KAS

Between 13th and 16th, April, member organizations of the Governance and Accountability Inter-District CSO Network – Uganda (GAIN – Uganda) met to evaluate the different tools and strategies for engaging with the locals in order to increase their participation in governance and accountability measures in their local areas. With support for the Konrad Adenauer (KAS) Siftung, GAIN-Uganda will develop localized civic education tools and strategies with which they hope to reach out to the citizens in the country side. This is expected to increase the demand for accountability on the part of citizens to their local leaders which in the end will contribute to better service delivery and management of the local councils.

Civic education contributes to awareness among the citizens on some of their entitlements in politics and governance issues in their country.it increases the citizens level of participation in the management of the affairs of their country. In the just concluded elections, civic education campaign were an integral part of the electioneering process with the electoral; commission being assisted by a myriad of development actors. It is however not just enough to carry out civic education, the timing too is as important as the message or even perhaps more important. GAIN – Uganda is in the process of developing civic education materials that will be launched in June to aid its member organizations in carrying out civic education in their respective districts and regions.

The aim is to empower the citizens to be able to understand their local leaders and their mandates in order to avert the misconceptions that local citizens have towards their leaders. This will also dispel some of the myths that often stand in the way of local leaders efforts to reach out to the electorate. The materials which are intended to benefit both the elite and otherwise, will help simplify certain key governance and accountability concepts to be able to reach even those who would otherwise not understand. Members of GAIN-Uganda deliberated on their local civic education needs which are also expected to be reflected in the materials that will be developed.

GAIN-Uganda being a young network will benefit from the civic education strategies and tools to further gain visibility among the different stakeholders. The meeting which also doubled as the annual general Meeting (AGM) which is the decision making organ of the network was able to adopt and pass the membership policy, financial policy, human resource policy among others. This implies that the policies will now become operational thus giving opportunity to new members to join the network.

Dr. Milton Mutto from Pincer Uganda facilitated the workshop as lead consultant intended to guide the network towards achieving the best strategies for reaching out to the targeted audiences. Dr. Milton has expertise in designing tools and strategies for delivering measures at the local level. The training was also co-facilitated by Mathias Kamp, KAS Country rep who was instrumental in the development of previous civic education measures for KAS and the Commonwealth Foundation.