MS Uganda Newsletter March 2009

Bridging the gap

Koboko Civil Society Network (KOCISONET) opened a new chapter in its work when the first Interface Meeting was held with Koboko District on 3rd October 2008.

By Signe Welleius Plange

10. March 2009

For quite a while, CSOs in Koboko District had identified numerous challenges in service delivery at the sub-county level, and also brought them up in interface meetings with the sub-counties concerned. But they never got any further, and the dialogue between the communities and the District never really happened. To bridge the communication gap between CSOs and the District, KOCISONET held its first Interface Meeting on 3rd October 2008. Among the different stakeholders attending the meeting were the Town Council, DEO, LC5 Chairperson, CAO, District Engineer and KOCISONETs Member Organisations: Kuluba, Kirago, Koyd and Antuneta orphanage.

752 students, 3 teachers
Numerous challenges came up during the meeting. Among them were complaints about the lack of teachers in the Primary Schools in Koboko District. The community in Aunga had handed in a petition considering Aunga Primary School, which has 752 students, but only three teachers. "The need for teachers is high, and three teachers are not enough, we have to move our children to other schools if they are going to have a proper education" worried parents expressed. Aunga primary school also had a problem with a Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) project. The headmaster, teachers and parents explained they had not been informed about the project; there had been no sharing of information. They were not aware of the plans or budget of the project.

Lack of female teachers
One other general concern which was raised by local communities was the lack of female teachers in the schools, who could handle girls’ issues. The District Education Officer explained that it was very difficult to get woman teachers for the schools in the rural areas as women usually followed their husbands to where they lived and worked. Another primary school that handed in a petition during the interface meeting with the District was Bamure. It has a problem with its teachers, who drink alcohol during school hours and have even opened a bar on the school’s premises.

Lousy conditions
During the first Interface Meeting at District level, the District Education Officer informed the community about the situation in Koboko District. No school in the district has the amount ofteachers it is supposed to have, and the schools in the rural areas are having most problems due to poor transport infrastructure and lack of teacher’s houses. While many schools have no staff housing at all, others have such poor housing as to make them unreasonable for people to inhabit. One particularly telling example was of teacher’s houses constructed in one school, but without any accompanying latrine facilities.

Cheating contractors
National and District projects were also discussed during the first Interface Meeting, especially projects concerning construction of roads, culverts and bridges. Differences with private contractors were high on the agenda. Several projects experienced that while local materials and labour were delivered, they were never paid for by the contractor. The contractors often disappeared without finishing projects, and nobody could get in touch with them. Again, there was a lack of information about projects from the District to the local communities. Some problems were more technical e.g. one road needed culverts due to flooding in the rainy season. Another had culverts, but the road still gets flooded at the same location as before the culvert were constructed. The District Local Council V and the District Engineer agreed there had been problems with some contractors. They encouraged the local communities to inform the District or the sub-county head quarters if they discovered problems with any contractors, and not just bring them up at meetings like this Interface Meeting that KOCISONET had arranged. Nevertheless, KOCISONET’s first Interface Meeting had already served its purpose. It had initiated dialogue between the District and the community.