Civil Society work was disturbed since March 2020 when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. It’s a fact that during epidemics both economic and human costs are enormous. Already, close to $29Bn USD has been wiped out from African economies, GDP forecasts have been revised downwards. For Uganda’s case, Ministry of Finance estimates that economic growth will fall from 6% to 5.2-5.7% in the medium scenario and 4.6-5.1% in the severe scenario resulting from loss of revenue due to, cancellation of flights, business closures as we continue to self-isolate as part of the social distancing measures during this period.
This therefore, calls for combined efforts to identify opportunities and challenges to service delivery and budget implementation. Civil Society organizations on budget advocacy from Tooro region and those from other regions of Uganda including; Bunyoro region, Buganda region, Bukedea region, Busoga region, Teso region, etc under their umbrella organization Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) convened on 8th & 9th September 2020 at Eureka Place in Ntinda, Kampala with a purpose of generating civil society position paper on key issues pertaining to improved public Finance management and quality service delivery. Participants included national and regional Civil Society organizations from Western, Northern, Eastern, and Central regions of Uganda.
CSO’s representatives from Tooro region in a group work during Issues identification process
The regional budget consultative workshop was organized to prepare position papers that will feed into the government budget cycle. The position paper will be presented at the Regional Budget Consultative workshop for the Financial Year 2021/22 between October and November 2020. These workshops are important because they provide citizens with opportunities to input into the budget process through civil society organizations working at grass root communities in the different districts through lobbying government to consider the issues identified in the next budget for a particular financial year. Civil Society participation in the budget process guarantees that citizen’s needs and priorities are addressed fosters better understanding by the Civil Society Organizations and citizens of local government planning and budgeting processes as well as other critical information that makes us more effective to influence policy and improve service delivery at the local government level. When citizens are part of the process, it means that the budget priorities will reflect their needs and the budget outcomes will be owned by the citizens.
Group work presentation by CSO’s representatives
It is hoped that the position paper will provide a framework to guide the budgeting process at district level for the Financial Year 2021/22 to ensure that resources at the local Government are mobilized, allocated and utilized in an efficient, equitable and gender sensitive manner to promote sustainable development.
The involvement of CSO’s in the local government budget consultative (LGBC) meetings, therefore, fits perfectly within the remit of complementing government efforts to improve service delivery and budget performance. As CSO’s, we endeavor to provide credible alternative policy option that will assist government in delivering on it’s mandate.
