THE STRENGTHENING CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY (SCEPA) A PATHWAY TO GOOD GOVERNANCE AND IMPROVED SERVICE DELIVERY.

The Strengthening Citizen Engagement and Public Accountability (SCEPA) Project is a collaborative initiative between the Uganda National NGO Forum and the Royal Danish Embassy. The four-year endeavor seeks to cultivate an informed and active citizenry capable of effectively holding public officials accountable. By fostering robust communication channels between civil society and government, SCEPA aims to create an environment where citizens’ voices are heard, and their needs addressed. SCEPA aims to ensure enhanced citizen voice in decision-making processes and action to detest corruption and hold their leaders and public institutions accountable. In Kigezi this project is being conducted in a format of Topowa where conversations are citizen led and resolutions shared with the duty bearers through an issues paper that cultivates a Dialogue to concretize the findings. The primary goal of these meetings is to gather citizen’s aspirations, concerns and expectations for the upcoming elections, generating citizens’ needs and aspirations that will be curated into citizens’ charters or manifestos which will be agreed compact representing citizens’ development and governance aspirations. Equally important is the need to mobilize citizens to fully participate in the ongoing electoral process.

Among the cross cutting issues in the region include but not limited to;

• Parents’ denial to the VHTs to provide vaccination to children, most especially polio.
• Limited salaries and transportation allowances to the VHTs and refusal to pay them when contracts indicate paying workers for services that they do in the community.
• High expectations of the clients to be given services when referrals are done
• Citizens report that there are no medicines in the facility to give to the patients and they get burnt when they are expired.
• Inaccessibility (poor road network that limits service delivery) as a result of ragged terrain in Kigezi.
• Limited power supply thus hindering the service delivery of pregnant mothers
• Limited beds in labour rooms for pregnant mothers added to the rudeness of some midwives.
• Limited trained teachers in schools and consistent absenteeism amongst the teachers.
• Climate change has serious impact i.e. heavy rains wash away the temporary bridges and also limit mobility for the teachers and learners.
• Bribery and corruption while asking for votes is already taking a centre stage and the voters are still languishing in abject poverty which is a bad sign.
• No toilets for the physically challenged persons
• Limited manpower expected at the Health Centre II’s and III’s which breeds corruption and risky service delivery.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Citizens recommend the Duty bearers to step up and attend to their issues which will be sufficient enough to improve service deliver and promote good governance and accountability.