Editorial: Changes ahead

Changes are coming close. Uganda is on route to transform from the current no-party Movement system to a multi party system. And next year the presidential and parliamentary elections are up.

MS Uganda is of the firm belief that civil society has a strong role to play in ensuring that the political transition is transparent and fair. And, more importantly, that it leads to a political system based on popular participation, and that human rights are secured and democratic practices followed.

That’s why we chose ‘Civil Society in Political Transition in Uganda’ as one of our two themes for this year’s Annual Meeting theme.

Changes are also underway ‘inside’ MS Uganda . We have two years left of our operational framework, the policy paper.

We have come a long way in pursuing the goals of poverty reduction and good governance. But with such ambitious aspirations, of course a lot still needs to be done. Therefore we sharpened the focus of our policy paper. It now holds a strong emphasis on capacity building for advocacy. The Annual Meeting is a welcome opportunity to discuss how the new strategy can be implemented.

The new sharpened focus will help us address the overall issues at a strategic level in the two remaining years. And it will serve as preparation for MS Uganda’s future which is bound to embark on an even more strategic direction than we have taken so far.

I am sure that the Annual Meeting will serve as inspiration for the months to come. The presenters are ponds of knowledge that we can benefit from. The discussions and debates will help us realise in which areas we should help and support each other with a multitude of new ideas.

Ulla Strøbech
Director, MS Uganda