What is SLOGBAA II?
What is SLOGBAA II? To get to know SLOGBAA II, lets take a look at our pilot, SLOGBAA I. It all started out with Network for Active Citizens coming up with a brilliant idea, to make a one-of-a-kind project empowering youth leaders in Uganda. At the beginning of the project it caused conflict in the local community, as it proved threatening to community leaders who were already in power. However, over time the project was embraced, and we have empowered over 150 youth leaders through different activities, providing a forum where young people can discuss issues openly without fear of being judged afterwards. From this success, SLOGBAA II capitalizes on this existing momentum in the communities and expands to even more.
"Participating in policy information meetings is not enough. We need to have the power to advocate to see increased resource allocation to programs that socioeconomically benefit the youth."
Our Project Objectives:
Objective 1) Empowering the individual towards democratic participation and policy influence: Over the course of two years, we aim to mobilise 6000 (3000 per year) youth in our target communities – trained by 30 youth counsellors to be engaged and facilitated to give policy inputs. Their democratic right of participation is strengthened via key young people in a peer-to-peer learning model across the three districts, who have undergone workshops, training and mentoring programs.
Objective 2) Strengthening youth Civil Society Organisations as platforms that mobilise, facilitate, and further strengthen youth democratic participation: At least 30 youth-led grassroots CSOs will have strengthened capacities to sustainably mobilise, engage, and facilitate youth and other policy-stakeholders in active participation in democratic processes at the grassroots level. This will be achieved through, among others, ensuring that they meet all the legal requirements to be able to run effectively, have systematised three physical “Green Democratic Spaces” that support their everyday operations, are resilient to a shrinking civic space, enabled to cooperate with each other, collectively develop a better capacity to influence the political framework around them.
Objective 3) Advocating at the Local Policy Level for more youth- and grassroots-friendly policies: With NAC as our experts, we will support in developing an advocacy campaign mobilise the local communities at large to influence local policy, engaging and empowering 360 youth who will participate in community parliaments, position paper collaboration and lobby meetings with local authorities.
SLOGBAA Framework - Modules:
Module I: Active Citizenship
Active Citizenship is the introductory module under SLOGBAA. This module is based on the globally successful program that was founded by British Council in 2000 has so far been implemented in over 55 countries including Uganda. (https://active-citizens.britishcouncil.org/about). This module aims to inspire the target participants to be proactive, visionary and prepare them to take action about the change they want to see in their communities. Under SLOGBAA, the module looks at unpacking the knowledge, attitude and practices people between the local government and community
Module II: Understanding the Local Governance
This sub module is designed based on the Local Governments Act, 1997 and in particular section 36 that establishes a district local government as a planning authority. Fellows will be practically enabled to understand how local governments prepare their integrated development plans (IDPs) which must incorporate plans of lower local councils. It will be emphasized in this sub module, that District plans are supposed to be developed using a bottom-up approach, with each village making its community action plan. In principle, the district plans have to observe and make their plans in accordance with both local priorities and national planning frameworks. This module will therefore emphasize the entry points for youth leaders to participate in and influence local level decisions.
Module III: Understanding the Local Government Budgeting Process
This sub module is designed to offer young people the knowledge, skills and opportunities to understand how financial resources are allocated at the local government level. It is a sub module for educating and empowering young people to engage with political leaders and technical staffs on all matters pertaining to localized planning and budgeting. Through this sub module, NAC is keen to strengthen inclusive governance by giving young people as a marginalized group, the opportunities to have their voices heard and to influence public-decision making critical to their interests. Understanding the budget and related advocacy is broken down into several components to clarify, in the simplest terms, how local governments collect revenue, undertake allocations and execute the budget to deliver services and goods to citizens.
The justification for this sub module is because ‘preparation, approval and implementation of a budget is the most significant fiduciary duty of local government staffs and political leaders, as it determines the basket of goods and services to be provided, and where and how they will be provided. Because these goods and services are provided to citizens, their active participation in, and consequently influence of local government plans and budgets becomes a significant tennet of local democratic governance.
The sub module heavily draws from, and is constructed alongside the District Budget Framework Paper, which is the local government overall strategy document for the district budget, designed to create a link between central Government’s overall policies[1] and the local government budgets. The emphasis on the district budget framework paper is because it contains information regarding the local economic development policy architecture, local revenue projections and the overall district resource envelop. In addition, the framework paper situates the district service delivery interventions over the 12-month financial period.
Module IV: Advocacy and Accountability
Social accountability refers to ‘‘actions initiated by citizen groups to hold public officials, politicians, and service providers to account for their conduct and performance in terms of delivering services, improving people’s welfare and protecting people’s rights’’[2]. This sub module is designed to enable Fellows acquire knowledge regarding the liabilities and obligations placed on public functionaries (elected office bearers and appointed officials) to give satisfactory explanation to the public (tax payers) concerning the exercise of power, authority and resources, which are entrusted to public office bearers ordinarily as a trust from the citizens. The state budget provides very specific line-item detail on where public resources will be spent and what resources will be spent on. The doctrine of ‘‘public accountability is acknowledged as a pivot around which good government rotates’’[3]. This module will enlighten the Fellows on how to;
[1] Government policies are informed by the National Development Plan, which in turn informs the public sector development priorities.
[2] World Bank (2019). http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMONGOLIA/Resources/What_is_social_accountability.pdf
[3] Kakumba, U., & Nsingo, S. (2008). Citizen participation in local government and the process of rural development: the rhetoric and reality in Uganda. Journal of public administration, 43(2), 107-123.