SPACE - Strengthening Performane and Accountability through Community Engagement
THE PROJECT
The SPACE-Project aims to contribute to improved downward accountability and performance of local government (LGs) in Northern Uganda. The project will strengthen CSOs, media, local councils and SUCs through promotion of accountable service delivery while on the other hand fostering civil society’s oversight role by strengthening their collaboration with Local Governments to assess performance and monitor service delivery.
The project will work very closely with the district leadership in all the 6 target districts. The project is intended to run for 30 months starting January 2020. For more information check out the FACT SHEET.
SPACE runs under the EU-funded "Development Initiative for Northern Uganda" which is carried out in cooperation with the Government of Uganda.
PROJECT SET-UP
Administrative Management: Bernard Mukhone
Content Management: Verena Kasirye
Programme Officer: Racheal Okuja
Programme Assistant: Samson Okurut
Finance & Admin: Julian Marembo
TARGET DISTRICTS
Amuria
Arua
Gulu
Lira
Napak
Moroto
PROJECT LAUNCH
Friday 13th March 2020 at FAIRWAY HOTEL NAKASERO KAMPALA
The Launch of the DINU KAS EU Project: Strengthening Performance and accountability through community Engagement (SPACE) took place on Friday 13th March 2020 at Fairway Hotel, Kampala. Representatives from the following district were present: Arua, Gulu, Lira, Amura, Napak and Moroto. Further, this launch brought together the permanent secretary OPM, EU Representative, Ministry of finance, Ministry of ICT, ACFODE, DINU coordinator, KAS staff and Regional coordinators/ Local partners such as Lira NGO Forum based in Lira District, MACCO based in Arua district and RiamRiam based in Moroto District.
After welcoming remarks and a brief project overview by KAS Programme Coordinator Ben Mukhone, one of the local partner representatives, namely Ms. Claudia APIO from Lira NGO forum, highlighted the great need to work with the district Administrative wings as a best practice to ensuring coordination among CSOs and other partners in implementing projects that affect the communities. The project also comes at time that different CSOs are leveraging their strength to ensure a more accountable service delivery within the communities in which they operate and to also strengthen their roles as CSOs. She acknowledged the need for capacity building for CSOs to performance their oversight roles better. She also emphasized the need to get continuous support from the district right from the project start to the end.
A further statement and the official launch of the project was set by the permanent secretary office of the Prime Minister. He emphasized the need for districts local governments to Work with local partners as front line teams to ensure they interact with the different constituencies to make the project a reality. The Representative from the Office of the Prime Minister congratulated all the district leaders (Chief Administrative officers-CAOs) on signing the MOUs that brings them together representing a sign of commitment that they will work with KAS through the local partners within their respective districts. The Office of the prime minister is expectant that other MOUs will be presented to these district under DINU "All partners working with DINU will be expected to declare their budgets to these districts as a mark to walking the talk. Transparency begins with us."
