Wednesday, May 23, 2012

ICT TOOLS FOR POVERTY RESOURCE TRACKING



CEW-IT training in Progress (17-19, May, 2012)
It was a bright Thursday morning, dazzling in their glamorous suits the CEW-IT staff walked down the road to Kireka, Eastern route Hotel where the very colorful and down to earth two days training on ICT based PETS/PRMT monitoring tools on poverty eradication scheduled for the 16th – 19th may 2012 was held.
Moving around the clock, all the trainings were stipulated to commence at 8:50am this was highly blessed by all the CEW-IT partners among which included; RWECO, ACORD, PAC, CEFORD, and FHRI whose delegates elegantly stepped in very early and prepared for the long waited training. The training was further blessed by delegates from Oxfam, SODNET, and the very well experienced and down to earth facilitators from the Democratic governance associates of Uganda.
So fruitful were the opening remarks from James Mwirima the CEW-IT Coordinator. Who welcomed participants to the training and also took them through the climate setting session, his words were so good that gave hope to participants to keep hoping and expecting for more and more, and in the end all their expectations were met 80%.which was an achievement to CEW-IT. James Mwirima further explained the composition of CEW-IT as a consortium of 4-6 organizations, and notified the participants that the name had changed from Citizens Election Watch, to Citizens Watch IT Uganda which had changed for the better not for worse.  He also commended EU and Hivos funding for the project, Enhancing Civic Competence for Social Accountability. 

Mr. Eddie stressing a point
 In life, we always hope for the best  participants highlighted various expectations  which included; acquiring Knowledge on CEW-IT phase three, active participation and knowledge sharing, knowing how public service is in other districts, learning mechanisms and approaches of the project, how to influence the government to increase budget funding, acquire more knowledge and skills in monitoring, Share monitoring experience, how to monitor poverty eradication using ICT, how social goals are generated in service delivery, how to influence budgets in terms of budget allocations, gaining hands on skills in data entry, acquiring knowledge on PRMT.
Though some fears were highlighted, in the end they all turned to be reasons of appreciation when participants were introduced to the Huduma (Swahili) platform—which simply means social service delivery in English, this term has done a great deal of work in Kenya via accountability and access to social services are concerned, we greatly hope that since we have adopted it, the fruits will be ripe as well in Uganda.  And guess what! thanks to Penninah Mutuneh from SODNET for the good work done in putting her hands together in preparing the presentation. Ugandans at last will use the cheapest means to monitor and report on service delivery by local governments. Thanks to the CEW-IT, ICT Specialist Emmanuel Oluka, who tirelessly and nervously shared the strong idea of the Smart phone, for sure this was another milestone for CEW-IT, he simply explained that all one needs is to go down to a shop pick a phone and you know what? identify any social issue around the are, then send that very issue in a message to the short code 6030,  and behold there is no bureaucracy needed or any transport, all you require is just the lowest air time to send a message, so tell me will you send the message today?

Below  Mr. Muguzi facilitating at the CEW-IT workshop

The workshop covered various topics in the field of social accountability, which left most participants amazed, these very interesting topics included; Overview of the Budget Formulation and Implementation Processes (Central and Local Government), which focused on how budgets are formulated and implemented and how CSOs could influence them. The session which was  moderated by Henry Mugazi and  Eddie Kayinda brought on board the mechanisms of monitoring social accountability aimed at building strong networks in the Country and building internal capacity of CSOs in understanding how government operates, thereafter social goals  of service delivery, the roots of service delivery problems, budget formulation at national and LG levels, identification of common problems in budget processes, social services provision framework, and the mechanisms in budget and service delivery monitoring, PETs and their importance, planning and execution of PETS, Data Verification, Report writing, and how to integrate PETS into issue based advocacy, ICT monitoring tool, The HUDUMA Platform (over view, deployment and roll out), Information Analysis and Minimum Standards/Performance Indicators of Public Services
As you know there times when one can’t fail to smile despite the condition you are in that was the situation on Friday 18th May 2012. On a brand early morning when participants were notified that they were required to go to the field (schools, hospital, district head quarters, water points) to pre-test the PET tools,  guess what Huduma in action  was the buzzword allover the corridors of Eastern Route hotel.  Participants jumped into the ‘Matatus’ courtesy of Rose Nanyondo who was the transport manager of the day headed to four distinct destinations to pre-test the tools.  Field results were presented and they were self explanatory for indeed the situation in almost all the places that were reached unto had issues of limited social service delivery, that significantly showed that the project of social accountability indeed has come in the most opportune time it was  needed therefore, strong implementation has to be made, effective monitoring has to be done, to ensure that all Ugandans access the basic social services they are entitled to.
In a nutshell, the training was necessary for Uganda, we your friends at CEW-IT CU, pray that it may be a success story as we implement together with all our partners alongside the citizens.

By Olive K
CEW-IT-Kampala





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