WAKISO PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE (WAPAGI).

PROPOSAL BY:GOOD GOVERNANCE PRACTICE (GOGOP)

A Civil Society Organisation (CSO)

Kajjansi Trading Centre –

8 miles Entebbe Highway.

PROJECT DURATION:24 MONTHS

PROJECT AREA:Wakiso District - (UGANDA)

PROPOSAL AMOUNT:US$ US $ 303,226

Willy Kituuka

CHAIRMAN 

Wakiso Participatory Governance Initiative (WAPAGI) Project Proposal

Project Proposal by Good Governance Practice (GOGOP) of Uganda 

GOOD GOVERNANCE PRACTICE – AN OVERVIEW 

1.  Over the past decade all assessments of social economic development trends, has recommended the redefinition of the role of the state and greater recommendation of other stake holders in the national development agenda. The state intervention will have to be restricted in the areas of public interest and where no other stakeholder has the incentive and comparative advantage to intervene. The state has the responsibility to put in place secure and stable working environment and democratic processes to ensure the respect of human rights, rule of law and free active participation of all members of society in decision making. 

2.  The National Programme Action on Democratic Governance defines as the efficient, effective and accountable exercise of political, administrative and managerial authority to achieve societies’ objectives including the welfare of the whole population, sustainable development and personal freedom. Good governance implies democracy, freedom respect for human rights, transparent, efficient accessible and just government. 

3.  The Government of Uganda is committed to boost governance in order to tackle the over aching incidence of absolute poverty in the country. It is therefore committed to reducing poverty to 10 percent and relative poverty to 30 percent of the total population by the year 2017. Article 38 (i) of the 1995 Uganda Constitution entitles every Ugandan to participate in the affairs of government, individually or through his or her representatives. But to ensure that this participation is meaningful, it requires an informed citizenry, and this is also provided for under Article 41 (i) of the constitution, which entitles every citizen to accessing information in possession of the state and its organs. 

4.  Article 176 of the 1995 constitution further provides that the system of local government in Uganda shall be based on district, as a unit under which there shall be lower local governments and administrative units.  These were made accountable to the people for better realization of economic and political goals since issues of governance and poverty are inextricably linked. Abuse of power or its exercise in weak and improper ways leaves those with least power especially the poor most likely to suffer (UNDP, 2002: 276). 

5.  Weak governance includes poor delivery of services and benefits to people. The influence of the powerful interest groups biases policies and programmes and spend away from the poor (ibid). The problem degenerates into lack of property rights, injustice, lack of transparency, as well as police protection and legal services disadvantaging the poor to the extent of inhibiting them from securing their homes and other assets and operating businesses. The resultant effect is that poor governance generates and reinforces poverty and subverts efforts to reduce it.  Therefore strengthening governance is an essential prerequisite to improving the lives of the poor. 

6.  Further, UNDP (1994) has identified availability of valid and reliable information as one of the fundamental pillars of good governance. This is also echoed in the government’s working group under Ministry of Justice, which emphasizes, among others, an informed citizenry, a strong civil society, as important elements of good governance. 

7.  Fostering good governance in local governments is seriously constrained by the population‘s lack of understanding of their values, mandate and functioning of the decentralized system as well as lack of transparency in local governments. As a consequence of a weak frame work for upward and downward communication, people are reluctant to pay taxes; others seek redress from wrong institutions, while others are exploited because of ignorance of their rights and obligations. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 

1)  Schneider (1999) introduced the concept of Participatory Governance in

poverty reduction initiatives, laying the ground for new understanding of the term, Schneider notes, “the challenge is therefore not only to address poverty reduction and governance together, but also to design and operate the governance mechanisms in ways that make governance participatory.” In Schneider’s conceptualization, participation and transparency are cited as defining elements of governance, and accountability, empowerment and capacity building is seen as its building blocks. 

2)  Governance is a complex system of interactions among structures, traditions, functions (responsibilities), and processes (practices) characterized by three key values of accountability, transparency and participation. The nature and quality of those interactions is intended to lead to sustainable human development, determine how power is exercised, how decisions are taken, how stakeholders have their say and how decision makers are held accountable. 

3)  Good Governance Practice (GOGOP) is a Civil Society Organisation (CSO)

Registered to do business in Wakiso District of Uganda, it is Registration No. WCBO/117/08. Given (1 &2) above, GOGOP is to implement participatory governance under the project name: Wakiso Participatory Governance Initiative (WAPAGI). 

4)  WAPAGI is to provide avenues and opportunities for the people in Wakiso District to participate in planning, budgeting for and implementing the delivery of services at local level. The participation among other areas will be in problem analysis, priority setting, planning, and decisions concerning allocation and utilization of resources including funds (budgeting). This is against the background that the local population is ignored or deliberately excluded by local leaders in the decision making processes. Better governance means greater participation coupled with accountability. 

5)  The project implementation will start with a workshop for the chair persons; that is: the district, municipalities, town councils and sub-counties. The idea is to have these understand what participatory governance is about and how the civil society can benefit from it. 

6) The project shall then engage A’ level certificate holders, two from each sub – county; town councils and municipal divisions, where possible, gender balance shall be practiced, that is a man and a woman from each locality. A part from the certificate talked about, the candidates shall be examined at their ability to explain themselves to an audience given that this is a necessary skill for exercise they are to undertake. These shall be hired for 24 months with the starting point being an intensive Training of Trainers’ (TOT) course which shall be for 3 weeks and shall prepare them for the challenges of the task of participatory governance when back to their stations. 

7)  The themes to cover in the TOT Training to include: 

i. Strategic Planning

ii. Participatory Governance (participatory budgeting)

iii. Resource mobilization

iv. Corruption

v. Civil Society Mobilization

vi. Rights Issues

vii. Democracy

viii. Decentralization

ix. Environmental Management

x. The art of facilitating. 

8)  The project shall use resource of the (TOT) course to publish reading resources/materials that may be procured by all other districts. The same resources shall be used to develop films/videos that may be shown to further participatory governance country wide. 

9)  The trainers shall be availed with bicycles in the case of men so as to ease their movements in the sub-counties; and for the women, transport in form of cash is to be availed so that they can use either bicycle or motor cycle transport. 

10) It is projected that every week, each trainer will hold a total of 11 meetings with different groups which may average 20 regular attendants. These groups shall train once per week for three months, then another set shall start, hence by the time 21 months elapse; each trainer will have trained 1,540 people (these shall include all categories including school going children), such that a total of 55,440 people shall on average have benefited in the whole district by the expiry of 24 months. 

11) After the (TOT) course, the beneficiaries shall be involved in programmes on daily basis in their stations where they will disseminate information on participatory governance to various publics including: 

i. Councilors/local leaders

ii. The women groups

iii. The youths

iv. The disabled

v. All other members of the civil society

vi. School children /students 

12) The project proposal is aware of sustainability problems after the completion of the 24 months. In this respect, the project has a component which is to see to the sale of reading resources which will be developed after the (TOT) course, and at the same time, develop a film which will be available in different languages and for which sponsorship shall be identified for dissemination. 

13) Secondly, still on sustainability, the project has a component which sees the buying of a piece of land about 10 acres for planting of fruit trees as a positive step. 

14) If this land is got in Wakiso district, it is a fact when planted with fruit trees, there should be income realized from the sale of fruits given the ready market taking advantage of the potential of the area given the increasing urbanization. 

15) There is motivation as part of the monitoring and evaluation in that those participants (with emphasis to the women) in all the areas in the district who will excel in participatory roles and being regular in meetings are to be rewarded. This incentive has a two way impact in that once participants know about it, they will take extra interest in participation, and secondly, it is likely to induce positive response to follow up with developments in the localities where participatory involvement is targeted, this way local participation will be enhanced. 

16) The monitoring and evaluation of the project shall be mostly from the feedback from the civil society, it is hoped that the civil society will slowly but steadily increase their involvement in the decision making of what is to affect them, starting with the local council budget to implementation of projects on ground after their involvement in these decisions. Monthly meetings shall be held with the trainers from the field. These shall be on the mornings of every last Monday of the month at the headquarters. During the same meetings, the problems encountered in the field shall be brought up and solutions discussed

.

17) Our project proposal which is to implement a multi-stakeholder participatory process in Wakiso district has a number of challenges anticipated, these among others include: infrastructure deficiencies (including the facilities for holding meetings, gender and age issues; where women have a number of factors which may hinder their active participation (domestic roles and the domination by men), illiteracy levels are still reasonably high and this factor may hinder a number of would be potential participants to shy away. Some local leaders may practice political apathy and may also be lacking in their willingness to give democratic practices and popular participation a chance. 

Contents

1. Project Identification 9

2. About Wakiso District 13

3. Background 17

4. Problem Statement 17

5. Why solving the problem is important 17

6. The Rationale for Participatory Governance Initiative 25

7. Community Participatory Dynamics 26

8. Description of the project beneficiaries 27

9.  Number of beneficiaries from the project 27

10.  Description of the project idea 28

11.  Specific objectives of WAPAGI 29

12.  Activities that arise out of the Objectives 30

13.  Planned Activities 33

14.  The budget for planned Activities 39

15.  Project risks 44

16.  Project Evaluation & Monitoring 45

17.  Appendix 47

1.0.0 PROJECT IDENTIFICATION

1.1 Project Title: Wakiso Participatory Governance Initiative (WAPAGI). 

1.2 Project Location: Country: Uganda

Region/district: Wakiso District 

1.3 Name and Address of the organization responsible for the project in the

field: 

Good Governance Practice (GOGOP)

Kajjansi Trading Center - 8miles Entebbe Highway

P.O. Box 2678,

Kampala,

UGANDA. 

1.4 Name and Address of the person in charge of the project in the field:

Willy Kituuka

P.O. Box 2678,

Kampala,

UGANDA.

2.0.0 ABOUT WAKISO DISTRICT

1.  Wakiso as a district encircles Kampala Uganda’s capital city. It was created by an Act of Parliament in November 2000. 

2.  Wakiso is found in the central region of the country, bordering with the districts of Luwero and Nakaseke in the north, Mukono and Kampala in the east, Mpigi and Mityana in the west, and Kalangala lying in Lake Victoria to the south. 

3.  Wakiso covers a total area of 2,704.55 square kilometres; out of which 1710.45 square kilometers is land area while total of 994.10 square kilometres is covered with forest, water and swamps. 

4.  The district is divided into two counties (Busiro and Kyadondo) and one municipality (Entebbe). 

5.  The district is divided into 13 sub-counties, three (3) town councils (Kira, Nansana and Wakiso) and two Municipal Divisions.

6.  It has a total of 135 parishes and 676 villages of which some are semi- urban surrounded by the city characterized by slums, poorly planned structures and heaps of garbage. The other rural areas basically rely on subsistence agriculture. 

7.  The administration headquarter is located in Wakiso Town Council 10 km along Hoima Road from Kampala. 

8.  It is the second-most populated district in Uganda with a total population of 957,280 people (2002 census). 

2.2.0 District Administration 

The Policy making organ is the Wakiso District Council and was elected in March 2002. It is headed by the LCV Chairman who is supported by an Executive of 5 members, 5 Policy / Sectoral Committees which deliberate policy matters and make recommendations to the full Council of 33 Councilors. 

The Sectoral Committees include: 

• Finance, Planning and General Purpose.

• Health and Environment.

• Social Services.

• Production, Marketing and Industry.

• Works and urban Planning.

• Education and Sports

There are also statutory bodies including:

• Public Accounts Committee.

• District Service Commission.

• District Land Board

• District Tender Board.

Each of these statutory bodies is mandated by law to carry out specific roles and responsibilities to ensure effective and efficient service delivery. 

There is also an office of the Resident District Commissioner, which represents the President in the Districtand ensures that both National and Local priorities are given due consideration and are implemented in an accountable manner.

The sub counties parishes and villages have councils and executive committees, which coordinate the various functions. In addition, there are several Community Based Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, Non Government Organisations and members of the private sector who work together with the district council to deliver services to the community. 

The implementation organ, which is headed by the Chief Administrative Officer, has 9 functional departments, with is a total of 3,700 staff, including headquarter based staff, sub-county staff, Primary school teachers and Health center staff. 

The Departments are: 

i) Administration

ii) Finance and Planning.

iii) Council and Statutory bodies.

iv) Production

v) Works

vi) Natural resources.

vii) Education and Sports.

viii) Health

ix) Community Based Services

3.0.0 BACKGROUND

Participatory Governance is the process to develop community structures and mechanisms that are truly responsive to community needs and aspirations. The participatory governance system constitutes the basis for effective management of poverty reduction initiative at individual, household and community level. The participatory governance constitutes the pillar for development of an evidence based planning and performance based service delivery for effective use of resources and improved accountability in the management of public affairs. The participatory governance system offers a two way communication in which the community reciprocates positively to the government policies and programmes by uplifting their well being. This relationship begets confidence among members of the community and trust in the state decision, resulting in good economic, political and administrative governance at all levels. 

3.1.0 Problem Statement

The non involvement of local people in policy, planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation of what is to affect them that is, what is to be done, why is it to be done and how to be done hence the neglected lever of change towards combating the mismanagement of public funds and public affairs, corruption and abuse of power, lack of reinforcement of accountability because the local society don’t know that it is their right to access information and through involvement in decision making to improve the local government service delivery.