THE POST 2015 THINK TANK AT CEWIT

Talking of the post 2015 seems to be like a long term vision, but RWECO and other members of CEWIT were brought together to prepare for the post 2015 ( Read Uganda is assumed to have achieved most of the MDG targets like other developing countries by 2015). At the round table meeting held on 16-17th May, 2013 was  facilitated by the East African Region Hivos Director Ms.Will Hanssen, the participants recommitted themselves in finding local solutions to the prevailing governance issues, rule of law and refocussing on the vulnerable groups who had for long been bypassed in the planning and budgeting processes at both the local government and national budget framers.

Ms. Will Hanssen, East African Region Hivos Director facilitating at the CEWIT and Partners meeting in Kampala 16th/17th May, 2013

Mr. James Mwirima (left), Ms. Nyambura (2nd Left) taking notes and listening to the participants views about the post 2015

The round table meeting was an opportunity for CEWIT and her members and partners in Uganda to rethink and strategies in the wake of CSOs being clamped on because of their stand on good governance and rule of law. The team majorly focused on Gender, Hiv and Aids, participation of the vulnerable groups in decision making processes. While the CEWIT had done work on locating the vulnerable groups in the Budgeting and planning processes, findings revealed low participation and negligible budgetary allocations to the PWDs, Youth, and Hiv and Aids.

Mr. Sanza John, CEWIT Accountant (middle) making his contribution during the think tank

 RWECO has positioned itself to be a one stop center for policy analysis and advocacy for the marginalized groups in society and created platforms both physical and online to enable citizens engage with the elected leaders. In the Rwenzori Region, 25 neighborhood assemblies are functional, 7 District E-Societies and D-Groups (http://www.kasese.go.ug/) have opened the space for the citizens to engage with the leaders. RWECO through RICNET piloted the TRAC FM facility at Kasese Guide Radio and Life FM as interactive platforms for citizens to ask questions through sending a message to 8585 to their leaders. Social Accountability  tools both online and hard copies were introduced and linked to the Huduma and Uchaguzi platforms. A short code 6030 was also acquired for citizens to send their monitoring findings to the plat form

At RWECO we believe, talking  about the post 2015 we were in the right direction and in line with the Uganda National Development Plan (2010), Vision 2040 thus being a voice of the unsung herons and heroes!! the PWDs, PLHA, Elderly, Youth and Women. We need to make ICT tools work for all these categories of citizens in order to fit in the global village ( Global Citizenship becoming real)

links to related work: http://kali1kasese.blogspot.com/2013/05/vulnerable-group-leaders-demand-for.html

Among the participants were staff from:

FHRI, KRC, CEFORD, ACORD, PAC-U, TLC, ISIS-WICE, AKINAMAMA WAFRICA,

 Watch this space for more!!!

Jimmy Odyek
RWECO