Stakeholder Engagement meeting in Moyo

CEFORD organized the second Stakeholder Engagement meeting for participants from Moyo and Adjumani districts on 16th December 2011 at Moyo Multipurpose Hall. Participants included representatives from CAO's Office, LC V, LC III, Police and CBOs. In total 26 participants attended the meeting.

The District Council Speaker Moyo (Hon. Chaiga Martin) in his opening remark said " When you stand as a leader, you have signed a social contract with the people. When you do not live to the terms of the contract, you will be thrown out". To him the Citizens Manifesto in Action is a good project and would want us to evaluate the Citizen's Manifesto at the end of the contract.





The National Coordinator CEW-IT (James Mwirima) and Executive Director CEFORD (Asipkwe Jean Christabel) presented an overview about the project, the Citizens Manifesto and the West Nile regional issues as spelt out in the Citizens Manifesto. The regional issues generated a lot of discussions and action points for follow up on the issues at District and Regional level. Some of the key issues included: demand for clear road map for electricity for Adjumani and Moyo, resolving the border conflicts with Sudan and Amuru district, addressing health staff exit for greener pastures in Sudan among others.

Participants also unanimously agreed that there is a need to have a strong forum of Members of Parliament from West Nile to jointly advocate for West Nile issues and a strong forum for Elders and Opinion leaders in the region be formed to engage in inter border conflicts.

Stake Holders Engagement meeting organised by CEFORD in Arua

CEFORD organized the first engagement meeting for West Nile in Arua at CEFORD Head Quarters on 15th Dec 2011. The meeting drew participants from 3 Districts of Arua, Nebbi and Koboko. The 38 participants included CAO, RDC, LC V, Police, CSOs and CBOs. and RDCs.

During the meeting, CEW-IT National Coordinator (James Mwirima) presented an overview on the Project: Citizens Manifesto in Action: Building a Social Contract between Citizens and their Leaders. He also presented the National development concerns in the Citizens Manifesto. The Executive Director CEFORD (Asipkwe Jean Christabel) presented the West Nile issues in the Citizens Manifesto.


Deputy Speaker Arua District Hon. Christine Debo in her opening remarks said "Leaders and citizens are in contract for 5 years. Many pledges were made and citizens need to check with their leaders on fulfillment of the pledges"








From the discussions, the issues of power in West Nile and slow pace of completion of Nyagak power project, the need to be connected to the National electric grid, environmental degradation among others topped the discussion. A number of action points were generated for each of the issues under Electricity, Health, Education, Security, Roads, Poverty, Leadership and Natural resource management.



The RDC Arua Col. Abiriga Ibrahim (pictured below) in his closing remarks urged CSOs to keep his office informed on their activities and involve him where necessary.

PAC-Uganda in conjuction with Uganda National NGO Forum held Teso anti corruption CONvention in Soroti town.

Public Affairs center of Uganda (PAC-Uganda) a national civil society organisation based in Teso region in conjunction with Uganda National NGO Forum organized a half day public dialogue code-named Teso anti corruption convention that took place on sat day 3-Dec-2011 at land mark hotel. the dialogue began at 12:00 noon upto 7:00pm. the theme of the convention was 'tackling corruption in natural resources governance and mitigating its impact on livelihood of the ordinary citizen, a responsibility for all. This convention was a build up to the planned national anti corruption convention (NACC) slated for the 8-Dec-2011 in
Kampala. The overall objective of the public dialogue was to derive the Teso region in put to the NACC. The chief guest was Hon Gerald Karuhanga the youth mp western Uganda. The public dialogue attracted the general public and this made the participation very vibrant as issues were being raised by different groups of people. PAC-Uganda also invited a panel of lawyers from different law firms namely, Katuntu and company advocates from Kampala, M/S Isodo and company advocates, Munghao and company advocates among others. Other invited participants present were, woman MP Soroti district, Chairperson local v Ngora district, division and sub county chairpersons. political party representatives, election monitors, CSOs, CBOs, church leaders, institutions, cultural leaders and widows who had come to testify how their land had been grabbed by some rich and powerful individuals and local government among others. The vivid example was mzee Ochaloi whose land has been taken by Soroti sub county authority without compensating him. During the dialogue, a number of issues emerged and they included the following. Land grabbing, high costs of paying lawyers, in adequate participation of women on land policies, constitutionality of local council courts, continuous adjournments of cases by courts intensifying wrangles among conflicting parties, distortion of witness statements by some police officers,sexual harassment by some of the local council courts when women go to report cases to their offices

Following a heated debate,the following were resolved and adopted by the house.

To wholly support the constitution petition filed by PAC to compel government to disband local council I and II courts and to hold fresh elections for this important grass root democracy and government structure.

We should support and decorate leaders who fight corruption and denounce those who are corrupt. We should not vote leaders who are corrupt to political positions. PAC and other NGOs should put pressure to political leaders for accountability. PAC should go out to immediate land cases in the villages.
Launch a house to house fight against corruption. Lawyers should select five widows they can support every year freely so as to protect the properties and and livelihood assets of the poor victims. Leaders found corrupt MUST be punished and made to pay all that was lost. Courts should handle cases expeditiously. Vulnerable people should be given access to public offices. In summary, the dialogue went well without any interruptions.

Spearker Soroti giving the youth MP honorary flower for fighting corruption

ARUA TOWN,A PLACE TO BE

It was a bright sunday morning that the RIC-NET team led by the Executive Director, set off for a journey to Northern Uganda to conduct a training in e-platforms and maintenance at CEFORD offices in Arua. A night in Arua was so enjoyable at Heritage Courts where there was a Karaoke night and on top of that it was also a comedy night, despite language barrier we managed to pick few words through the help of an interpreter.


Having had a tremendous night at heritage hotel, early Monday, the team headed to CEFORD office where the training was to take place. The training kicked off at 9:30am with ICT Emma taking members through Uchaguzi ,citizen voice and RIC-NET ED,John silco took members in skype,blogs,how to operate a projector where as Betty took them through computer maintenance tips . CEFORD team was one of the active one as everyone was mesmerized in gaining ICT skills.The training ended late in the evening with Ricnet ED handing over a projector to Ceford Executive Director madam Jean.