Biesshop Ger Odock

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Putting a cap on runaway GBV: The case of Action Aid and UWONET partnership in Busiki

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While I thought I knew Gender Based Violence, prior to working in Uganda I had no basic idea about the negative impact that GBV has to an individual, a family, a community and the society at large. Well, 9 months later I bare seldom condone it neither its perpetrators. I have come to know that rights abuses range from physical and psychological abuses to those of property, resource, allocations and/or ownership at household level. This practice is further exuberated on the basis of lack relevant information and awareness on GBV alleviation by communities and in particular, women and girls. While appreciating the women and girls suffer the most, men also bare the same brut effect of GBV albeit few cases are recorded. I am shocked and surprised that Busoga Sub Region in Eastern Uganda is at the apex of Gender Based Violence violations and that the violations are in one way or another, associated with HIV/AIDS infections. Esther Kisembo - Legal Officer According to Esther Kisembo...
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I paid my Tax. Where are the services?

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It’s a bright morning and we are headed to a meeting on another thorny issue, well not thorny yet – Taxation! Part taking to this meeting are Local Council IIs and IIIs as well as various office holders within the Sub County, generally tax payers. We are in Ivukula sub-county. I have been in larger Namutumba for a while now and as such, the slow start and lazy walk-ins and a seldom busy registration desk are not new since I know that before long, the hall will be full to capacity.  Poor governance is the key cause of poverty. Global citizens suffer when governments do not provide requisite services for dignified livelihood. Serious problems with governance still exist in much of Africa – but the overall situation is steadily improving. Working with governments to improve the way public resources are used is an important part of Action Aid’s intervention strategies. The issue of TAX remission is age old, but many of us seldom interact to discuss it. Many more hardly ever ...
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Youth Assemblies: A shift from conference room trainings and workshops

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Action aid has initiated a 5 day long sensitization and mobilization drive in Namutumba District, specifically in Nsinze, Ivukula and Kibaale Sub Counties. Just like the national assembly, youth assemblies at these parishes converges together different gender and personalities with a common denominator – youths seeking a better life. The assemblies are one part of a five-fold programme for the youths of Namutumba to not only acquire information, but also to use the acquired information to better their lives at household and village levels as well as to part take and influence good governance at Local Government level. The assemblies are open to youths in education systems as well as those outside as they are not meant to inform or educate, rather to create a meeting platform for youths, sit, discuss and cite tangible solutions for the same problems that they face or see other youths facing. Here, age old issues as governments and governance to a phenomenon as new as Human Righ...
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Educating Citizen on Civic Rights through Theatre

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According to International standards of Democracy, it is the role of Governments to provide spaces for its citizenry to access relevant information as well as services. Of these two, one cannot exist without the other – whichever you take up first! There’s a saying that goes like this; if you want to hide something from an African, put it in writing. Readership traits are practiced under on the contexts of examinations beyond that, reading is accorded second fiddle priority. It is certain that how information is package, influences in a major way the reception and reaction by the perceived audience. In Eastern Uganda, villagers in Namutumba District like any other semi or non-urbanite constituencies with poor communication infrastructures and as such, limited access to channels of free flowing information such as internet there is a high dependency on development agencies to bridge the gap.  In Kibaale, Nsinze and Kibaale Sub Counties in Namutumba District, support programs ha...
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To RAID or not to RAID?

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A few weeks ago I was assisting a project manager with a troubled project.  We reviewed the documentation from the beginning, starting with the usual suspects: project design, work plans, schedule just to mention a few.  They all seemed fairly straightforward and understandable.  Once we got to the status reporting though, confusion started. This project’s status reports were spreadsheets about 10 pages long.  Every week the team was only able to discuss only about 3 pages’ worth of information, and they were mostly risks. “Why is this so long, what’s in it?” I asked him. He answered that it was his RAID Log, which he used to run Status Meetings. He wanted to be certain not to miss anything, so he was careful to include every item related to the project and classify it as R (risk); A (action); I (issue) or D (dependency) in this giant spreadsheet. As the first section was ‘Risks’ they were certainly addressed. So, most of the discussion in his weekly status meetin...
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