been shown to increase attendance and learning outcomes.

Our visits now are centred on monitoring the progress of the LCBs in identifying issues that can be effectively addressed through the use of advocacy and lobbying. Interface is providing support to the LCBs to identify the issues and develop realistic and implementable plans to carry out lobbying and advocacy around them. Techniques used to do this were explained in detail during the CEP workshop in May last month.