The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Some Civil Society Organizations-CSOs accredited to conduct civic education and monitor the 2021 general are reporting financial challenges.
A fortnight ago, Electoral Commission-EC accredited 46 CSOs to sensitize Ugandans on their roles and obligations as voters so as to have free and fair elections.
However, some of the CSOs say there is hardly any funding for their activities.
Georgia Tumwesigye, the program officer Women in Leadership at Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), says donors seem to have lost interest in funding governance programs in the country.
Ivan Mwaka, the manager election observation at Citizen Coalition for Electoral Democracy-CCEDU, says despite training and deploying 60 election observers, they haven’t received close to the Shillings 10 billion required for their activities.
Wiz Arts Media Foundation has started producing election materials for dissemination through 50 partner radio stations and its website.
Christopher Kayonga, the content manager says they are entirely depending on their Euro 500,000 grant from the Democratic Governance Facility to carry out some of the electoral activities.
He however noted that the money may not be sufficient to cover post-election actions.
Joshua Kitakule, the secretary-general Inter-Religious Council of Uganda-IRCU, says they have designed an app at Shillings 65 million that they will use disseminated civic and voter education information to voters at a low cost.
He says the application will be available for download on both the smart and ordinary phones so as to reach a wider audience.
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