ToroDev holds a dialogue meeting with advocacy forums Leaders/ Rural Monitors on 16th June 2015

The 16 advocacy forums have been formed by the 120 rural monitors who have been trained by ToroDev since August, 2012 in online advocacy, monitoring service delivery using online social media/ICT tools like Ushahidi platform for online documentation, visualization and mapping. The Advocacy Forums also use FM Radio Broadcasting as an ICT tool for “convergence or hub” since it is the most accessed media channel in the rural areas of the Rwenzori Region.

As a way of motivating, encouraging, strengthening & empowering the leaders & members of the 16 advocacy forums & rural monitors initiated by ToroDev, a dialogue meeting was held on 16^th June 2015 and it was attended by leaders and coordinators of the 16 advocacy forums at sub county level in the 7 districts of the Rwenzori region. The meeting was attended by 36 people, 16 females and 20 males. Each Forum was represented by the leader of the Forum and the coordinator.  

“I encourage our forum leaders and members to always be informed in order to advocate for better and improved services in their communities and also encourage you to cooperate with your local leaders, work hand in hand with them and engage them in your meetings, radio talks & workshops, all we want to see is change in service delivery in different sectors”, said the executive director of ToroDev Mr. Baguma Johnstone Kumaraki during the meeting that was held at ToroDev resource center.

Forum members during a training session:

The meeting aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity of the 16 advocacy forum leaders & rural monitors in demanding and advocating for improved service delivery using appropriate tools that fit in the Minimum National Standards of Service Delivery (MNSSD). The forum leaders were taken through MNSSD in the sectors of education (primary), roads, water & sanitation and health ( health center 11s & 111s) by ToroDev Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) team , Florence Githinji & Shiela Amanya.

Meanwhile Mr. Bahabwa Vincent the chief executive officer of Booms Initiatives Uganda, an organization that promotes financial literacy in western Uganda shared with the forum leaders about financial literacy, saving for the future and how to sustain the work of the forum with or without the support of ToroDev.

 “What fails us to save is the reason why we think we are saving, have a percentage of your income saved however small it  is , one must have a saving plan and  be sure to him/herself on the things to spend and successful people plan for their expenses before the actual spending’’, said Mr. Bahabwa Vincent.

The leaders were also able to share with ToroDev team the challenges they face whenever they are doing the work of monitoring services in their respective sub counties which included:- 

Amos Karuhanga making his request to ToroDev:

“Our villages are very far from each other some of us have very big areas where we have to do the monitoring of services , we therefore, request ToroDev to facilitate us with motorcycles to ease  our movement’’, said Amos Karuhanga, chairperson Ntoroko Citizens Concern, a forum group in Ntoroko district.

“Sometimes we have information that requires backing up with photos for evidence and sometimes we do not have the cameras or voice recorders and we fail to get real evidence to share with our leaders, we request ToroDev to facilitate us with cameras so as to do our work effectively”, said Wilson Monday, coordinator Nkoma advocacy forum in Kamwenge district.

We are grateful to SIDA, NED, DRT, CIPESA, SPIDER, and ICT4DEM for their financial and technical support.

Kabarole District Chairperson Hon. Rwabuhinga Richard gives Accountability during the Accountability Conference held on 29th May 2015.

Hon. Rwabuhinga Richard

Kabarole district organized accountability conference on 29^th May 2015; the conference was attended by hundreds of people, who included the local, political, religious, cultural leaders, representatives from NGO and men and women from Kabarole District. The theme for the conference was ‘’Kabarole District on the Road towards Prosperity’’.

“Prosperity has been a journey characterized by a number of success stories as well as hardships but with funds from public resources, central government, and local revenue and support from development partners, we were able to achieve in a number of sectors like providing safe and clean water to Magunga Mugusu sub country Kabarole district, constructing different roads in Kicwamba, Hakibale, Kisomoro etc“.  Said the chairperson local council V for Kabarole district Hon. Rwabuhinga Richard

“There has been  a great improvement in Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) performance for example 422  grade ones in 2010 to 1439 grade ones in 2014, in production the district has increased Bananas  from 63 tons per week in 2003 to 4 410 tons in 2013/2014, on the road sector the district has managed to maintain 255 kms and rehabilitating a total of 149.8km of community access roads, more maternity centers have been opened both in public and private sector, supervised deliveries in the district stand at 68% in FY 2013/14 above the national target of 65% and the TB treatment success rate is now at 86% from 74% (national target is at 85%) and cure rate is at 69% from 43% in 2011 plus extension of Mugusu Gravity Flow Scheme to Katurru & Bubandi villages, Kicwamba Gravity Flow Scheme to Buharra ‘A’, Buharra ‘B’, Magunga & Kahondo villages under the water sector”. Said the chairperson local council V for Kabarole district Hon. Rwabuhinga Richard

Hon Rwabuhinga added that there are challenges that all hospitals, health centre IV, III and some health centre II in Kabarole district face, which may include few health workers, few trained medical doctors, few laboratories etc. There are about 4 CD4 machines in various health facilities, few trained health workers to do routine counseling & testing (RCT) and Kabarole District HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has remained high at 11.3% compared to national prevalence of 7.3% but we are trying to educate the youth to abstain and use condoms.

In his 2 hours  40 minutes address to the district Members of parliament, district executive committee members, district councilors, chief administrative officer, heads of departments and staff, development partners, faith based organization & religious leaders, sub county chairpersons, parish chairpersons & village chairpersons, Hon. Rwabuhinga showed it that the district received funds equivalent to  Ugshs. 122.252.448.284 (one hundred twenty two billions two hundred fifty two millions four hundred forty eight thousand two hundred eighty four shillings) for service delivery under various sectors for the last 4 years (2011-2014).

Accountability is a Cornerstone of good governance

The executive director of Kabarole Research and Resource Centre ( KRC) Mr. Mwanga Julius saluted Kabarole district leadership for being exemplary in giving accountability to the people of Kabarole district and Toro as a region.

Mr. Mwanga said this while presenting a communique’ on behalf of NGOs/CSOs operating in Rwenzori region at the district leaders conference on 29^th May 2015 at Kabarole district headquarters, Kitumba Fort portal municipality.

The well attended conference had chairperson LC 1s, LC11s, LC 111s, councilors, RDC, CAO, Technical staff among, representatives of NGOs/CSOs, religious leaders others and it was organized by Kabarole district local government.

Article by:

Kugonza David

Documentation & Communication Officer

ToroDev

Why social Media is important for visibility of organisations

While the proliferation of mobile devices has been quite phenomenal in developing countries, it is important to recognise the roles with which these ICT tools have played towards the development of communities, nations and also for indviduals and organisations.

Many young people today do own mobile phones and reseacrh show that they are able to use their mobile devices to access internet. In the same, institutions such as ToroDev can utilize the opportunities that social media play in development to enhahcne the institutional capacity and visibility of their organisations.

ToroDev have invested heavily in capacity building of its staff so that they are able to tale advantage of social media to increase  and make the work that they do more visible.

 David Kugonza, the Documentation and Communications Officer at ToroDev have just recently concluded a two days traoining organised by WOUGNET in Kampala on web 2.0 and social media and its expected that the skills he gained will be used to increase the online presence of ToroDev.


Article written by
Sheilla Amanya
ToroDev