DGAP Partners embrace QuAM

Ms. Bonnie Kiconco, explaining QuAM

Business as usual was the word of the past at the recently held partners meeting at RIDAR Hotel Seeta (5-7, Sept. 2012), where DGAP partners convened to ponder the next steps of continued support from DGAP. But then what is QUAM? As defined by the National QUAM Coordinator, Ms. Bonnie Kiconco: NGO QUALITY ASSURANCE CERTIFICATION MECHANISMS by the NGOs, for the NGOs and with the NGOs, short of that, your NGO will need an overhaul to match the desired requirements. At the meeting, questions of who qualifies for QUAM and QUAM for what were answered in a participatory way. The participants later realized that every other small things done in an NGO were in the realm of QUAM accept we had  not been sensitized about QUAM so that we embrace it. Ms. Bonnie Kiconco gave the simplest presentation in form of question and answer because participants wanted to know more about QuAM: Bonnie  shared a link where the participants and the wider community could access the QuAM literature (http://www.deniva.or.ug/programmes/quam , http://www.deniva.or.ug/reports/QuAM/QuAM_Standards.pdf )

Mr. Moses (KAS) during the DGAP partners meeting

More interesting presentations were on Civil society Governance presented by Everse M.I Manager, a distinction was made between governance and management drawing the line between the BoD and the Staff, defining the roles for each stakeholder including the partners that might influence the operations of the NGO was central during the plenary session. As I mentioned, earlier, BoD members who attended the three days workshop realized that, it was their role to set policies and fundraising for the organizations. More still, the BoD should take cognizant of the environment under which their organizations operate from. Presentation by Moses from KAS on “ Democracy and Good Governance” Terrain in Uganda made trajectory on the CSO institutional Governance. Moses moved away from the academic terminologies to a more development work oriented and application of governance. Otherwise, when I read the program, I was again waiting to be bombarded by academic papers and authors of good governance vis-à-vis what we need to know as practitioners. Thanks Moses for the work well done on demystifying those good governance concepts.

 

Now came the “ tips on writing a grant winning Proposal” guess the one who did that presentation, I quote “ I have never written a granting winning proposal but I have read a grant winning proposal” end of quote ( Christopher Gumisiriza). Like many interactive sessions I have attended, Chris gave the tips and basic examples on writing a grant winning proposal. On their part, the partners gave their version of the story like, we lack capacity to raise the 10% matching grants for the EU, but Chris immediately responded that, the 10% is inclusive of in kind contribution that the organization might make e.g. house rent, hire of car, staff time. At the end of the workshop, the full parked RIDAR Hotel Conference went with zeal and stamina to keep their ears on ground in trying their luck and making joint efforts locally to winning proposals.

The partners made a recommendations that included, sharing the resident skills, joint proposal bidding, sourcing for consultants if any, and studying request for proposals and sticking to the time lines.

The Program Officer at DGAP Mr. Martin (standing) during the meeting at RIDAR hotel

Jimmy B.O
RWECO