This sector is responsible for community mobilisation and is an entry point for all other sector interventions at community level. Proper functioning of CBS sector is necessary for success of public programmes as well as programmes of development partners.

Community mobilisation ensures that community members participate in government programs, such as FAL, promotes non-formal skills for youth, Care and protection of orphans and other venerable children, Community Based rehabilitation for PWDs, Occupational safety and health inspection of the working areas/sites, Registration and regulation of the community based organization, Women empowerment and skills development, Gender and Human rights based mainstreaming approaches, and Promotes culture and cultural industry for development.

Composition:

The Sector is comprised of the Social Development Sector (SDS) that promotes issues of social protection, gender equality, equity, human rights, culture, decent work conditions and empowerment for different groups such as women, children, unemployed youth, older persons and persons with disabilities. It is composed of departments like community development which is charged for youth elderly and PWDs, Probation and social welfare, Labour and occupational safety.

Mandate/functions

The department is mandated to empower communities to appreciate access and participate in, manage and demand accountability in public community based initiatives, protect vulnerable persons from deprivation of basic necessities and livelihood risks, supporting vulnerable categories to access improved livelihood and social security and reduce exclusion and inequality in the communities.

Objectives:

  • To ensure effective participation of youth in development of programs and projects.
  • To ensure proper coordination amongst implementing partners for quality improvement.
  • To promote formation and registration of CBO’s for better service delivery
  • To promote and protect the rights of the vulnerable and marginalized person
  • To promote gender equity and youth empowerment.
  • To promote functional adult literacy

Key Functions

Services offered include;

  1. Supporting women, youth, elderly and PWDs with matching grants and revolving funds Promoting Functional Adult Literacy for the youth out of school and the elderly who did not get a chance to attend school as well as those in need of functional skills
  2. Support orphans and other vulnerable children through child protection and legal support to children in conflict with the law
  3. Community engagement to ensure operation and maintenance of worked on infrastructure especially roads and water for sustainability purposes.
  4. Settling labour disputes and dissemination of labour laws Promotion of gender awareness campaigns
  5. Training FAL(Functional Adult  Literacy) instructors
  6. Establishment of FAL classes in sub counties where they do not exist

Youth Livelihood Program:

  1. Stakeholders meetings at district level.
  2. Beneficiary appraisal and selection
  3. Funding youth groups
  4. Support supervision and monitoring

Women, Youth, and PWDs Councils

  1. Support the councils to conduct quarterly sittings.
  2. Supervision and monitoring

Women Entrepreneurship program:

  1. Sub County level sensitizations
  2. District level trainings
  3. 3Training project management members
  4. 4Conducting community meetings for beneficiary selection
  5. 5Monitoring and support supervision

Probations and social welfare:

  1. We should all work as a team both at district and sub county levels
  2. Continued sensitization of the youth about the fund procedures and follow up will enhance repayments by youth groups.
  3. The funds for Kinoni II Goat rearing Youth Project be transferred to the District YLP revolving account.
  4. Probation and Social Welfare Department: The department conducted a community mapping of vulnerable children. Some of these children are now being supported by various NGOs like RECO-PIN, Compassion and Baylor Uganda among others
  5. Developed the district five year OVC strategic plan 2013-2016/2017 and is guiding the district in implementation of the key OVC interventions
  6. Has successfully organized 3 Days of the African child celebrations in the sub county of  Busiriba
  7. 3 applications for legal guardianship were approved by the Family Division.
  8. More than 1653 child abuse cases have been handled and these mostly  relate to child neglect, mistreatment, child labour, failure to take children to school, assault, grabbing of properties for orphans ,battery among others. Some cases which had repeatedly been reported to this office and the accused parents where showing no signs of remorse or improvement were referred to the Family and Children Court for further action
  9. Domestic Violence: 842 cases of domestic violence have handled. They relate to physical assault of women by their husbands, being denied their rights to interact with other people and failure by their husbands /men to provide basic necessities of life at home given that they (men) are the major income earners to their families.  Others include grabbing of crops harvested by the women, mistreatment, harassment and general disrespect of women by their husbands. All these result into instabilities within families which spill over to the children as it leads to poor parentage. Most of the cases are a result of illiteracy, polygamy, early marriages  and poverty existing in  communities
  10. Social Inquiries: 42 social inquiries were conducted for children in contact with the law as well those   of repeated parental neglect where it was necessary to establish thecause of this neglect so as to handle these parents in the most appropriate manner.
  11. Home visits: 6347 Home visits were conducted to families to establish the vulnerability level of children(Child status)  and to identify the cause of social mishaps     in families to ensure that decisions reached in office  pertaining are adhered too.
  12. 16 children were placed for care in SOS and one to GEM Foundation
  13. 11 abandoned children were successfully placed in Babies Homes with the assistance of CFPU of Kamwenge Police station Child resettlement. 
  14. 28 children were successfully reintergrated/ resettled with their families upon release from the Remand Home.
  15. 1 Held 3 radio talk shows on child protection with the assistance of the MGLSD and world Bank
  16. Organised holiday camps to equip children to equip  with life skills with an aim for  preventing sexual  sexual abuse, school dropouts, HIV/AIDS, early marriages, the children were drawn  from various primary and secondary schools of Bigodi PS, Rwengobe PS, Bigodi SS, Bigodi Modern, Kyabenda PS, Kyabenda SS, Kahunge P/S St. Michhael SS, Global Trust Standard PS, Kiyagara PS, and Rukunyu PS.A total of 2041 children aged 9-24 years attended.
  17. The department held dialogue meetings along Kamwenge –Fortportalroad  on children rights , child abuse in the community and underlying causes ,parenting, prevention and mitigation of child abuse. These Sessions were held in hot spot areas of Bigodi, Kahunge, Busingye, KybyomaKyakanyemera,Rewengobe and the three wards of Kaburaisoke, Kamwenge and Kitonzi.
  18. Held 4 DOVCC meetings and issues affecting vulnerable children were identified and strategies laid out.
  19. District Orphans and other vulnerable Children members were trained and oriented on children rights, relevant laws and policies, strategies of reporting, referral path ways and their roles and responsibilities.
  20. Built the capacity of  15 sub county orphans and other vulnerable children coordination committees (SOVCCs) through training.
  21. Installed the OVCMIS system for data capture on OVC and have trained CDOS and NGOs/CBOs representatives in data capture and analysis for decision making.
  22. Linking victims of abuse child abuse to relevant service providers. In partnership with MGLSD and world Bank, 10 survivors of abuse(defilement)  were supported to access essential services ie health, psychosocial  support, education among others.

Funding For The Department

YLP 798,000,000
FAL 15,500,000
UWEP 287,920,728
NON WAGE 3,890,000

Major Challenges

  • The sector is mainly challenged by limited funding and this hinders proper functioning of the sectors.  The sector heavily depends on donor funding which is not sustainable and ends up affecting performance.
  • Since the sector achieves its mandate through the involvement of volunteers who are neither motivated nor paid any facilitation, there has been of volunteer fatigue among these volunteers who end not doing the work as expected.
  • There is also unwillingness by community members to attend community functions, meeting and dialogues which are not facilitated. The tendency of some development partners paying transport refund and refreshments for community members whenever they are called for meetings in their areas of locations has affected the spirit of community members in relation to their participation in community activities.
  • The high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, increased levels of alcohol intake among household heads, the gender based violence incidence levels and general poverty has pushed many children into the category of vulnerability and this increases the burden of protecting such vulnerable categories of people.  

Recommendations:

  • Improved allocation of non-conditional funds to CBS sector to improve performance.
  • Coordinated efforts to improve the recovery process of the revolving funds extended to the youth groups to facilitate the revolving process.
  • Coordinated efforts of all stakeholders in community mobilization and sensitization to support community members to improve on behavioral change, attitude and life style living.