Voluntary social accountability committees in Apac, Kole and Oyam were empowered by Women of Uganda Network, equipped with ICT tools especially mobile phones and cameras to facilitate them in monitoring, documenting and disseminating service delivery issues within their respective communities to their various duty bearers and also share the key findings on various platforms such as Ushahidi and U-Call. They were also equipped with networking and advocacy skills so as to prepare them to be able to engage with their leaders on key issues of concern in the community so that they take action to address them.
WOUGNET team is currently in Northern Uganda, to conduct district engagement meetings on 11th, 12th and 13th March in Apac, Kole and Oyam districts respectively under the project “strengthening citizens capacity to monitor and report for improved service delivery using Innovative ICTs” supported by INDIGO Trust . In attendance are the voluntary social accountability committees, sub-county chiefs, Parish Development Committees, Area councilors, LCIII Chairpersons and the Residence District Commissioner.
WOUGNET Senior Program Officer, Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy –Mrs. Goretti Amuriat Zavuga will make a presentation on the role of ICTs in governance, the voluntary social accountability committees (in their respective parishes) will make a presentation of key issues identified from their monitoring and then the duty bearers will give feed back to the participants on what actions they have taken or will take to address those issues. The program will end with a demonstration on how Ushahidi platform promotes dissemination of service delivery issues in the community and this will be facilitated by Ms. Kanyunyuzi Cleopatra who is a Tech support Intern with WOUGNET. The VSACs will be shown how to report issues whereas the duty bearers will be shown how to access issues uploaded on the platform so that they are able to act upon them and also share feedback on the same platform.