Overview
of Iganga District NGO/CBO Forum
Iganga
District NGO/CBO Forum is an umbrella organization representing
and coordinating over 150 registered Civil Society
Organizations in Iganga
District. The Forum started in January, 2003 with a General
Assembly of over 200 delegates. The organization is located
in a rural region in Eastern Uganda that is strategically
located with the Jinja-Tororo and Jinja-Mbale highways
running through its town center. In its initial stage
the Forum was assisted by the Uganda National NGO Forum,
Iganga District Local Government and later with DevelopNet Volunteers
from the United States. Before establishing the NGO Forum,
a large gap existed between civil society and local government,
creating a duplication of services and wastage of resources
amongst the different service providers. Civil society
was too weak to influence policy issues in the interest
of the poor.
The Vision
Improved livelihoods of the poor in Iganga District
through empowered civil society towards pro-poor
development. |
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The
Mission
Iganga NGO/CBO Forum exists to provide a platform
for advocacy, lobbying and strengthening capacities
of member civil society organizations through technical
support, linkage and information sharing for effective
service delivery. |
FORUM MANAGEMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT
Iganga District NGO/CBO Forum is a membership Network
of Community based Organizations, Non-Governmental
organization at District, National and International
level, Faith based organizations, other Thematic Networks
and coalitions that operate as registered entities
engaged in the promotion of effective and sustainable
delivery of services.
Iganga District NGO/CBO Forum has membership of 117
CBOs and 34 NGOs representing about 65% of the active
CSOs operating in Iganga District. The overall
organ of the Forum is the General Assembly that convenes
annually and after 3 years elects the new Executive
Committee. The Executive Committee is elected
on an agreed and representative manner to accommodate
all the vulnerable and minority groups. At present
the Forum activities are carried out mainly by the
Executive Committee members. The Forum has contracted
2 staff members seconded by member organizations to
manage the D’Net Internet Café project
on a daily basis.
Activities carried out 2003
-2006
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The Forum with support from DevelopNet,
Partners and Uganda Communication Commission (UCC)
established an Information Communication Technology/InterNet
Café Project in Iganga Town for the members
and the entire Iganga rural community.
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It has also been able to improve coordination of
the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the district
and works together with the other thematic Networks
in the fields of HIV/AIDS, Adult Literacy, People
with Disabilities, the District Farmers Association
and other advocacy coalitions.
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The Forum has influenced Iganga District Local
Government on a number of issues that affect the
poor and the operation of Civil Society Organizations
in the District. A memorandum of understanding
with Iganga Local Government has been signed to
guide the engagement.
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The Forum has worked with Action Aid International,
for raising awareness on genetically modified crops
amongst its rural members throughout the district.
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Iganga NGO/CBO Forum mobilized and organized over
150 community members towards a campaign to increase
their participation in civic matters, ‘The
Peoples Agenda’ was supported by the
International Republican Institute during the previous
political elections of 2006.
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The first draft of the District Directory including
all civil society organizations was published in
2005.
Sustainability
Sustainability of organization
and programs: the structures that are being set from parish to
district level are of a reinforcing nature to build
synergy for teamwork with the existing local government
structures, to strengthen a partnership culture in
participatory planning and pooling of resource. The
Forum hopes that the construction of the permanent
structure with the Forum administrative offices,
resource center, conference hall and Internet Café/DevelopNet
Project will provide a permanent home for Iganga
District NGO/CBO Forum that will save valuable resources
that would be otherwise spent on hire of premises
and annual rent for office accommodation. The Internet
Café and other social services will generate
income for the Iganga District NGO/CBO Forum. |
PROFILE OF
IGANGA DISTRICT
Iganga District has a population of 596,852 with
80% of the population living in the rural areas
and engaged in small-scale agriculture as the major
economic activity. Small scale trading is another
major economic activity especially around the Trading
Centers. However, poverty is still rampant and
about 46% of the people live below the poverty
line. The HIV prevalence rate is at 8% above the
national level of 6% and illiteracy is at 43%,
most of whom are women, making them among
the most vulnerable and marginalized groups. Despite
improved enrollment, the quality of Uganda’s
Universal Primary Education initiative remains
low. The major prevalent diseases in the district
are preventable and include: malaria, URTI internal
worms, and HIV/AIDS material problems that contribute
to 60% of the ten killer diseases (Some HMIS 2005).
It is widely recognized that involving local communities
is a prerequisite to effective community programming.
This is especially true for communities with poor
and marginalized persons. Iganga District has
a host of social and economic challenges, and a robust
and diverse cast of nongovernmental organizations
which have arisen to meet these challenges. Yet a
general lack of information and exchange has prevented
this community from leveraging its assets towards
the public good.
Written by: Michael Bazira of MURUDA
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