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Our lives, our voices: advocacy and mobilisation at the local level
Publication date: Wednesday 28 September 2005
Alex Ruhunda, Kabarole Research Centre (KRC), Uganda
Uganda poses very particular development challenges. Its devastating land division issues, HIV/AIDS, increased inequality and intensified ethnic tension are daily realities. Convincing communities to value each other’s abilities and view them as beneficial and potential sources of support is particularly difficult for an NGO in this context.
KRC, an NGO operating from western Uganda, aims to catalyse more effective functioning, increased accountability and stronger ownership of human rights within government, ultimately leading to economic recovery and social justice.KRC’s strategy is to develop dialogue between all stakeholders in a community, including local and national government actors. It seeks to place empowerment at a grassroots level at the forefront of development practice.
This approach has not been without challenges. International donors do not spend enough time understanding local contexts and needs and subsequently their demands do not always match those of local constituents. Further, advocacy efforts can follow fads, with elite NGOs championing issues that diverge from local needs. Government officials can in turn manipulate this divergence to their benefit, leaving the civil society base fragmented and conditions for advocacy weak.
In response, KRC uses local structures rather than NGOs for advocacy, because community pressure for advocacy has proven more effective than lodging individual complaints through formal district networks. The organisation focuses its efforts on attracting people to the ideas identified in the community itself, to achieve the changes from within.
Whilst donors and NGOs alike need to maintain a cautious balance in their ownership of and responsibility for a cause, civil society should be weary of understating the role of the state and then taking on too much of its role.
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