The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Recommendations
The report has recommendations for the government of Uganda, donor governments, local, national agencies and international agencies. For the government, it suggests there should be strengthening of the ministry of finance’s capacity and commitment to the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act. It urges the ministry to progressively use its existing contingency fund, established to provide funding for responses to natural disasters and other unforeseen circumstances, to support local actors to respond.
The report says the government should also engage in coordinated dialogue with donors, harmonise relevant laws to strengthen the role of local actors in humanitarian preparedness and response work including the NGO Act, the Local Government Act and the Refugees Act and ensure that all harmonisation protect humanitarian and civic space.
It also recommends that government publishes and disseminate regular updates to the mapping of national agencies that deliver humanitarian action.
For donors, the report encourages information sharing channels; either existing or new that are fully inclusive of national and international responders which can be used to promote the transparency of humanitarian funding flows.
Donors must ensure that UN and INGO-funded partners transparently state and deliver against concrete milestones; ring-fence funds targeting local actors, who have strong institutional capacity-strengthening components that include overhead costs. Donors are also encouraged to harmonise and simplify financial reporting requirements.
Local and national agencies, are urged to use a collective voice to define with international agencies, standard policies in areas such as pay scales, organizational capacity assessments, and reporting requirements; expand on diversification of the funding base and invest in learning activities.
For international agencies, the recommendations are that, under the leadership of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), they should work with the Office of the Prime Minister and donors to strengthen a strategic vision and mapping of the division of labour between international and national agencies towards the refugee response over time.
It also urges them to strengthen equitable partnership approaches with other actors; encourage dialogue with donors on matters funding and commit to practical methods for building mutual accountability mechanisms.
This development comes after two months when the government announced results of the NGOs validation exercise that was aimed at identifying and eliminating NGOs operating illegally.
A total of 12, 089 were ordered by Internal Affairs State Minister Obiga Kania to stop operations until they are validated. Kania directed the Police, Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA), banks, hotels, districts, sub-county authorities and other actors to crosscheck the status of any organisation before dealing with them.
The Government had earlier in August, 2019 given all NGOs without valid permits an ultimatum of a month to validate their credentials or be de-registered.
According to the validated National NGO Register (UNNR) dated September 07, 2019, Uganda has a total of 2,118 NGOs.
90% cash for the poor
Minister for Relief Hilary Onek, said that 90% of funding to the Ugandan NGOs should be invested in programmes that directly touch the lives of the poor.
He said, the balance (10%) should be for administration work for the NGOs. His view, he said, is informed by reports that most NGOs spend more than 50% of the funds meant to do humanitarian and development-related work on administration (including heavy paychecks) which does not transform lives of the poor.
He also called upon NGOs and their funders to demonstrate high levels of accountability and transparency for the money they get from donors.
Onek added that all NGOs must declare the amount of money received by showing the source, how it is spent and the results achieved.
“That is how we will know that you are doing a good job,” he said and added “as government we are accountable and we want everyone to be accountable.”
Denis Alyela, from Humane Africa Mission – an entity that houses local and national actors, said that transparency, accountability and achieving results in poor communities requires money but also internal risk management systems within the NGOs.
He said there should be a special fund created to boost internal capabilities for NGOs to go about their work.
Alyela said the special fund can be managed by an international agency like UNHCR or the Office of the Prime Minister to ensure it is not abused.
He also said international agencies can support operations of national and local NGOs through training and mentorship using their experienced staff.
“With partnerships of this nature, we can do much to change lives,” Alyela said. He added that local and national NGOs should be involved at district level whenever there is a project that has funding from donors to ensure that it achieves the anticipated results.
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