“Civil society organisations are among the most central players in the field of development”, said Norway’s Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Thorbjørn Gaustadsæther, in his opening statement.
Among the objectives of the seminar were to discuss what type of civil society Uganda needs and what type of civil society there currently is room for. Furthermore, to come up with recommendations for how Ugandan civil society and Norwegian support can become more relevant to Ugandan realities.
Questions for the group work. Photo: Emma Holager
Over 50 representatives from around 35 civil society organizations, both from Uganda and Norway, took part in the seminar. In addition, a few external institutions, e.g. National NGO Forum and the NGO Board, participated throughout the seminar.
The opening session included statements by the Norwegian Ambassador; Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda, Mr. Pius Bigirimana; Chairman of the Uganda National NGO Board, Ambassador Gabriel William Kangwagye; and Dr. Abby Sebina-Zziwa from Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University. Ambassador Kangwagye underlined that NGOs play, and will continue to play, an important role in the country’s development process. He also stressed the will of the Government, and the NGO Board in particular, to create an enabling environment for the NGOs operating in Uganda. Further, he pointed at the importance of institutionalising a culture of civic inclusiveness, participation and mutual accountability by all stakeholders. Mr. Bigirimana briefed on the rationale behind the recently signed (9 May) NGO Policy. We learnt that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has embarked on an exercise to develop a detailed database for all NGOs operating in Uganda. The PS further called upon all NGOs to embrace the National Development Plan and coordinate their efforts with those of the Government.
Norad gave a brief on the Norwegian principles for support to civil society in the south, and presented statistics on Norwegian support to civil society in Uganda the last 10 years. Norad also challenged the NGOs present and invited for a discussion on the statement that there never has been more NGOs in Uganda and at the same time civil society has never been weaker than now.
Caritas Norway and CARE Uganda both held presentations with reflections on the Ugandan context of operation and Norad’s expectations and guidelines for support to civil society in the South, providing interesting and diverse viewpoints for discussion. The representative of Caritas stressed the importance of NGOs carrying out a watch dog function and in that function acting on behalf of the grassroots. He also gave an interesting brief on the development and importance of civil society in Norway. The representative of Care reflected on the development of civil society in Uganda. She touched upon many of the same things as Caritas – the importance of promoting citizen participation, ensuring a collaborative approach and holding duty bearers accountable. Both representatives commended the Norad principles. The said that the principles reflect development realities, create opportunities and that the NGOs themselves therefore do not have problems in adhering to the principles.
Intervention by Msgr. Dr. Francis Ndamira from Caritas Uganda. Photo: Emma Holager
Through the discussions that followed, as well as a very interesting panel discussion and constructive group work on the second day of the seminar, the following themes were among the most debated:
- Quality of the work done by NGOs: Consensus that there are many unserious NGOs that have been established just to make money. On the other hand, there are many that perform very well. Reviews of individual projects as well as evaluations, e.g. a newly published Norwegian evaluation on the results generated by Norwegian funded projects in East Africa, confirm this. However, the larger impact is more challenging to determine.
- Importance of being aligned with the needs of the populations at the grassroots: Civil Society should function as watchdogs also including concerns relevant for the needy part of the population. In some cases this would require service delivery. In others, the advocacy role would be the most important. In yet others, capacity building with regard to e.g. democratic rights would be crucial. Arthur Larok from the NGO Forum recommended the Norwegian Government to channel 60% of its NGO funding to organisations that do advocacy work. This created some discussion as many see the great need of still supplementing GoU on service delivery.
- Space provided to NGOs by the Government of Uganda (GoU): Obviously, currently there is some tension between the Government on the one hand and the NGOs on the other. There was an appeal to Norway as a donor to influence GoU on this matter. Others stressed that the NGOs must collaborate closer and raise a common voice in order to expand their operation space.
- Need for platforms and alliances: This was brought up several times during the seminar. This could potentially enhance the overall impact of the work of NGOs as well as their space.
- Need for improved documentation through monitoring and evaluation: Reference to the first bullet point. In addition to the need for more overall impact assessment, several participants raised the need for establishing a baseline with respect to the current strength of civil society in order to determine our objectives.
In her closing remarks Ms. Gunvor Skancke from Norad highlighted the importance of cost effectiveness and thorough analysis of the rationale for NGO activities related to the actual needs in Uganda. She suggested that there should be a follow up of the seminar to contribute to an even more relevant Norwegian support to civil society in Uganda.