The genesis of initiating the advocacy forum begun way back in August, 2012 after ToroDev trained 120 rural monitors in online advocacy, monitoring service delivery using online social media/ICT tools like Ushahidi platform for online documentation, visualization and mapping. The 120 rural monitors after acquiring the skills went further to mobilize other members to form forums in their respective sub counties. And so far 21 forums have been initiated each with maximum number of 50 members.

As a way of strengthening and motivating advocacy members to execute their monitoring and advocacy roles ToroDev organized a one day planning and coordinating meeting with advocacy members to prepare a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goals under SIDA project. The planning meeting will act as a map to guide the selected forum members to contribute to the goal of SIDA project. The meeting was organized on 5^th December 2017 at ToroDev offices in Fort-Portal.

 Twenty  three (23)   members attended including chairpersons and coordinators of advocacy forums.

“We are here to plan together and see how to execute activities under SIDA project; we need to plan on how accountability meetings will be organized by each forum focusing on one sector in order to have better recorded results.” Said Miss. Sheila Amanya the M& E officer.

“Advocacy forums have done  a great role in advocating and monitoring services in health, education and other sectors and we appreciate them for being part of ToroDev. So we are here to plan together and give updates on how we shall work together in the coming year, I request each group to select one sector  such that they can be able to  track the impact in the long run”. Said Executive director ToroDev Mr. Johnstone Baguma Kumaraki.

Johnstone added ToroDev has developed its own system MML e-participation system which will be used by the citizens to engage duty bearers and express their concerns on the state of service delivery.

• Twenty three (23) members participated
• Knowledge and information about accountability meetings shared with the members
• Challenges facing the forums identified
• Future plans for 2018 generated
• MML e-participation system promoted
• Recommendations and action points set

Outcome of the meeting.

• Clear articulation of priority public service delivery needs to duty bearers both on physical and online platforms.

• Increased in number & quality of monthly online posts & physical engagements with duty bearers by civic groups from current 20 posts per month to 40 posts per months

• Increased monitoring, lobbying and advocacy skills by the leaders of the forums to improve service delivery.
• Actions points and follow up of issues that need urgent attention of duty bearers in communities.

Recommendation

• Each forum will organize one accountability meeting at a local sub county level with a minimum of 150 people

• Evaluation will be held on quarterly basis to follow up key issues raised during accountability
• Meeting to track impact,
• The umbrella will revive their work beginning next year.

We take this opportunity to thank SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, and CIPESA for the financial and technical support.