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| RWECO Staff and BoD at the Kasunga Reflection meeting 22-25 Nov. 2012 |
The
Rwenzori Consortium for Civic Competence (RWECO) comprises four Non
Governmental Organizations in the Rwenzori region, namely, Karambi Action for Life
Improvement (KALI), Good Hope Foundation for Rural Development (GHFRD), Human
Rights and Democracy Link Africa (RIDE AFRICA) and Rwenzori Information Centres
Network (RICNET) .RWECO is a civil society watchdog on good governance and is a
public policy lobby agency that is committed to contribute to the improvement
of the quality of governance in the country by empowering citizens to actively
participate in their own governance; promoting constitutionalism and the
protection of human and people’s rights; and facilitating meaningful and
principled engagement between the rights holders and duty bearers on critical
issues that affect human and democratic development.
RWECO is active in the Rwenzori Region since
2008, and has engaged with the technical
staff ,Policy making bodies and the community at sub county, district and regional/national
level on governance issues. In all these
processes RWECO has gained experience based on the membership huge cliental in
the Rwenzori region. To date, RWECO has trained 810 community monitors and 80
Community Process Facilitators in 80 sub counties, 7 districts. RWECO has also
shared its expertise at national and international level. With all these,
stories, RWECO has grown and the need to reflect, harmonize and strategize for next
five years.
The purpose of the reflection meeting was to enable
RWECO focus at the past, present and future so as to draw a vision map for the
organization.
The objectives of the reflection meeting were
to, assess the RWECO Monitoring and Evaluation Framework 2011-2013, input into
the RWECO Strategic Plan 2012-2016 and to develop/design a fundraising strategy
for RWECO
Expected out puts
a) Updated
M&E framework
b) Refined
Strategic Plan and Budget
c) Working
document for the fundraising and sustainability plan of RWECO
Participants
The
participants were drawn from the RWECO membership of KALI,RIDE AFRICA,GHFRD and
RIC-NET.
The
refection meeting took place between November 22rd and 23rd 2012 at
Kasunga resort and conference centre-Kyenjojo district.
The exercise started on Thursday 22rd November 2012 with arrival and registration
of participants at the Hotel, business started on Friday 23rd
November 2012 with a report writing exercise that was presided over by the
M&E officer Ms. Sheila Kengingo from
RWECO coordinating unit and chaired by the programs manager RIC NET Ms. Kyomuhendo Joselyne. The reporting exercise was for the Hivos
Social accountability project. In the proceedings of the report programme
officers reported on accomplished activities as per the work plan and this was
based on indicators drawn down in the M&E frame work. The report showed how effectively and
efficiently activities accomplished have been able to meet the indicators of
enhancing civic competence for social accountability in the regions of operation
in the Rwenzori region.
This was followed by presentation of the
M&E frame work of RWECO with a purpose of ensuring that performance of work
done be measured on indicators. This was
done and it formed the basis of activity work plans and setting targets for a
particular period of implementation.
Presentation of the strategic work
plan.
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| Mr. James Mwirima, facilitating at the RWECO reflection meeting |
The strategic plan was presented by James
Mwirima, former Coordinator of RWECO who
made it clear that the Strategic plan was owned by RWECO and not the
Coordinating Unit. The facilitator
reocheod the spirit under which RWECO was formed based on the strength and
competence of each member organization. As
a Corporate body, the BoD were the custodians of RWECO and thus called on the
members to be vigilant in ensuring that the staff implement the activities
without diverting from the normal practices and to ensure that each member has
signed an MoU with the district local governments where they operate. The strategic plan was not tailored to only
one project but rather to all the projects with a major question of whether it
should be project or programme based. Importantly, the strategic plan, highlights
the, mandate, strategic objectives, operating environment and core values and
principles. The Strategic was tailored in stimulate economic growth and transforming communities livelihoods right
from the individual, household and the wider community. The facilitator also led the team into
translating words into figures- call it budgeting. A process that was termed by
the participants as the future of RWECO in the next 5 years. While concluding the presentation and the
budgeting processes, the facilitator, Mr. James Mwirima, thanked the RWECO
staff and BoD for the team work and time put into the reflection meeting and
expected the action points from the meeting to be translated into real field
activities, he quoted the Holy Book, “ They
shall be charged by the works of their hands”, let us not wait and lament
but turn the challenges into opportunities.
While at the reflection meeting, it was a
mix of both brain work and team building and networking. While the elites
believe that work without play made Tom a lazy boy, indeed, the staff were
hosted to a dinner and a toast: dancing and sharing good moments away from the
daily routine, short stories and reminiscing the journey RWECO has gone
through.
At the closer of the reflection meeting,
the Coordinator RWECO, Jimmy B. Odyek, reminded the group of how RWECO was
formed and presented the founders to the Chairman: Four chairpersons of KALI,
GHFRD, RICNET and RIDE Africa, gave the birth to RWECO and present were: Mr.
Augustine Mkamba (KALI), Joseph Kahyana (GHFRD), Isagara Nyakana (RIDE Africa)
and John Silco Murugahara (RICNET) who was the first chairperson and handed over to Rev.
Isaiah R. Mucunguzi. Tamme Hansma ( Hivos) was an Ex-Official, and Ms. Nyambura Gathumbi ( Hivos, Regional Office- Nairobi is an
ex-official). The Coordinator also presented the founding EDs in 2008 as, Jimmy
B. Odyek (KALI) but handed over to Ms. Beatrace Katusabe, Richard Muke ( GHFRD)
handed over to Paddy Mainuka – Johnson Baluku, Sam Rukidi (RIDE African),
Kamalha (RICENT) handed over to John Silco Murugahara. In 2009, RWECO CU
was officially launched and hosted by KALI with James Mwirima as Coordinator
and Sanza John as Finance and Administrator.
Each of the BoD present, gave a word to the
staff and the Chairperson BoD Rev. Isaiah gave the final remarks of which,
sustainability of RWECO was common in all the closing remarks by the BoD
By Agnes Kyakimwa
Administrator-RWECO
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