INFORMATION CENTRES VISITED AND SUPPORTED IN SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

At kamwenge communities information centre

With a determination to improve the implementation of social accountability by the information centres, RIC-NET set out to visit and techinically support the information centres starting with KACOICE kamwenge communities information centres Network, to Bwera information centre BIC, Busongora information centre BRIC ,  semliki information centre  CIS and Kyegegwa  the visit that started on 20th february 2013 involved the program manager, the information and advocacy officer & documentation officer RIC-NET while targeting the Chairperson, secreatry,  tresurer, coordinator and information officer in the respective centres, it has been a learning event for RIC-NET as every centre has implemented social accountability according to the local context in kamwenge District with the continued challenges of water

At semiliki info. centre

KACOICE caused a meeting with the town coucil  to account to the citizenery on the non- functionality of kyabyoma gravity  water flow scheme  however a report has been shared  with partners and KACOICE is continuing to follow up. in kasese the Bwera information centre identies community problems through the regular meetings with information points and thats how the were able to follow up the uncompleted classroom of muhindi primary school until the tenderer was recalled to finish the block, they were also grateful to RIC-NET  for the linkages with Mandeleo foundation that supports the acess of information with solar charged laptops.
At  Busongora rural  information centre the community has benefited from the Library that is stocked with Agriculture information control of pests and diseases, primary and secondary books with support from community Library through RIC-NET, on the otherhand monitoring of kabatunda health centre  has been conducted and the information points have been instrumental despite the challenges of transport.
RIC-NET has also learnt from semliki information centre that held a meeting with the health in charge  on the quality of services at the ART (HIV) patients clinic and is following up  on related issues in the community,
 While at Kyaka rural information centre, that relocated to kibira, the staff have been engaging the techinical staff and political leaders on the delay of farm inputs under NAADs program, its however not easy to access information  on the tenderers at the lower local Governments, in a nut shell, the RIC-NET staff have found that social accountability is applied by the centres as they all engage Leaders and techinical staff to account  for the resources spent on a service.

An ICT officer  training a community member  in computer literacy

RIC-NET staff reminded the information centres  to strenghten their engagements based on Local Governments plans and budgets as well as involing partners who are impelenting related work. We were also amused by the  good  services delivered by  Government like the road to Bundibugyo that takes one hour and half  from Fort-portal and the police quaters in Bundibugyo.Cheers

Police headquarters

UGANDA COUNSELING ASSOCIATION ADVISES YOUTH IN KAMWENGE TO DEVELOP A DREAM FOR LIFE

participants in a group photo with the v/president for uganda counseling association mrs mary asiimwe

This took place on Saturday 23^rd -24^th February 2013 at Kamwenge Guest Home in Kamwenge District where by over 200 youths attended.

The two days training youth camp which was jointly organized by Western Uganda Media Foundation in partnership with Western College of Commerce attracted different youths from various, tertiary institutions and secondary schools within and outside Kamwenge?

ICT incharge kamwenge E-center in a group photo with members from western media foundation

As the theme went ,developing a dream for life  the function was officiated by the vice president for Uganda Counseling Association Mrs. Mary Asiimwe Butamanya who advised the youth in a package which covered the following in order to make their dreams come true;
Self awareness, developing a dream for life, Counseling and guidance, Entrepreneurship skills, Environmental mainstreaming, building strong relationship and Social economic and political transformation.

The training which was characterized by drama groups, dancing, sighting poems, and goat roasting as the youth socialized and interacted together which brought a sence of togetherness amongst themselves.
Many participants were awarded certificates after a successfully training course as they parted way happily and joyful.

KAMWENGE E-SOCIETY CENTER HAS PROOVED IT’S WORTH BEING TO THE PEOPLE OF KAMWENGE.

One can say it is on record that  there has been limited will or slow pace of individuals to embrace and use ICTs in the Ruwenzori region and more so in kamwenge district.

Having been installed five months ago at Kamwenge district headquarters, a lot has been achieved and a total number of 800 users have been registered according to the records extracted from the user’s books.

district staff and students on practice
 

As citizens continue to access the free services provided at the center, It has been reported that a number of individuals have utilized the center in different ways that’s they have used internet to communicate across the world which has improved communication and information sharing whereby the citizens have created new and renewed their email addresses. Again some district staff and the public have been trained in computer skills, Photocopying, scanning, printing documents and surfing therefore improving the life styles of the citizens. Appreciating the support of RIC-NET in extending such initiative to the citizen of Kamwenge

                                                 Voice from the beneficient

                   FABIAN HABIYALEMYE Senior Education Officer Kamwenge District

The E-society center has enabled me get quick information concerning Jobs which I have applied for online, my son Victor kaihura has been trained in elementary computer applications, have been able to access different newspapers online which has reduced my daily expenditure on buying newspapers and I have been able to create E-mail addresses for my family members.

I therefore compliment RIC-NET for extending the services to the Kamwenge

 

Training of District Leaders in Luweero yields

District leaders in Luweero district have embraced the “Enhancing civic competence for social accountability” project after acquiring skills in the use of e-libraries and websites.

Meeting the Chief Administrative Officer Luweero District Mr. Kyoma Christopher Sunday, he thanked and welcomed the initiative to the District. He also said that most people neglect these online platforms yet they add value to the districts. He wished the facilitators a happy stay in the district.

FHRIs Rose and DIO Luweero talking to the C.A.O shortly before the training

The two days training that ran from 13^th -14^th February 2013 was held at the District Local government headquarters in Luweero. In attendance was the District Information Officer, the Health department bio-statistician, the senior records officer, training coordinator Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and the ICT personnel FHRI.

In her opening remarks the training coordinator FHRI welcomed all the participants who had turned up for the training and requested them to embrace the skills and use them effectively. The District Information Officer Ms. Stella also thanked the initiative by FHRI and RIC-NET through CEW-IT for such wonderful opportunity to Luweero district and promised total cooperation throughout the project since these online platforms would increase the visibility of the District and easy information sharing.

Training Session

The facilitators from RIC-NET went ahead and started training in different ICT fundamentals and hands on practices. The two days interactive training left participants with skills in web site and e-library updates.

Despite of the interrupted power cuts, we managed to handle the training through improvising by the District administration.

The officers also promised to avail the necessary information for the website as soon as possible. The site will be online as soon as possible when the data is availed by the concerned parties. The District electronic library is however already online at http://elibrary.luwero.go.ug .

Hands on training

Speaking to one of the participants after the training Mr.Bonju said that the training was beneficial “It has been a nice training we have learnt of new skills however we need more of these hands trainings as we start updating these platforms” he said.

Ms.Nakibuka stella also confessed that she had benefited a lot “the training has been beneficial, skills have been acquired however there is need for back up support in case anything goes wrong” she added.

The training ended at 3:00 pm on the second day and departure was at leisure.

Participants trying it themselves.

RIC-NET IN JOINT PLANNING WITH KYEGEGWA DISTRICT

On Thursday 31^st January 2013, the civil servants, political leaders and development partners assembled at the kyegegwa district headquarters to plan for the 2013/2014 financial year. it was interesting  to learn from the District that has existed for less than four years that has clear plans  of improving  household incomes,  according to the District production and marketing officer, she   mentioned projects as the milk cooling plants  that will be set up for people in kyegegwa and mpara sub counties, maize milling machines for kasule, Hapuuyo, kasule  sub counties targeting the local citizens , however the political leaders tasked the civil servants to prepare the local citizens by forming and registering them as  Cooperatives and CBOs to fully benefit from such upcoming projects. The District has also few days to suffer from lack of power as they have already formalized with RESCO Uganda LTD to assess the power and compensation related issues, this is an opportunity for reduced cost on fuel at the same time making it easy for RIC-NET in partnership with the District to establish and run the E-society for improved information sharing and accountability from leaders to the citizens.  besides RIC-NET,  other development partners  that participated in the meeting was Ride-Africa, Baylor, UNHCR (kyaka 11 refugee settlement).

KABAROLE HOLDS FIRST REGIONAL PLANT CLINIC AWARENESS

   In abid to create awareness about plant clinic in Uganda plantwise in collaboration with centre for Agriculture and Biosciences international (CABI UK) organized a one day sensitization workshop at lesuiex centre  kabarole district about improving food security  and the lives of the small farmers in Uganda.

It was also aimed at bringing together science organizations, Agricultural ministries, civil society organizations and extension providers to help them develop sustainable national plant health systems where community based plant clinics provide practical advice to small holder farmers when they need it.

Plantwise supports local extension providers to establish and run plant clinic as farmers bring their diseased plants for diagnosis and given good advice from experts commonly known as ‘ plant doctors’ and this has helped farmers lose less of their crops, get more yields, incomes and increasing food security

It was noticed that about 10-20% in average crop losses in Uganda during pre-harvest is high and 20-30% during the post harvest period due to crop pests and diseases .

District officials who attended the workshop were advise by phil Taylor of CABI UK to integrate plant clinic programmes with those of national agriculture advisory services (NAADS)  so that it should not look as an independent project to farmers in total nine districts across the region were presented which include among others kasese, kabarole, ntoroko, bundibugyo, kamwenge, kyenjojo, kyegewa,  buikwe, mukono, hoima and Ntungomo.

According to plant wise Uganda twenty three plant clinics have been established with the help of their implementing partners like ministry of agriculture, animal industry and fisheries(MAAIF), Rwenzori information centres networks (RIC-NET),Local government, makerere university, national agriculture resaech organization (NARO), caritas this year  the ministry of agriculture and partners  hope to establish more clinics in other parts of the country and build capacity to run them especially during market days and on routine basis so that farmers needs are addressed

Despite of plant clinics gaining coverage with  farmers in Uganda, it has been faced with number  of challenges like plant doctors not having inadequate skills to handle different plant species, basic equipments like lenses, knives, torch, reference materials like photo sheets to use, insuffient funds to facilitate the activity, lack of technical back stopping like of NARO, lack of feedback from National laboratories and also many people mistake plant doctors to herbalists because they deal with diseased samples of plants which farmers bring for diagnosis and farmers questions the type of clinic plant doctors use without medicine apart from giving them advices.

Joseph mulema of CABI Africa said there is need to increase plant clinic coverage in every agricultural area in this country since farmers have liked the initiative

KABAROLE DISTRICT HOLDS BUDGET CONFERENCE

The District Budget conference as planned was held at kalya courts Fort-portal yesterday on 22^nd January 2013, by   9:00am when I reported at the venue, majority of participants who were councilors, District staff, CSOs representatives and Lower Local Government staff had finalized with their breakfast and ready to participate in the conference. As the District chairperson Hon. Richard Rwabuhinga, opened the meeting noted that the 2013 budget is aimed at improving service delivery and enhancement of household incomes, he remarked that among  the priorities for Kabarole this  year is completion of the District headquarters and construction of the Buhinga  stadium. the stadium was viewed as a source of local revenue I learnt from him the challenges accruing from decentralization where the District encounters delays in quarterly release of funds, while quoting the case of last year “the central Government deposited 144m on the District account on 30^th June” how were they expecting the District to spend   that money  in 4 hours? in such cases the funds have been returned to the central Government,  He also noted that the funds of Luweero-Rwenzori had not been received and yet the beneficiaries were eagerly waiting, In a nutshell he called upon the ministry of Finance ,planning and economic development to address those gaps so that the citizens can enjoy better services. the District Chairperson also informed the participants that they were in high resource mobilization gears to address the challenge  of  high HIV/AIDS  prevalence  in the District. He appreciated the growing partnership with the NGOs  in the past year  which contributed to better information sharing,  however  urged  NGOs  to   maintain that spirit.

Interesting to learn was the plant clinic project of  which the District production and marketing officer, Mr Mugume Amos reported that  three plant doctors  had been  trained and deployed (Mrs Grace kyomya, Gerry Balikuraira and veronica kabanyoro) in the Rwaihamba, Mugusu and kasunganyanja markets to assist in early detection of plant diseases and offering  on spot   technical advice to farmers .  with over three years in  plant clinics  RIC-NET  has adequate expertise to train  and build the capacity of new  plant Doctors alongside the District. We look forward to more partnership with the Local Government in 2013.

Reflecting on the progress and future yields

The one day reflection meeting that was held at St.Josephs virika conference hall on 10^th January 2013 became fruitful after a number of issues were reflected upon and way forward drawn.

The meeting was attended by the RIC-NET board of directors, partners represented by the District Information officers of Kasese and Kamwenge, RIC-NET staff and information centre’s representatives.

In his opening remarks the Executive Director RIC-NET  Welcomed all participants in the new year 2013 and noted that the reflection would among other things discuss last year’s full report (2012).

He also said that among the things that were agreed upon last year in the reflection meeting, some of them were not yet implimented like use of official e-mails. “There is still a gap in communication because some people claim that they do not receive communication from RIC-NET yet the communication was passed via e-mails”.

He also noted that we need to focus on the sustainability of our centers in terms of promoting ideals incase the leaders are out of service. It will only be done when strong membership is there and skills imparted in different staff for continuity.” If the center is just a name, it’s nothing; it should cause an impact in the lives of people especially in terms of service provision” he continued. He also posed a question how far we were in touch with board and community members and that we should work towards answering the needs of our people to touch their hearts during implementation.

He also said that the most important thing is to know who we are serving so  that the interest can be captured in RIC-NET strategic plan and for the sustainability of the centers. “We need to engage people by appearing to them on how to generate their local income in terms of finance” he added.

He wished all members a fruitful reflection meeting.

The program manager later went ahead to give highlights of the 2012 activities in various projects that RIC-NET implemented.

RWECO HIVOS.

 Among the activities was to set up and operationalise six  E-society centers at different district local governments and  two e-society centers were set up and launched and more three are still pending (Ntoroko, kyenjojoj and kyegewa) to be set up this year 2013.it was noted that Kabarole too was set up some time back in 2011.  The realized output is that there is increased access of internet at centers and also computer literacy increasing amongst the community.

Another activity implemented was bulk sms which has been active in sharing messages on agriculture or epidemic outbreaks

3 Trainings in \ICT applications and maintainance of equipments have been held with district officials.  She encouraged centers to activate their blog pages.

Corporate shirts and e-society flyers as well as banners were developed which has increased visisbity.

D.I.O Kasese District giving his input during the reflection 

EU- HIvos

Domain name procurement and activation and design of district websites to facilitate easy access of information by community members around those districts and elsewhere in the world.  The challenge is that the districts delay in respons.

Uganda community library  project.

The project is hosted at BRIC one of RIC-NETs information centres.

Smart phones were procured to ease sharing and accessing agricultural information with farmers directly especially plant doctors and farmers.

Procured books in agriculture, gender and how they can do better farming.

Computer for schools.

Stake holders meetings was held at verina gardens  and they agreed and committed themselves to support the project.

A training of all English teachers from the benefiting schools in the two districts also held.

Plant clinic

Very vital to our farmers since it was a result oriented project. RIC-NET has been running it on local funds from within the organisation. It is also in partnership with plant wise UK.

Plant doctors have been participating in different events like market symposiums held at Kisinga and civil society fair in bundubugyo.

Citizen manifesto project

Which was about documenting partners’ activities  and 11 videos were documented in the Rwenzori and international. Neigbourhood assembly and citizen manifesto days were documented.

A number of issues were discussed in this meeting where information centres also shared their activities they’ve been doing throughout the year 2012 and among some action points agreed upon were;

Success stories about activities implemented be put online and shared with different stake holders through proper documentation

Apart from annual report, success stories should be documented properly to ensure that there is proper accountability and evidence of what has been done. Let every staff implementing an activity indicate the output of what was done as line of expenditure both from information centers , e-society centers and RIC-NET

Producing a testimonial magazine with success stories only both in written and video form.

Feedback should also be got from target beneficiaries on these services we render to them.

Having core programme areas in our strategic plan in terms of implementation and existing donors.

Several resolutions were reached at the reflection was concluded by a board meeting that later sat in the evening to plan for the organization.