The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) organized a dialogue meeting in Arua for Senior Religious leaders in West Nile region. The reflection meetings being organized Nation wide by IRCU was also meant to enable the religious institutions to reposition themselves as Uganda celebrates her 50th anniversary of Independence and to lay a fresh foundation in their engagement with the socio-economic and political realities of Uganda. The dialogue attracted participants from all the 8 districts of West Nile (Arua, Nebbi, Zombo, Koboko, Yumbe, Maracha, Moyo and Adjumani) on 12th April 2012 at Heritage Courts Arua. In total 38 participants (33 Male & 4 Female) attended.
The purpose of the dialogue was to:
1. To enable selected religious leaders to evaluate their contribution to nation building in the last 50 years of Uganda’s independence.
2. To enable selected religious leaders to reflect and come to a mutual agreement on the kind of Uganda they would like to see in the next 50 years and to identify the unique roles they have to play in bringing it.
3. To enable heads of religious institutions commit themselves to promoting the articulated national vision using platforms of their institutions at all levels of society
4. To enable selected religious leaders agree to being personally and institutionally accountable to abiding or living out the national vision.
Way forward: IRCU would compile the views from the National consultations and share the report with participants at a later time.
CEFORD was invited to attend the dialogue meeting with the religious leaders and was represented by the Executive Director. This was an opportunity to disseminate the content of the simplified version of the Citizens' Manifesto to the Religious leaders who also received copies of the simpliied version of the Citizens’ Manifesto. A total of 37 books were distributed to 33 M & 3 F participants.
