What started as a pilot
E-Society has attracted the world’s attention in the Rwenzori Region “Kasese
district E-Society” that was initiated by Rwenzori Consortium for Civic
Competence and Kasese District Local Government in 2009 has become a learning
center in Uganda.
RWECO with its partner Hivos ventured into the E-Society project to promote
civic competence between citizens and Local Government leaders in Uganda.
At its nascent stage, the E-Society looked an abstract idea but now
it has come to lived the test of time
with more partners coming on board to learn how Kasese District E-Society
connects with the grassroots citizens. With the discussion group (D-GROUP),
information from the resident citizens and those in the diaspora is shared with the leaders which informs the
planning processes something that was hard to achieve. To enhance the
information sharing, an E-Library is also part of the package at Kasese
District E-Society.
RWECO with its partner Hivos,
is rolling out the E-society programme to the rest of the districts of
Kabarole, Kamwenge, Kyenjojo and Bundibugyo. The Kabarole district E-Society (http://www.kabaroledistrict.go.ug/)
was launched and consultations are going in other district on how to establish E-Society is on going. Information sharing on
governance will nolonger be a word of the past since most of the district
reports including advertisements, job opportunities, district budgets, annual
work plan can easily be assessed on the district websites.
Hivos team at the Kasese E-Society
To strengthen the
partnership, a team from the Hivos regional Office in Kenya, the Hague
and European Commission in Uganda
visited the E-Society center in Kasese on 5th June, 2012. The
District Information Officer, Mr. John Thawithe, expressed his gratitude to the
support Hivos and EU gave to RWECO that it was given at the right time when the
district had passionately longed to implement its plan on E-governance -“ this E-Society has attracted many
development partners to the district since the district website was activated”
Citizens in the Rwenzori
region are actively engaging with their leaders on social accountability to
ensure effective service delivery in the education, health, and production
sectors. To voice out their plight, citizens have called on the leaders to make
government budgets a public document. At one of the meetings, in Kabarole, the
citizens presented a petition to the district leaders of Kabarole asking for
the review of the Naads policy, making public the Auditor Generals report and
passing the clients charters at district level. This has made the topic on social accountability a public
concern in the Rwenzori region.
Given the constitutional
mandate of ensuring quality service delivery, RWECO has supported the formation
of Kasese and Bundibugyo district integrity Promotion Forums that were launched
by the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity in 2009 and 2011 respectively. These
foras are intended to provide a platform for the citizens and the district
leadership to promote ethical conduct of leaders and technical staff. Through
the E-Society platforms, the views of the citizens are compressed and brought to the attention of the leaders.
It’s our role as citizens to
actively engage with our leaders to ensure effective service delivery and to
participate in local government processes. What have you done in your local
community?
By Jimmy B.O
RWECO
No comments:
Post a Comment