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.
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
CEW-IT-Kampala
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