Aid on Spreadsheets

Diakonia Uganda 2015-2018 - Diakonia Civil Society III new strategy

The space for civil society to push for greater democracy and respect for human rights in Uganda is threatened. While civil society has become more active and the number of organizations advocating for democracy and human rights has increased legislation has tightened and both direct censorship and self-censorship has been witnessed in recent years. For many organizations, it has become more difficult to work with democracy and rights issues. A new bill is discussed in Parliament that, if passed further will restrict the freedom of association and expression in Uganda. The bill gives extensive powers to government via the NGO board to shut down organisations that are considered "subversive" or "prejudical to the interests of Uganda". The bill also require organisations to register annually and agree on a MoU with local government in the districts of operation. The Swedish strategy of Uganda has a clera aim to strengthen gender equality, democracy, respect for human rights, with particular focus on increasing the capacity of civil society to promote respect for civil and political rights and to promote citizens' opportunities to influence political processes and accountability. Diakonia is a Swedish faith-based development organization, its vision, mission and goal are based on theological reflection and the universality of human rights. Diakonia works together with local partner organizations for sustainable change for the most vulnerable people in the world. The office in Uganda was established in 2008 on the initiative of the Embassy of Sweden and the Embassy has been supporting it since then in two phases. Diakonia has submitted a program proposal for a third phase "Civic Activism for Human Rights, Gender Justice and Social Accountability" 2015-2018 of 49 668 923 SEK. The global objectives are: 1) Poor and marginalized Citizens (girls, boys, men & women) in North Eastern & Northern Uganda access justice and enjoy Their fundamental human rights by 2018 2) Poor and marginalized women and girls, men and boys are valued equally and have equal access to opportunities and resources for socio-cultural and economic wellbeing 3) Partner organization are progressively Becoming democratic, accountable, relevant and Effective in the delivery of rights based Programmes. The program logic is based on the assumption that increased knowledge and strong advocacy of strategic target audiences and targeted support to the organizational strengthening will achieve a greater degree of respect for human rights, gender equality and better capacity of civil society in Uganda. The embassy has been committed to strengthening democracy and human rights also in previous strategy periods. The assistance has gone to civil society but also to state institutions, above all in the justice sector and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Diakonia will be the agreement partner of the Embassy and will in turn initially to have agreements with some 15 partner organizations. During the first six months, a baseline survey to be carried out and the results frame work will be updated based on the outcome of it. The ambition is to have space to tie up new partners to deliver on the areas that are scaled up and strengthened in this third phase of a program such as Women's Economic Empowerment and Male Involvement in Gender Equality.

In the original programme there were three main intervention areas of the Programme: a) Human Rights and Democratic Governance b) Gender Equality c) Strengthening partner CSO governance and capacities These areas are accompanied by a number of outcome areas and expected results. Diakonia reports on results on all levels. In the no-cost extension the programme will have the same overarching focus, but the results framework is slightly revised to reflect the change in number of implementing partners from 19 in the original programme to 8 in the non-cost extension (initially 9, but one partner (ZOA) has decided not to continue). The recommendations from the MTR is also taken into account.  In a slightly more focused programme, Diakonia will give priority to work with partners on addressing needs for Human Rights Defenders, work to combat gender based violence (including FGM), support to women's and youth's economic empowerment, work with men and boys for gender equality, increase access to SRHR services and deepen climate justice. All these ares are covered in the original Programme, and the objectives are the same. There are however slight changes in formulation of performance markers/indicators and in planned activities. No area has been removed completely, but governance issues are being mainstreamed rather than explicitly targeted and most interventions have a more narrow focus than previously. In the comments to the budget, Diakonia also states that some results have been achieved and no further efforts will be made in those areas.

Project ID

SE-0-SE-6-5118010102-UGA-15150

Activity status

2 - Implementation

Aid type

C01 - Project-type interventions

% to Uganda

100.00

Organisations

Funding

Sweden

Extending

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

Implementing

Donor country-based NGO

Accountable

DIAKONIA

CRS code	%
Democratic participation and civil society (15150)	100.0