ARINDA ERNEST.

2016/DO53/1001.
LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS .
THE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES. Department of Governance and
Peace studies .
1.Historically,the idea of state and governing authority have served the purpose of
converting of converting of might to right .Some people rule and others ruled. Ideals of
the legitimacy,'authority and duty to obey as moral ideas imposed on political reality
to delude us thinking that the social order in which we live actually has a moral
foundation,explanation and justification .How would you respond to this ,given what
you know of both our local and central governments ?Give examples from your own
locality.

INTRODUCTION TO LOCAL GOVERNANCE

NO.1
State is a type of policy that is an organized political community living under a single system
government. State may or may not be sovereign for example federated states are members of a
federal union and may have only partial sovereignity, but are nonetheless, states. According to
Duhaime, they are of people which have acquired international recognition as an independent country
and which have a population, a common language and a defined and district territory. Such an idea
would not have moved their whole people, bag and baggage to other lands, or why, for the matter of
the fact, they might not keep moving their tents and possession unrestingly from place to place in
perpetual migration.
More so, entities that have a defined territory and a permanent population, that are under the
control of their own government, and that engage in formal relations with other such entities.
Sovereign states have three absolute prerogatives; independence means a state is completely
free to organize any system of government, proclaim an official religion of its choice and
structure its economy as it sees fit. No outside state has any right to interfere in these strictly
internal matters. Equality means every state is of equal rank with every other state.
Unanimity means that no state is bound by the majority decisions reached by groups of states. A state
is bound only if it agrees to be bound. Even then,a state exercising the principle of ''rebus sic stantibus''
(changed circumstances)may later revenge on an agreement.
Authority given to a president in a republic.
Decentralization is the process of redistributing or dispersing functions, powers, people or things away
from a central location or authority.
Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining
the policy of the state. Government comes from the verb govern whereby govern is an interesting
concept, especially since most people mistakenly believe it is the job of the government to govern the
people. Forms of government are sets of constitutional institutions by which states are organized.
Centralized government is one in which power or legal authority is exerted or coordinated by a DE
FACTO political executive to which federal states, local authorities and smaller units are considered
subject. In a national content, centralization occurs in the transfer of power to a typically sovereign
nation state .For example Menes, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the early dynastic period, is credited
by classical tradition with having united upper and Lower Egypt, and as the founder of the first ruler to
institute a centralized government. All constituted governments are, to some degree, necessarily
centralized, in the sense that a theoretically federal state exerts an authority or prerogative beyond

that of that of its constitute parts. To the extent that a base unit of society usually conceived as an
individual citizen vests authority in a larger unit, such as the state or the local community, authority is
centralized.
In addition, there are still socialist and communist government as well as those states, such as Arab
states, which actively integrate religion and law making. While law making is an essential role of
government, leadership and policy making is sometimes just as, if not from time to time, more
important. ''Max Aitken (1879-1964), known to some as lord beaver brook, wrote this to Winston
Church hill in February 1942.''''Richard M Kavuma. Monday 14 December 2009 13.14 GMT.''
The village
A village is the lowest political administrative unit. A village usually consists of between 50 and 70
households and may be home to anywhere between 25
Government is an organization of law making and law enforcement, the form and institutions by which
law and order are developed and maintained in a society. The law making or legislative branch and law
enforcement and judicial branch and organizations of a society and from which issues and expresses
through law ,in organized form,a state or nation. There are several forms of government, many having
evolved in modern times only. Tyranny and monarchy and more recently, democracy are the
traditional variations but even these have been tempered by constitutional limitations of the authority
of a monarch,or the0 and 1000 people .Each village will be run by a local council ,local council 1(LC1)
and is governed by a chairman and nine other executive committee members.
The parish
The parish is the next level up from the village. A parish is made up of a number of villages, for example
Nyamitanga parish Mbarara district. A parish has a local council 2(LC2) all the chairmen from the village
LC1s in the parish. Each LC2 will elect from among themselves, an executive committee. Today LC2s are
largely run by a parish chief a government employee who provides technical leadership to the LC2.
The sub county;
It is made up of a number of parishes. The sub-county is run by the sub-county chief on the technical
side and an elected local council 111(LC3) chairman and his/her executive committee. The sub county
also has an LC3 council; a kind of parliament at that level, complete with a speaker and deputy speaker.
The council consists of elected councilors representing the parishes, other government officials
involved in health, development and education and NGO officials in the sub-county. In towns, a subcounty is called a division
The county;

A county is made of several sub counties. Eg Katine Sub County is one of the seven that make up Soroti
county. Each county is represented in the national parliament in Kampala by an elected member
(MP).In major towns, the equivalent of a county is a municipality.LC3 executive committee from
among themselves. These committees have limited powers except in municipalities which they run.
The district.
The district is made up of several counties and any municipalities in that area. Mbarara district with a
population of approximately 3 million consists of five countries and one municipality called Mbarara. A
district is led by an elected local council 5(LC5) chairman and his executive.
At present, Uganda has 80 districts but the number keeps growing .When President Museveni
captured power 23years ago after a five year guerilla war, Uganda had around 30districts.The
government says it creates districts to take services nearer to the people, but critics argue that the
only thing more districts bring is poverty.
Thomas Hobbes leviathan (1651)was the 1st modern philosopher to articulate a detailed contract
theory.(1588-1679).According to Hobbes, the lives of individuals in the state of nature were ''solitary,
poor, nasty, brutish and short''a state in which self-interest and the absence of rights and contracts
prevented the 'social' or society. Life was 'anarchic'(without leadership or the state of nature were a
political;and a social .This state of nature is followed by the social contract.
The social contract was an occurrence during which individuals came together and ceded some of
their individual of their individual rights so that others would cede theirs (eg person A gives up his/her
right to kill person B if person B does the same ).This resulted in the establishment of the state ,a
sovereign entity like the individuals now under its rule used to be , which would create laws to
regulate social interactions. Human life was thus no longer ''a war of all against all''. But the state
system ,which grew out of the social contract ,was also anarchic(without leadership)with respect to
each other .Just as the individuals in the state of nature, had been sovereign and thus guided by self
interest in competition with each other just like the state of nature ,states were thus bound to be in
conflict because there was no sovereign over and above the state (ie; more powerful)capable of
imposing some system such as social contract laws on everyone by force. Indeed, Hobbes work helped
to serve as a basis for the realism theories of international relations, advanced by E.H.Carr and Hans
Morgenthas .
The local government system of local government in Uganda shall be based on the district as a unit
under which there shall be such local governments and administrative units as parliament may by law
provide the following principle shall apply to the local government system.
a) the system shall be such as to ensure that functions ,powers and responsibilities are deduced and
transferred from the government to the local government units in a coordinated manner .

b)Decentralization shall be a principle applying to all levels of local government and in particular ,fro
higher to lower local government units to ensure peoples participation and democratic control in
decision making .
c)the system shall be such as to ensure the full realization of democratic governance to all local
government levels.
d)there shall be established for each local government unit a sound financial base with reliable forces
of revenue.
e)Appropriate measures shall be taken to enable local government matters affecting the people within
their jurisdictions.
f)persons in the service of local government shall be employed by the local governments and they shall
oversee the performance of persons employed by the government to provide services in their areas
and monitor the provision of government services or the implementation of projects in their areas. The
system of local government shall be based on democratically elected councils on the basis of universal
adult suffrage in accordance with article 18(4) of the constitution.
In Uganda, the modern state was a colonial creation. Before the establishment and consolidation
of effective colonial administration ,each nationality had its own system of local government ranging
from the monarchical centralized system of the kingdom of Buganda for example which was based on
hierarchical chiefs ,to highly decentralized republican organizations in the non-kingdom areas of the
northern east and the South West .The first attempts by the colonial masters to set up local
administrations were in 1919 when the African (nature)authority ordinance was passed providing for
the powers and duties of the African chiefs and for the enforcement of African authority. The chiefs
collected taxes, presided over native courts, maintained law and order, enforced laws and constituted
native councils at district and lower levels. The native councils were neither representative and nor
were they democratic. They simply provided a forum for chiefs to exercise their powers .The chiefs in
Buganda derived their power from the kabaka (king) ,owed allegiance to him and held office at his
pleasure.
In non-kingdom areas, the chiefs owed their creation, appointment and allegiance to the District
commissioners who, in turn, were responsible to the centre. There after 1919,the evolution of local
government in Uganda went through two important watersheds .First were the reforms under the
African local government ordinance of 1949 that provided for the setting up of body cooperate
councils in all districts and a system of standing (functional)committees. Second, there were the
reforms under the 1955 district councils ordinance which provided for elected majorities in the legal
basis to assume wider functions .By 1990 new initiatives were made to review the local government
system to make it more democratic and effective .in the second half of 1991, cabinet was presented
with a memorandum entitled Measures to strengthen Democratic Decentralization in Uganda)which

they approved. In 1992 the process of implementation started with the setting up of the
decentralization policy implementation committee(DPIC).In October 1992,the local government
decentralization program was officially launched.(Democratic Decentralization in Uganda ,Art.3,F.X.K
Lubanga pg 47 and 48).
John Locke considered this ends justify the means, in great depth. He believed that taxes and
other laws could be justified only by consent. If and only if all of us in the neighborhood agree set up a
government we consented to and the government has a right to levy those taxes .Consent is necessary
because we all enjoy natural rights to life, liberty and property and no one may permissively violate
those rights. Taking the property without consent is theft. I n his book the problem of political
authority, the contemporary political philosopher Micheal Huemer considered the necessary
conditions for consent to an agreement. First the agreement requires a reasonable way of opting out
.If the chair of board meeting says Please indicate your dissent to the budget of chopping off your
right arm ,otherwise assume that that you have consented., failing to chop off your right arm actually
indicate your consent to the budget. Thats not a valid agreement, because you dont have any
reasonable way to indicate dissent, the chair has no right to demand your right arm. Second, the
agreement must recognize explicit dissent as trumping implicit assent .The third consent to an
agreement is only valid if the supposed consenter believed that in the absence of consent, her will
would be respected if the chair of the board meeting said Dissent to the budget if you,but am going to
impose it anyway then the fact that no one voiced dissent mean that they dont truly dissent .They
might have not spoken up simply because they saw that it was pointless to speak up. Fourth, any
agreement must involve obligations on both sides. If the relationship between government and citizens
is a contract among equals, then government must recognize contractual duties to citizens just as
citizens recognize contractual duties to government. Now, the United States government enjoy a
social contract with citizens that meet these criteria. No US citizen consents to be bound by US
because the US government doesnt literally own the property wen live on .It has no right to demand
that we leave our homes and emigrate as a condition of expressing dissent from being ruled by the
laws .That would be like demanding that we cut off our right arms as a condition of expressing dissent
from being ruled. Furthermore, lots of Americans do dissent to the laws and don't recognize the
governments authority .Explicit dissent should trump alleged implicit consent. Next, the US
government doesn't respect the rights of dissenters not to be bound by the laws ,for instance ,the US
government will still collect taxes from Americans even if she explicitly denies any consent to be ruled
by the US government .Finally the US government recognizes no obligation to provide services to its
citizens ,as Huemer points out ,and has been recognized in court cases such as Warren V, District of
Columbia and Hartzer V city of San Jose .In the US, The social contract gives government all the rights
and citizens all the duties. Huemer concludes that Americans have not consented to be ruled by the
US government and that the US government therefore enjoys no right to enforce any laws that go
beyond merely self-defense and defence of other taxes ,for instance are illegitimate.

According to Tocqueville in America, he believed the principle of sovereignity of the people .In the
fundamental orders of Connecticut. The American Revolution then popularized this principle, followed
by the constitutional convention of 1787, which develop institutions to manage popular will. While
Tocqueville speak highly of the moves or ''habits of mind of American people play a more prominate
role in the protection of freedom ;Township democracy ,moves ,laws and circumstance s ,religion and
beliefs.
Tovqueville was one of the first social critics to examine the situation of American women and to
identify the concept of separate spheres .The section influence of Democracy on manners properly so
called of the second volume is devoted to his observations of womens states in American society .He
writes ;''In no country has such constant care been taken as in America to trace two clearly distinct
lines of action for the two sexes and to make them keep pace one with the other,but in two pathways
that are always different. He argues that the collapse of aristocracy lessened the patriarchal rule in the
family where fathers would control daughter's marriages meaning that women had the option of
remaining unmarried and retaining a higher degree of independence ''In the bonds of matrimony'' as in
America ,paternal discipline (by the womans father)is very relaxed and the conjugal tie very strict.
Because of his own view that a woman could not act on a level equal to a man ,he saw a woman as
needing her father's support to retain independence in marriage .Consistent with this limited view of
the potential of women to act as equal as men, as well as his apparently missing roles that many men
in the United States played, particularly in the Delaware Valley region of cultures where there was a lot
of influence by society of friends as well as a tradition of male and female equality, Tocqueville
considered the separate spheres of women and men a positive development starting.'' As for myself ,i
do not hesitate to a vow that although the women of the united states are confined within the
narrow circle of domestic life and their situation is in some respects one of extreme dependence ,i
have nowhere seen women occupying a loftier position ,and if I were asked ,(---)to what the singular
prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, i should reply, to the
superiority of the women.''
In Uganda, the king of Buganda Mutesa, his kingdom is one of the four in this region which have
become firmly established by the mid nineteenth century .The others, lying to the west, are Ankole,
toro and bunyoro. The existance of these African kingdoms has a profound influence on the
development of Uganda during the colonial period .In East Africa, as with the areas being colonized by
Rhodes at this same period in southern Africa. In January 1892, there was a heavy gunfire between and
among the four hills which from Kampala on which the top of one hill is the palace of the kabaka and
on another the French have completed a catholic cathedral of wooden poles and reeds .The evident
power of local African kings convinced Johnston that control must be excused through them. Buganda
is by far the policy became effective with the Buganda Agreement of 1900.Under the terms of this
agreement ,the kabaka's status is recognized by Britain, as in the authority of his council of chiefs .The
chiefs collective approval of the british protectorate over the region is eased by Johnston's

acknowledgement of their freehold right to their lands. By 1966 the deteriorating relationship between
Obote and Mutesa comes to an abrupt end. Obote sent a force led by his newly appointed army
commander Idi Amin, to attack the Kabaka's palace. Mutesa flees to exile in Britain .During the 1980's
the NRA steadily extends the areas of southern and western Uganda under its control. And Okello after
toppling Obote in 1885, proves no match for Museveni by January 1986, the NRA was in control of the
capital, Kampala. Museveni proclaims a government of national unity, with history .A decade later the
country is back under the rule of law. The economy is making vast studies. There are improvements in
education, health, and transport. International approval brings a willingness to invest and to lend. the
nation, emerging from two decades of appalling chaos is suddenly almost a model for Africa.
In 1966 constitutional crisis ,by ''Phares Mutibwa,pg53'' the consideration is that the region from
which Obote and those who later came to dominate the UPC government and the military came didnt
have kingdoms and therefore could not be expected to nurture love or respect for monarchial
institutions .Obote and his associates from the north eg Nekyon Adoko,who had openly declared at
bwayise that they would abolish the kabakaship -could show respect for Mutesa ,rukidi,Winyi and
other monarchs but it was believed that in their hearts they harboured a strong and unshakable
distrust ,tinged with hatred, for kingship and all that is stood for .Thus in nutshell, political and military
power passed at independence to the 'northmen' who , coming from non-kingdom areas were
unsympathetic to the survival of monarchial institutions on which culture of the majority Ugandans
was based .the British did all they could but failed unfortunately, however all those efforts proved
abortive in the face of the wind of nationalism that was sweeping Africa and now engulfed Uganda in
1960's .The baganda and other kingdoms having been left by the British ,they wondered whether the
British did not plan all along to leave political power and military in the hands of people who they knew
were relatively unsophiscated and would therefore be pliable and unresistant to their machinations
unlike the present.
In Uganda ,right from the imposition of colonialism, nationalist movement s that articulated African
grievances were organized on a tribal rather than national basis ,largely because there was no such
thing as a nation .It is easy to blame the British but some of the politicians who emerged in the
1950s.The roots of this fact go back to the early years of the 20th century .It was buganda ,1st
important political movement that we emerged .As the vagaries of colonialism began to hurt, after
independence ,more political parties were being formed for example the Uganda National Congress
(UNC)being the first political party.
In Buganda, as elsewhere in Uganda, there were no standing armies so that armies were drummed
up as and when they were needed for defensive or offensive purposes .In this system every adult male
was liable for military service and this is why the chief was not merely an administrative functionary
but also a military leader of the region under his jurisdiction. This was as true of Buganda as it was of
bunyoro. But Buganda, unlike Bunyoro had a sedentary agricultural population and her political system

was fashioned and developed around this fact. In this way economic interest and political authority
were harmonised in the social system thereby giving the society political and social cohesion.

Finally, having examined the agonies of Uganda for example has suffered, we must
attempt to look in the future. Essentially this must lie with the country's leaders e.g the
NRM has tried to provide leadership based on full popular participation in both decision
making and implementation. This is the essence of the resistance council system it has
introduced.

2.Study the role and place of civil society and NGO's in a local government
known to you .Look at how they their activities and positive and negative
effects around them .In the study, make suggestions which may be needed
to
have
their
work
effective
in
service
delivery
.

NO.2
NGO's whether they be local or international are often refered to as civil society
organizations(CSOs).Civil society can be defined as ;''a vasty array of both formal community
organizations, religious institutions and movement, voluntary associations, trade unions and guild ,
cultural institutions ,co-operatives, fraternal and ethnic associations and human service delivery
systems .''
The increase of NGOs activity throughout sub-saharan Africa in 1990s is reflecting of the dual processes
of economic and political liberalization that have propelled NGOs to the fore front as significant factors
in a political and economic arena, therefore NGOs and the civil society have become the development
catch words .Past development approaches have failed to mitigate later alone eliminate under
development, poverty and repression. These failures have played a foundation for the embrace of civil
society and NGOs have remedy for under development.
An NGO can therefore be one of number of organizations ranging from service delivery, sector
support, and public contractors and peoples organizations.
Different organizations have diverse agendas, objectives, affiliations, modes of action and structures
that make them categorized differently. Therefore they can be categorized on the basis of the
functions of that they have found, the constituency they target their level of orientation and operation
.They can also be categorized on the basis of whether they are voluntary organizations.

There are two types of NGOs.

Conflict resolution NGOs like cata centre operating in southern Sudan and ACCORD in South Africa
.Another type of NGOs are development NGOs. These are reconstruction and spearheading
development activities. The examples of NGOs for example operating in Uganda range from local to
international and they are listed below;
ADRA(Adventist Development and Relief Agency),UDN(Uganda Debt Network),FIDA(Federation of
Women Lawyers),UWESO(Uganda Womens Effort to Save Orphans),Habitat for Humanity ,Red
cross,World vision ,CARE etc.
Much as these are outside the realm of government control , their operations within a country
need to be seconded by the state. This does not mean that they should ''dance to the tunes'' of the
government ,the implication however is that government can in one way or the other affect their
operations, ''Impartiality''. These play a big role at different stages of a conflict. CSOs play important
roles in all the phases of a conflict ie in its emergency, management and resolutions.
They in some cases help identify circumstances that may lead to the outbreak of a conflict (early
warning).They also help deal with the effects of a conflict through the provision if relief to conflict and
emergency areas to refugees and other displaced persons.
CSOs help create awareness of the atrocities that are committed in conflict areas such as human rights
violations. They are able to report to the world on a neutral opposition and advocate for the protection
of human beings living under conflict.
They are able to address issues of human rights violations on their own and in some cases push for
policy such as advocating for legislations that seek to protect people from human rights abuses for
example optional protocal to the to the convention on the rights of the child on the involvement of
children in armed conflict (The optional protocal was adopted by resolution A/RES/54/263 of May 25
2000 at the fifty fourth session of the general assembly of the United Nations.
NGOs have played an active role in advocating for parties to a conflict to come together in dispute
settlement through different means and in some instances play an active role in peace talks (organizing
and conducting them).Their position puts them at an advantage and ability to popularize peace deals
,pressure belligerents to come to an agreement and mobilize popular local and international support
for peace negotiations .
They also have active part in addressing the effects of war by averting the social-economic
challenges posed on civilian during the years of conflict for example through the construction of
livelihoods ,provision of house hold items, psycho-social support, educational training ,orphanages etc.
NGOs within a post conflict environment play an important role under demobilization, disarmament

and reitegration (DDR),political reforms (ELECTIONS),economic reforms (creating and strengthening of

key economic sectors)and peace education aimed at avoiding the re-escalation into violence )that may
be necessary within society aimed at seeing it move towards development (peace building processes).
In all their operations, they need to ensure that principles of popular participation ,rule of law,
fairness, justice and equal citizenship for the people are embedded and strengthened within society so
as to avoid conflicts caused from flaws in such principles.
It should however be noted that civil society can also have a role in emergence and escalation of
conflicts since they embedded within the social character of society .In Rwanda ,its alleged that these
participated in instigating hatred between the two groups .Civil society through the press can also
paint a picture of what conflict is that can escalate the tension between parties and lead to violence.
Important to note here is the role that elites within these organizations play. There ideologies are
bound to affect the direction that those who fall within their domain of operation tow.
Mobilizing humanity ;the Uganda Red cross Society has taken it up to compliment other
humanitarian bodies in bringing about a fundamental change in the living conditions of IDPS, they have
done these in areas of water , sanitation ,health and non-food item distribution .
NGOs have played in fighting for human rights ;the human rights focus ,HURIFO is doing much in
fighting for peoples rights in NDPs(national debt programs )in conjunction with UHRC (Uganda human
rights commission).HURIFO has helped people in camps to know their rights and also to know to
control violence in camps. it has carried out several researches on human rights situation in Uganda .
The Uganda Red cross sensitizes the IDP residents of many issues relating to sanitation and
hygiene and on gender based sexual violence and it also provides scholastic materials to the school
going children who attend the few schools in the camps .
Centre for returnees has helped in setting rebel returnees in the area. It also provides counselling
services to the people who are troumatized due to loss of relatives and family members through
abduction and killings .
Many NGOs have gone further to call for peace talks and advice to the government to stop using
military option but to opt for non-violent means to reduce conflicts in the area eg the MACOMBA
peace partnership between Uganda Martyrs University ,kristiansund university and ACCORD. Peace for
disarmament eg OXFAM. Capacity building for returnees eg WORLD VISION.
Some NGOs are providing efficient and cost effective medical services and health services (water
,sanitation, nutrition, and hygiene).Some clinics have been established in rural areas by NGOs thus
have reduced diseases like malaria ,dysentery, cholera, Marasmus in children and kwashiokor that is
claiming the lives of people and children .

NGOs have really tried to promote development to the extent that some are greatly involved in
eliminating corruption which threatens the development process of Uganda .UDN(Uganda debt
network )is playing a big role in combating corruption in Uganda she is closing this through seminars,
workshops ,lectures to look for the remedy of this vice-corruption.
Projects like ACCORD have promoted community centered actions to counter and address
attitudes and cultures that promote impunity for sexual crimes and ensure justice for survivors of
these crimes. More so ,it has persued ways to develop a critical mass of women and men at all levels to
challenge existing cultural and societal attitudes and practices that promote and perpetuate sexual
violence and impunity for sexual crimes .Though also most perpetrators mainly in communities go
unpunished because the victims face intimidation and death threats among others because most of
the victims who are women and children suffer social economic vulnerability.
The UHCR has articulated the human rights concerns arising out of the Uganda government
disarmament process in karamoja in 2001-2002 that has been fraught with misconceptions especially
from the public and provide reliable information on the conflict trends inn karamoja and neighboring
districts with the aim of enhancing public awareness and making viable recommendations for possible
interventions that will bring lasting peace to the region.
The UHCR working together with other stakeholders since 1997 ,the commission has concerned
itself with the karamaja conflict ,facilitated by the HRDP/DANIDA and the centre conflict resolution
(CECORE),the UHRC together with the network of civil society organisations in karamoja ,katakwi,
Soroti ,mbale and kapchorwa organized a workshop on co-existing ,peace, lobbying and advocacy
between September 22nd and 23rd 2001 at Fairway Hotel in Kampala .At the workshop it was agreed
that a three-tier format for the way forward would be adopted, these proposals were used as a basis
for the implementation of the overall plan of action and provided a mechanism for participatory
interventions whereby all players actively engaged and the actual field processes received wide press
coverage both in the print and electronic media ,in various languages that included English,
Akarimojong, Lumasaba, ateso, and luo though the biggest challenge for the commission in relation to
this joint initiative ,however was to establish an effective presence on the ground ,so as to train the
communities in karamoja on how to monitor rights and also to sensitize the general public and the
active military units about the disarmament programs.
Some NGOs are involved in improving the state of the marginalised and disadvantaged people for
instance the street children and women .They are aimed at promoting them and enabling them to have
a good life for example, habitat for humanity is helping street children and UWESO do help the
orphans and women thereby helping the disadvantaged.
Some NGOs do offer and extend credit to people especially the poor to put them on the line of
development. By doing this ,they encourage people to start small business and improve their income

hence creating a culture of saving and investing which is very essential if development is to take
place.UWESO is seriously encouraging people to start small projects if they are to qualify for credit or
(entandikwa).
Some NGO's are actively involved in conserving the environment so as to avoid the dangers of
environment degradation which has dissastrous efffects on the development process of the country
like long drought which affects agricultural productivity due to loss of soil fertility leading to famine.
CARE-Uganda is spending a lot of resources as far as environmental protection is concerned. According
to monitor (newspaper) Wednesday June 20th 2001(1) we see 19 NGO's writing to the World Bank
directors expressing their concern on environment. They are arguing the World Bank not to fund the
the proposed Nile independent power project at Bujagali. These NGO's argued that projects will
seriously have an impact on fisheries along R.Nile including the species. This shows their great desire to
have the environment protected so as to cause sustainable development.
The UN character is a basis of international law. Some vital articles and chapters relating to peace
and conflict include;Art1(2),2(1)and 2(4),chapter 5(security council),6(pacific settlement of
disputes),7(use of force),8(use of regional arrangements)and XIV(international court of justice ).Some
of the general roles of the UN in conflict management include ;Development of peace keeping
forces,the Sc passing resolutions that declare a threat to security and other resolutions advocating for
interventions ,co-operation with regional organizations in actions aimed at managing conflicts
,provision of emergency assistance through its different umbrella organizations such as
UNICEF,WHO,UNOCHA,WFP etc funding and supervision of peace processes, SSSR(DDR)and other
reforms aimed at post conflict reconstruction, post conflict development through co-operation with
government institutions (UNDP and UN,HABITAT)naming and shaming policy eg those countries and
militaries using child soldiers and child labor, countries guilt of human rights abuse.

However NGO's have got challenges in their service delivery.

Most of the plans of NGO's are not achieved, the remain on paper because of corruption are
faced with the problem of corruption in the areas where they operate like the money that is meant to
improve on the standard of living for the people like the vulnerable groups end up being embezzled by
the middle class people and this has hindered the plans of NGO's.

NGO's have faced the problem of unskilled labour to achieve the set objectives like you see most
of them are community based organization like sensitization of the masses about the importance of
NGO's thus hindering the plans of these NGO's in the areas they operate.
NGO's have got a problem of rapid population growth in areas of operation and this makes a big
number of people being poor and they need help from these organizations and yet you find these
organizations have limited funds that was budgeted for few individuals and then the number exceeds
this becomes a problem because there is no way how these organizations are added more funds
because they also depend on donors and are given a specific amount.
Diseases have also been a problem to NGO's like malaria ad HIV/AIDS in most developing countries
and people need health care or health facilities to improve on their health status. This becomes a
problem because some of these organizations are specific in nature like some cater education, poverty
and this will hinder its plans because the money meant for education will divert to health which will
divert the the objectives of the NGO's.
The NGO's face the problem of beuaracracy in the areas of operation these organizations are
supposed to work outside the realm of government but in developing countries they follow some
places of registering and other causes monitoring from the state that makes their plans to remain on
paper.
NGO's faced the problem of literacy where by in some countries they dont consider the girl child
education they know that only boys are the ones supposed to go to school and girls stay home doing
house work and are considered a source of wealthy in some societies and again some people like the
women are ignorant, they dont know their rights, women in developing countries were not supposed
to participate in politics or in business so that they can come out of poverty and develop their
communities.
The plans of NGO's have remained on paper because of conservatism in some communities like
karamojongs in Uganda have refused to change their culture ie they dont want to adopt better
methods of agriculture like the modernization of agriculture that gives high produce thus being a
challenge because their aim is to improve on the standards of living of the poor.
NGO's have faced a challenge of political instabilities in areas where they operate like wars in
developing countries has hindered them to achieve their set objectives like in war areas its difficult to
carry the activities of these organizations in Sudan.
NGO's have faced a problem of a lot of competition rather than cooperation in areas where they
operate like one organization can come with the aim of empowering women like Caritas Uganda and
even accord came with the same objective and this will create competition among themselves.

Some NGO's work on contracts and its hard for them to continue working when their contracts
expires like the international federation of Red cross crescent that expired in 2002 and all the staff was
laid off and it makes the plans of NGO's remain on paper.
Infrastructures like roads and hospitals have made plans of NGO's to remain on paper like in areas
where there are no roads ,it hinders these organizations to carry out their activities.
Though challenges have been solved in different ways ;
There has been improvement of education system by the commission for example in karamoja .The
exercise of the right to education is fundamental in negating the effects of backward tradition,
historical, religious and cultural attitudes and practices that have kept karamoja undeveloped .Because
of the dictates of the climate many homesteads are highly mobile and children are not able to benefit
from the right to education under the government universal education program. And there has been
introduction of more quality education to the karamoja (ABEK)which has eased the communication
between them and the civil societies and NGOs.
The tendency is to offer decentralization in which some power is devolved to field level, as a
solution to the problem of tensions between field offices and headquarters .However ,decentralization
can have the paradoxical effect of increasing bureaucracy as organizations devolving power on the one
hand, tend to set up all sorts of control measures on the other. NGO's have to make strategic choices
between confrontational, complementary or collaborative strategic relationships with government.
The process of making these strategic choices gives rise to internal tensions concerning expenditure
priorities, the conflicting demands of clients and donors which result in disagreement over an
appropriate balance between quality services and meeting fundraizing targets. Service deliverers are
pulled towards clients and fund raisers towards donors. The result can be a split within the
organization acting as a mediator or bridge between donor and client (Norell,2006)
Focus on fostering the participation of all sectors of society in environmental decision making and
in supporting regional co-operation .offer the following services ;information exchange and
publications ,with an emphasis on facilitating access to information ,training and capacity building ,and
grants programs for NGO's with limited access to local resources .Consist of a network of national
offices ,as well as a head office that acts as a co-ordination and information centre with financial
authority (REC,1997).
To develop the organization ,individuals have to be able to contribute in the decision making
process and they need to learn. All participants need to understand their responsibility to present their
particular stakeholders and to support the implementation activities (Inglis8 MINAHAN,2006 )
NGO's could form voluntary national professional associations,like associations of engineers
accountants or insurance companies aimed at promoting the sector ,partly through self policing of

standards. The solution list is likely to include several of the following issues; Time lines of issuing of
annual reports ;issues to be included in the annual report or elsewhere publicly available)such as
degree of disclosure of assets and liabilities of salaries and all other benefits paid to staff, directors,
board members ,and consultants; employment ,recruitment and staff development policies and
practices ,source of finance .Arrangements for internal or external scruitiny of financial transactions,
employment practices, organization policies etc and Arrangements for the evaluation of organistion
performance.

In conclusion ,NGO's could do better if there was more good

relationship with the governments of areas where by operate and
government sensitize the masses about the importance of these nongovernmental organizations so that their objectives are achieved like
alleciation of poverty ,empowering women ,provide relief aid to disasters
,improving health facilities ,education to the poor after achieving these. It
will lead to development.