| Oxfam in Uganda

Since the beginning of 2014, Oxfam, working with local partners has supported around 283,757 South Sudanese refugees and the host communities with safe water, sanitation facilities and hygiene promotion. Oxfam has also extended emergency food security and livelihood support that includes energy saving stove, cash for work programme and agriculture-based livelihood. This support has a strong component of environment protection inbuilt into it. Oxfam’s intervention also includes gender and protection of refugees and largely using the evidence generated from this work for advocacy. All these interventions are linked to our development work of building the resilience of these communities.

About the Project

This is a 3-year Applied Research Fund project funded by NWO-WOTRO designed to improve the food and income security situation of 2,500 small holder farmers in Pader and Oyam districts in Northern Uganda.

This project focuses on cassava, the most important staple crop in this region and sustainably improve the food security situation, initiatives aim to boost production and utilisation and improve market access.

Objective

To improve the food and income security situation of 2,500 direct beneficiaries in the districts of Oyam and Pader in Northern Uganda through identifying and increasing their access to high-yielding cassava varieties and linking them to fair markets for their value-added products.

Project Approach

The project is implemented through a co-creation approach, where NaCRRI, works closely with farmers, Oxfam, and the A2N. Project interventions are based on applied research where NACRRI works with farmers to evaluate and test the near-release six cassava varieties; increasing farmers’ knowledge on disease management, increasing farmer access to quality cassava planting materials as well as improve quality of cassava and cassava products for better market access.

Oxfam provides linkages to private sector, civil society organisations and governments as well as experience of working in other countries on similar projects. It also brings knowledge on gender in the value chain and knowledge on monitoring and evaluation processes and mechanisms.

Women’s rights are at the centre of Oxfam’s work and of the 2,500 small holder farmers we reach, 60% are women. This project also contributes to our overall vision where citizens, and particularly women, across all age groups claim and exercise their rights and responsibilities; and can influence decisions that affect their lives.

Oxfam delivers this work with two partners

Africa 2000 Network (A2N)
National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI)

Areas where this work is implemented in Uganda

Pader district
Oyam district

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DataLab is a new Oxfam innovation program designed to enable more effective usage of existing data and to prototype new data services as minimal viable products (MVP’s) to test the propositions for Oxfam as protector and enabler of digital civic space of citizens in countries worldwide. Oxfam is a knowledge-driven organization and processing data into actual information feeds the evidence base of our theories of change. This project is about adding the power of prediction that is linked to the analyses of large amount of data into our work on knowledge development, but also about storing data effectively and efficiently, broadening the digital civic space of citizens and shaping related policies around that.

Uganda as an entry point

Uganda was chosen as a pilot country due to its data landscape of offline and unstructured data. In our process of innovation, we started with ideation where a number of ideas were fronted and among those, the team chose to work on an idea of developing a household budget tracking tool.

Objectives of the household budget tracking tool

To improve citizen’s financial literacy for better financial decision-making

To improve Oxfam’s advocacy approach through data informed methods. i.e. Income inequality, expenditures on education, health the gender gap etc.

To help citizens know their spending and saving patterns and prioritizing key areas and saving towards their set goal(s)

Citizens to improve their lives through good financial planning.

Ways of working

With the above objectives in mind, we held a hackathon (An IT event where IT professionals come together to solve a given problem) in Kampala where Oxfam tapped into the rich IT community in Uganda to brainstorm on the best idea that could help us achieve the objectives above.

At the end of a three-day rigorous hackathon, the participants voted a winning team (CashTime) that was further supported by Oxfam to come up a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) ready to be tested. This approach strengthens Oxfam’s ways of building local capacity because the tool was developed by Ugandans and for Ugandans.

Output - CASHTIME mobile Application

This is a mobile based budget tracking tool which helps households to build greater financial stability and financial literacy.

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governance and accountability expenditure finance financial planning innovation datalab

The current humanitarian system has saved countless lives over the past 50 years. However, it is now overstretched and underfunded; unable to meet rising needs of crisis affected countries and providing assistance that is often insufficient, inappropriate and late. There is growing support for a shift of power and resources to local and national humanitarian actors. Local and national actors are the first responders when crisis hits and know the local context better than internationals, and yet receive a tiny fraction of international aid.

Informed by this context, Oxfam in Uganda implements an innovative project entitled Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors (ELNHA) that aims at strengthening the capacity of local and national humanitarian actors to take lead in Uganda’s humanitarian response.

The project is premised on a study titled Fresh analysis of the Uganda humanitarian capacity, which involved a number of national actors including relevant government ministries, INGOs, private sector as well as a number of stakeholders across 7 districts.

The study highlighted the fact that international actors dominate the humanitarian scene and there is need for all stakeholders, both local and international, to draw a plan that will actively involve more local and national actors in humanitarian planning, readiness and preparedness as well as to provide affordable and more sustainable humanitarian response.

The ELNHA project came at the backdrop of an influx of South Sudan refugees to West Nile in the North western part of Uganda as fresh fighting broke out in July 2016. This saw the number of refugees soar up leaving an overstretch in the response due to underfunding.

This is by no means the only crisis. Uganda hosts a total of over 500,000 refugees from neighboring DRC, Burundi, and Rwanda among others. Floods, landslides, drought, unpredictable weather patterns that affect small holder farmers and one of the highest population growth rates in the world are some of Uganda’s humanitarian crises.

ELNHA, envisages that by the end of 2018, local and national humanitarian actors will have the capacity to design, deliver and lead in humanitarian preparedness and response in Uganda. Also, these actors will have the space and power to influence the humanitarian agenda in the country while large international donors will have tailored their policies; strategies and systems to enable local and national humanitarian actors lead in response and preparedness.

Oxfam aims to see a shift of power, resources and capabilities towards Local or National Humanitarian Actors such as national or local government and the civil society.

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empowerment local actors humanitarian response

Oxfam's Extractive industries program Context

Oil exploration companies have identified at least 20 economically significant oil fields in western Uganda estimated to hold between 1.5 and 2.5 billion barrels of oil. If fully developed, this could place Uganda among the foremost African oil producers. In recent years the Ugandan government has also accelerated licensing of mining operations. Vast deposits of gold, uranium, copper, and rare earth minerals have been discovered in areas with some of the highest rates of poverty in the country like Karamoja.

With this mining and oil boom, Ugandans are voicing concerns about:

Lack of information on the actual existence and location of minerals
Effects that mining-induced land speculation will have on their access and retention of pastoral and customary lands
Lack of information on oil contracts, despite companies like Tullow supporting contract transparency
Secrecy around revenues generated by the mining companies, how much of that revenue is paid to government, and how it is spent
Capacity within the government to negotiate fair revenue sharing deals with mining and oil companies
Lack of policies to compensate or resettle those people affected by the mining sector.

Oxfam in Uganda working towards attaining Natural resource Justice

Oxfam in Uganda’s Extractive Industries work is aligned with the Oxfam International (OI) Extractive Industries Strategy (2016-19), premised on achieving Natural Resource Justice.

Specifically in Uganda, our efforts aim at contributing to two OI Focus Goals;

Governments and companies increase financial transparency and pro-poor accountability for Extractives Industries revenue generation and expenditure, and
Governments and companies adopt and implement laws and policies respecting Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).

Uganda’s nascent mining and oil activities have direct and indirect implications across the country programme. The entire mineral value chain affects women, men, and children differently. The differences also influence the capacities of groups to engage with mining and oil companies and the different levels of government. Addressing land access disputes, gender imbalances, citizen’s rights to information, and lifting the shroud of secrecy in the mineral sector, are some of our key priorities.

Presently, Oxfam in Uganda is implementing a two-year project with support from the MacArthur Foundation with two main components;

Advocacy on the proposed East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)

The goal is Improved protection and promotion of community rights to land, consultation, resettlement and compensation for petroleum pipeline affected communities.

Expected Results:

Civil society actors in Uganda and Tanzania have increased knowledge of pipeline details, impacts and risk areas and effectively generate and implement a cross-country strategy for engagement.
Civil society and community-based actors have increased knowledge and awareness of the policy framework for compulsory land acquisition, compensation and resettlement in Uganda.
External pipeline stakeholders including financiers and implementing companies have greater awareness and understanding of relevant land, resettlement and compensation issues in Uganda and adhere to high standards for community engagement during pipeline development and construction.
Civil society and community-based actors effectively advocate for increased protections for community land rights, consultation, resettlement and compensation in relevant domestic laws and policies.
The independent pipeline monitoring committee and local monitors network assist local women, men and youth in pipeline affected communities to effectively and informedly participate in pipeline community engagement processes with increased knowledge of their rights during resettlement and compensation.
Citizens and especially women are engaging with companies and governments on compensation and resettlement.

Transparency and Accountability in Uganda’s mining sub-sector

The Goal is increased transparency and accountability in Uganda’s subnational mineral revenue sharing system.

Expected Results;

Central government officials in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development have increased appreciation of key governance issues in draft mineral sector legislation and civil society recommendations for improvement.
Increased awareness of detailed mineral revenue chain leakages as well as knowledge of potential remedies and recommendations for improvement.
Local government leaders and men, women and youth including indigenous populations in mining affected sub-counties have increased knowledge and awareness of mineral sector development in their locality, eligibility for beneficiation, impacts and rights and engage in formal government processes to better benefit from local mining activity.
Local governments have increased knowledge and awareness of mineral production and revenue stream
Policy and institutional strengthening to improve the mining sector
Citizens are requesting for information about the mineral, oil and gas productions and processes

Oxfam believes that all these efforts will go along way in helping people defend their rights to participate in decisions about natural resources and unlock resource revenues for development that meets their needs hence natural resource justice.

Tagged with

extractive industries Natural resource justice Accountability mining

Oxfam’s global strategic goals include contributing to achieving more profound and lasting change in the lives of people living with poverty and injustice. We’re creating a world - wide influencing network in order to unite the power of local organizations, who share a common vision for change. Adequately resourced, local organizations are best- positioned to influence and actively participate in the fight against the injustice of poverty.

In line with this, Oxfam in Uganda is bringing together the joint skill sets of its partners (humanitarian, long-term development, and advocacy) in order to achieve change at the national level. We do this by building networks, platforms and coalitions with like-minded civil society actors who campaign with us and lobby duty-bearers to bring about change.

Oxfam Partnership Principles

These Partnerships lie at the core of how Oxfam understands the world and our role in working for change. Partnerships are looked at as mutually empowering relationships focused on impact, mutual growth, development and institutional strengthening.

Oxfam’s partnership approach combines working with both strategic and implementing partners. The strategic partners mainly support joint planning, information sharing and collaboration on influencing policies, while the implementing partners participate in the co-delivery of interventions. We work with diverse Organisations because we recognize that each partner brings different capacities, knowledge and resources to achieving our goals and we are guided by our ‘partnership principles’ in managing these relationships

Oxfam partners

RESILIENT LIVELIHOODS

SEED Project

Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM)

Eastern and Southern Africa small Farmers' Forum (ESAFF)

Food Rights Alliance (FRA)

Coalition of Pastoralist Civil Society Organizations (COPACSO)

International Food Policy research institute

Irish Aid Project

The Uganda National Apiculture Development Organization ( TUNADO)

Uganda Youth Network (UYONET)

Agency For Community Empowerment (AFCE)

Centre for Domestic Violence (CEDOVIP)

International Foundation For Recovery And Development (IFRAD)

Uganda Women's Network (UWONET)

Strategic Partners

Buganda Kingdom

Kampala International University (KIU)

Youth Go Green

Makerere University School of Gender

HUMANITARIAN PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE

Action for Human Rights Education Initiative (AHEDI)

Manyank Anti-corruption coalition (MACCO)

Arua District NGO Network (ADNGON)

PALM CORPs

Vision for Humanity (V4H)

People Empowering people (PEP)

Centre for Economic Empowerment (CEEU)

Initiative for Rural Empowerment (IRE)

Trinol Leadership Seminars International Limited (TRINOL)

SORUDA

Forum for Kalongo Parish Women’s Association (FOKAPAWA)

Northern Uganda Widows and Orphans Support Organisation (NUWOSO)

Organisation for the Development of Women in Lamwo (ODOWOL)

Community Empowerment For Rural Development (CEFORD)

CARITAS Kotido

NGO Forum Kampala

Uganda Refugee and Disaster Management Councils

African Women and Youth Action for Development (AWYAD)

Joint Effort to Save the Environment (JESE)

Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT)

Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid (HIJRA)

I CAN South Sudan

Engineers Without Borders (EWB)

Strategic Partners

Office of the Prime Minister (OPM)

District of Arua

District of Yumbe

District of Kyegegwa

GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Financing for Development Project

African Freedom for Information Centre (AFIC)

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG)

Southern And Eastern African Trade Information And Negotiations (SEATINI)

PAC-U

Forum for Rights Awareness and Monitoring Uganda (FORAMO)

Advocates for Research in Development (ARID)

Extractive Industries Project

Global Rights Alert (GRA)

Civic Response on Environment and Development (CRED)

Chapter Four

Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE)

BRICE Project

Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education

Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU)

Forum for African Women Educationalists Uganda (FAWE-U)

AVSI Foundation

VOICE Project

Legal Aid Service Providers Network (LASPNET)

Albinism Umbrella Limited

Destined Women

KSO Foundation

Lutino Adunu

Jonam Youth Development Initiative (JOYODI)

Gulu Women Economic Development & Globalization (GWED-G)

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Uganda Women's Network (UWONET)

Centre for Domestic Violence (CEDOVIP)

Strategic partners

District Local Governments in the areas of operation

Africa Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA)

Climate Change Network Uganda (CAN-U)

Ministry of Finance Planning and Urban Development (MOFPED)

Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF)

Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD)

Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD)

Ministry of Water and Environment Protection (MWEP)

National Planning Authority (NPA)

Office of the Prime Minister (OPM)

Makerere University School of Women and Gender Studies

Makerere University Gender Department

Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU)

Uganda National Meteorological Authority (UNMA)

Uganda National NGO forum

Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA)

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Uganda INGO CSO Alliance on CSA

OTHER PARTNERS WE HAVE WORKED WITH IN THE PAST

African Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy (ACEMP)

Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN)

B-Space

Community Organisation for Rural Activity Enterprise Management (CREAM)

Ecological Christian Organisation (ECO)

Forum for Education Ngo’s in Uganda (FENU)

Foundation for African Women Educationalists Uganda (FAWEU)

Health Rights Action Group (HAG)

Institute for Social Transformation (IST)

Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO)

Justice and Advocacy for Women and Children (JAWCU)

Maendeleo Ya Jamil (MYJ)

Pearl Development Initiative (PDI)

Send a Cow Uganda (SACU)

TWIN UK (TWIN UK)

Uganda Environment Education FORUM (UEEF)

Youth Arts, Development and Entrepreneurship Network (YADEN)

Youth Initiatives for Youth Action Foundation (YIYA)

Uganda Seed Trade Association (USTA)

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Partners partnership principles allies networks

Context

Whilst parliament has legislated on various issues to address women’s rights in Uganda, violence against women and children remains a serious problem. Similarly, in spite of affirmative action, the social environment does not adequately support the promotion of women’s rights. There is need for budget advocacy for financing the implementation and monitoring of gender related legislations. Women’s poverty is primarily caused by inadequate control and ownership of productive resources such as: land, information and communication technology and financial capital. The wage difference between men and women and unequal employment opportunities has resulted into fewer women than men, attaining leadership positions. Unpaid care work, low levels of decision making at household level, comparatively lower access to basic and higher education, negative cultural practices and social vulnerabilities all combine to prevent women in Uganda from achieving equality with men.

Promoting women's rights

Oxfam’s experience across the world has shown that a strong feminist movement is the most important success factor for changing laws on violence against women and having a real impact on women’s lives. With this in mind, the Women Transformational leadership project empowers women at all levels of society to promote women’s rights: at the grassroots level, supporting community activists; at the district level, training councilors and leaders in policy drafting and lobbying; and at the national level, supporting politicians to lead improvements to key pieces of legislation.

Work at the national level also includes a strong advocacy element, pushing key decision makers to influence policy to ensure that laws on violence against women and women’s land rights are properly utilised and respected.

Oxfam supports partners UWONET and the Women First Coalition, (a national coalition of women’s right organisations) to increase their skills and capacity, for example on strategies such as gender budgeting, so they can drive the project’s activities forward. The project is implemented alongside the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) in four districts of the Northern Region.

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Strategic objective

To promote fair and inclusive fiscal policies and strategies for revenue mobilization, allocation and utilization of sustainable development.

Financing for development is about how domestic and international resources contribute to or undermine development. It includes issues around aid, trade, debt, international and national finance, domestic budget and global fiscal governance.

Context

The challenges facing Africa, including the EAC is how to equitably and sustainably mobilise resources in order to provide social services, infrastructure and for reinvestment.

Inequality is growing around the world. Every year, the gap between the rich and poor gets even wider and according to an Oxfam inequality report, just 8 billionaires own the same wealth as the poorest half of the population. Far from trickling down, income and wealth are being sucked upwards at an alarming rate. The very design of our economies has taken us to this extreme and unjust point, with rules that benefit wealthy corporations and elites at the expense of everyone else. The inequality crisis is also being fuelled by the use of tax havens that allows multinational companies and super rich individuals to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Such extreme inequality is standing in the way of ending global poverty, and widening other inequalities like the gap between women and men. Our economy must stop excessively rewarding those at the top and start working for all people.

Greater responsibility in financing for development

Oxfam works on strengthening the power of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to promote fiscal and financial justice, monitor government spending and hold governments, the private sector and international institutions to account.

By creating awareness of injustices in fiscal and financial systems and mobilizing audiences, public and private sector champions and the media, the terms of the debate will shift, creating space for policy change. We aim to strengthen pro-poor and gender just fiscal policies, stimulate bold measures against tax evasion and avoidance, foster more and better aid and innovative finance, and a stable financial sector that contributes to the public interest. As a result, more women, youth and other citizens will benefit from the increased quantity and quality of finance for development, enjoy their rights and access to social services, infrastructure and equal opportunities in more democratic societies.

Oxfam delivers this work with four partners

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG)
Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations (SEATINI)
Citizens Watch It (CEWIT)
Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC)

Areas where this work is implemented in Uganda

Kotido, Kaabong (Karamoja) 
Serere,Soroti, Kumi (Teso) 
Nebbi, Arua, Adjumani, Yumbe, Koboko (West Nile) 
Gulu,Nwoya,Lamwo,Pader,Agago (Acholi)

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Fair tax financing essential services

Oxfam Voice Global program

VOICE is a five year program and one of the three programs under Dialogue and Dissent of the Dutch government supported through the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The grant facility to manage this program is co-managed by Oxfam and HIVOS in 10 countries of Africa and South East Asia. Oxfam is managing the grant in Uganda, Mali, Nigeria, Niger and Cambodia while HIVOS in Kenya, Tanzania, Philipines and Indonesia. The target is the most marginalized and discriminated groups in these countries. Its aim is to strengthen the capacity of Civil Society Organisations in the field of Influencing and policy Advocacy. The project objectives focus on three themes:

Improved access to (productive) resources (finance, land and water) and employment
Improved access to social services, health and education in particular
Space for political participation

The Long term outcome is that Voice will strengthen the capacity for lobby and advocacy of civil society organizations and representatives of the most marginalized and discriminated people in order to empower these groups and to have their Voices heard and respected, using innovative ideas in the field of capacity strengthening and in the field of lobby and advocacy.

Voice stands out from other grant-making programmes by developing a grant application and reporting process adapted to the five target groups and four grant types and that is accessible, user-friendly and innovative. Voice is designed to support (local) formal organisations and networks as well as informal groups.

More details on Voice and grants can be found on the voice global website

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voice project access to health services access to education

Oxfam in Uganda combines all its work (humanitarian, long term development and Advocacy) in order to influence and achieve change at national level. By this we are able to influence formulation and implementation of policies, budgeting processes, social practices, attitudes and beliefs, in such a way that promotes more just societies without poverty. We carry out our influencing work by building networks, platforms and coalitions with like-minded civil society actors with whom we jointly campaign and mobilise/ lobby duty bearers to bring about change that benefits all.

We also support and engage in the global campaigns of the Oxfam Confederation, thereby contributing to leveraging from national to global. Our campaigns are informed by research and evidence based work from our programming. Our approach includes engaging a mix of campaigning strategies including working with the media, employing digital tools and offline actions to mobilize supporters and call for joint action. Importantly, we empower partners and target groups, as well as facilitate platforms for citizens engagement so that they buy into, own and lead processes of change.

The global campaigns we support and contribute to include:

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Even It Up inequality violence against women rights in crisis campaigns convening and influencing

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About the Project

Objective

Project Approach

Oxfam delivers this work with two partners

Areas where this work is implemented in Uganda

Datalab Project

Uganda as an entry point

Objectives of the household budget tracking tool

Ways of working

Output - CASHTIME mobile Application

Empowering Local and National Humanitarian Actors

Extractive Industries Program

Oxfam's Extractive industries program Context

Oxfam in Uganda working towards attaining Natural resource Justice

Advocacy on the proposed East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)

Transparency and Accountability in Uganda’s mining sub-sector

Partners and Partnership principles

Oxfam Partnership Principles

Oxfam partners

Women Transformational leadership

Context

Promoting women's rights

Financing for Development

Strategic objective

Context

Greater responsibility in financing for development

Oxfam delivers this work with four partners

Areas where this work is implemented in Uganda

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