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MS Uganda Annual Report 2006

SUMMARY
On 23 February 2006, Uganda had the first multi-party Presidential elections since the NRM came to power in 1986. While the elections were upheld as free and fair, the key opposition party, FDC, petitioned them on grounds of having glaring electoral malpractices including intimidation of the opposition. The circumstances that preceded the 23rd February elections and the manner in which the election petition was handled left the country politically divided, with the NRM maintaining a stronghold in the mid-west, Central, South-east, south and southwest and the FDC and others in the North, Northwest and parts of East.

A number of events have thereafter continued to cast a shadow on democratic transition in Uganda. Among others, the revelations of the Commission of Inquiry into the management of Global Fund for combating HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, which started in November 2005 and unearthed gross mismanagement and abuse of public funds by officials, politicians and civil society organisations. Citizens await actions to recover these funds and punish those responsible.

The poverty situation in northern Uganda is linked to the insecurity caused by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, who use south Sudan as their base. During 2006, the government of Uganda and the Lords Resistance Army have started peace-talks in Juba. The parliament passed the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Registration Amendment Act (2006), which is likely to constraint the civil society in its operations.

Program progress
The overall objective of MS Uganda.s policy paper is Development and Unity in Diversity with two interlinked development objectives, namely poverty reduction and good governance.

The main focus of 2006 has been on good governance and democratization. In close collaboration with The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), the democracy team continued developing democracy material, which is being incorporated in the primary school curriculum in Uganda.

MS Uganda supported IATM to carry out trainings of a master team, who became responsible for the training of primary school teachers in the use of MS. democracy materials. IATM used forum theatre as a training method, which was so successful that the joint donor group recommended the method for the future National Civic Education Programme related to the Deepening Democracy Programme. MS Uganda and NCDC launched Democracy as a way of life on September 11th 2006 in a high profile public event at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala. More than 400 people participated including representatives from the government, the opposition, civil society organizations and the Ugandan media. The democracy material is popular all over Uganda, which has resulted in an overwhelming demand.

In collaboration with four other CSO.s, MS Uganda constituted a consortium, which finalized the implementation of the National Civic Education Programme. More than 200.000 people were reached and sensitised on good governance and constitutional rights etc. The implementation of the program was a success, and the consortium developed a concept paper, which was widely referred to in the newly developed and upcoming Deepening Democracy Programme Uganda. This means, that MS Uganda is strategically well placed to become a key-player in this important nation wide programme.

MS Uganda supported the anti-corruption week through ACCU. The theme for this year was corruption in primary education. The participation in the week was positive, and the week was widely reported in the media.

MS. new strategic focus
On the 17th January 2007, MS will adopt a new strategic framework the new democracy focus. It will provide a framework for all future MS interventions, and the upcoming country program strategy (CPS) will be developed within this framework. The MS CO will submit the new Country Program Strategy on the 1st July 2007. Until a new strategy has been developed, the MS Uganda Programme will continue under the existing strategy paper.

In close collaboration with NCDC, ULGA and the CSO consortium, MS Uganda will, among other things, focus on the development of program proposals for the upcoming Deepening Democracy Programme Uganda.

In April, MS Uganda plans to carry out a Program Identification Mission in southern Sudan in order to assess the feasibility of MS to expanding its interventions.

In 2007, MS Uganda will start a new partnership with DANISCO in regards to vanilla farming in Uganda. MS will support governance and democratization processes, while DANISCO will provide technical related support.

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