THE UNTOLD STORIES(SDG 1,2,3,4)
Description
The proposal aims at citizen action for the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all which have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant
To contribute to the enhancement of the capacity of youth led organizations and other key stakeholders on legislative policies and institutions related to Human Rights promotion and protection, conducive and operating environment for youth led organizations/CSOs including Sexual and Reproductive Health in Karamoja and Teso region.<br />
3.1 Specific objectives<br />
1. Review, simplify and disseminate relevant, regulations and policies related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Right within the country. <br />
2. Review, simplify and disseminate information to youth led organizations/ CSOs on, policies, regulations related to citizen action such as; right to health.<br />
3. To undertake advocacy towards political, social, economic barriers that affect SRH and Rights in Teso and Karamoja.<br />
4. To contribute to institutional support and strengthening of SRHR in Uganda.
BridgeBuildersUganda uses expertise of advoacy at the national level with various stakeholders-mainly governement agencie concerning the issues raised
CSOs operationing Teso and Karamoja forward the advocacy concerns from the local level/districts to BridgeBuildersUganda at the National Level
Communities of Teso and Karamoja Region Generating views, concerns etc on issues of governance, SRHR, Citizen active political participation and social justice
The discussion was mainly focused on the risky sexual activity of street children, major sexual health problems of the street life, sexual and reproductive health services for street children, information of street children about STIs and HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, and service provider places. The discussion was started by asking the general question why they joined the street life Almost all discussant from both sex mentioned the reasons that were listed in the quantitative part like searching jobs, conflict with family, poor family, and so forth. Female group mainly mentioned sexual related reasons like rape attempt, voluntary and involuntary unsafe sex resulting unwanted pregnancy. In connection with this, a 17-year-old girl participant also stated the following:
An 18-year-old male participant had the following to say in this regard;
Street boys only have the risk of contracting STIs including HIV/AIDS and sometimes sexually abused and psychological problems but female children have more than this. We chewed chat and had drink then no one could remember condom and have unsafe sex. In the morning we all concentrate on searching food. She remembers as she got pregnant when her abdomen gets larger or her menstruation stopped.
This unsafe sexual relationship, among other factors, is believed to be the major source for the rapid increase of street mothers in Kampala. As most of the participants mentioned, female street children are at most risk. They are vulnerable for unwanted pregnancy and STIs including HIV/AIDS. Sometimes they did not know when and from whom they had sex and got pregnant.
A 16-year-old street girl had the following to say:
In the mid night there would be alcoholic boys and if they get female sleeping on the road, they will have even group and unusual sex.
Sexual abuse and exploitation of male children is also one of the emerging social problems affecting the physical, social and psychological wellbeing of children in Kampala. Almost all participants of the session had heard at least once about this issue.
The national health policy should recognize the need to develop and improve urban health extension services to meet the challenges of the street children.
In addition to this the policy should recognize street children are a population group with special needs.
The government guidelines should also exempt street children from health service user fee. Because based on this research result street children are vulnerable to sexual health problems, but underutilize the health services.
Child Development Policy
The Ugandan child development policy should recognize street children as special target group and street children friendly strategies should be devised to reduce their vulnerability to sexually related problems. Currently the policy does not recognize street children as special target group requiring special attention.
Practical Actions to Support Street Children
To improve the access of health services to street children should not only provide free health care services, but also address the social, cultural and environmental factors that restrict access. Therefore efforts should be made to ensure that children who drop out-of-school and other street children are provided basic primary education. None formal or special primary education program will be critical in reaching children living on the street. In addition to this older street children 18 years) should be helped to secure properties and facilitated to acquire startup tools and capitals to undertake income generating activities.
Legislative processes most especially the NGO Act which is being amended. This will ensure that the law is not restrictive or prohibitive to youth led organisations/CSO operations in Uganda. Continue to engage on all other laws having an effect on the enjoyment of Human rights and youth led organisations/CSOs operations.
Other bills and policies still under discussion include the National Land Policy; the National Civic Education Policy; the Biotechnology and Bio safety Bill-2013 among others. The fact that these policy documents are still under debate creates an opportunity for the project to input into the process.
Human Rights Committee of Parliament is an opportunity for BridgeBuildersUganda and other youth led organisations/CSOs to engage with to protect and promote human rights issues and advocacy to ensure they conform to basic human rights norms.
BridgeBuildersUganda will also explain the work of the Committee to the youth led organisations/CSOs partners in addition to appearing before these sessions of the Committee with some of the youth led organisations/CSOs during advocacy related activities. The Committee will be a recipient of some of the human rights related advocacy tools generated during the project such as analysed bills, reports reflective of human rights situations in Teso and Karamoja for their attention.
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is another opportunity for BridgeBuildersUganda and other youth led organisations/CSOs to use it to engage with govt on implementation of commitments and recommendations made especially the national action plan for human rights. Some of the recommendations that have a direct linkage to food security and political participation of the masses shall be augmented forward with particular attention to historically marginalised communities such as Karamoja.
The key principles of our methodology are: participatory programme design based on discussions and collaboration with partners; results focus so as to maximize the outcomes of our Strategic Plan; use of Project Cycle Management (PCM) methodology and logical framework, including objectively verifiable indicators, to provide a guide for preparing, implementing and monitoring each activity; focus on lesson-learning, and use of our extensive knowledge of capacity building and strategic advocacy as well as youth led organisation/CSO coalition building and networking.<br />
The proposed strategy is based on our deep knowledge and past experience in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, ESCR issues, as well as resource based conflicts and human rights violations. The methodology is further based on BridgeBuildersUganda wealth of experience in legislative advocacy. The pillars of our methodology are: <br />
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Capacity-building: working to strengthen both community grass root youth led organization/CSOs is vital. Alongside supporting the development of skills and knowledge of both target groups, BridgeBuildersUganda also works to build links between grass root youth led organizations/CSOs and the organizations that represent/advocate for them. Community representatives as well as staff from CSOs will participate in the different capacity building activities tailored to their needs and will be supported to engage in advocacy campaigns to put forward their community issues to decision-makers. <br />
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Advocacy: Advocacy work will be implemented at local, national as well as at international level to ensure that the communities’ chances of civic engagement are significantly raised, and the government’s willingness and ability to consult with citizens on key policies is increased. <br />
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Building networks/consultation mechanisms: It is important to improve the cohesion and unity of the grass root civil society in Uganda. CSOs working with our target communities must take a joint approach to leverage and strengthen their movement and achieve tangible changes. BridgeBuildersUganda will support grass root CSOs to join, facilitate networking opportunities and the sharing of contacts, information, strategies and resources between organizations and the local community, and facilitate contacts between CSOs and government officials– these contacts should continue to bring benefits well beyond the life of the project. <br />
(d)Awareness Raising: With grass root communities being so marginalized and disadvantaged, there is a real lack of awareness in the communities about governance and accountability mechanisms in Uganda which results severely in limited participation in policy debate. It is therefore vital to bring issues to the attention of the broader Ugandan society.<br />
Selected critical methodological points include advocacy with members of grass root Civil Society; gender and other forms of intersectional discrimination (e.g. age, disability, HIV/AIDS) will be mainstreamed throughout the project; training events will be participatory and will give participants the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge gained based on BridgeBuildersUganda experience of what works well; and the advocacy campaign will be designed by the participants bearing in mind a detailed analysis of the attitudes and likely reactions of the stakeholders.
BridgeBuildersUganda finds project monitoring and evaluation important for any project to succeed. The plan will be informed by detailed work plan and log frame/project logic. However regular activity reporting will be maintained by the project staff. Quarterly review meetings will be conducted to assess the progress towards realization of the outcomes. Annual review meetings will also be conducted that will inform the overall evaluation of the project. Therefore throughout the project implementation, there will be an ongoing process of collecting data and information related to the project. Lesson learnt shall be drawn to inform subsequent support and programming. BridgeBuildersUganda secretariat will provide on-going supervision and monitoring of the project. Monitoring journeys will be conducted after capacity building initiatives to assess level of application of what was learnt in the field. Regular reporting to the donor will be maintained as well as participation of youth led organization/CSOs in the implementation process and review meetings to ensure compliance and technical guidance.
9.1 End of project Monitoring and Evaluation
BridgeBuildersUganda through its internal monitoring and evaluation processes will conduct a baseline survey to ascertain the extent to which the project has addressed human rights situation in the region of Teso and Karamoja. Secondly, the evaluation will further assess the achievements and document lesson learnt for future improvement of the interventions. This will involve development of tools, pre testing, field visits for data collection, and analysis of data, review meetings, validation and dissemination of the report. Additionally, BridgeBuildersUganda will provide annual narrative and financial progress reports to the development partners. A final narrative and financial report will also be submitted. In addition to regular reports created by BridgeBuildersUganda and shared with all partners, the project team will meet quarterly to review progress and achievements against objectives, to assess what learning has emerged, and to assess the outcomes of project components together with relevant changes in the external environment.
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- Africa
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Contact Information
jonathan kalyango, project coordinator