In order to strengthen public and civil society sectors capacity for Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention and management, ACFODE in partnership with UWONET carried out an OCA of different local organizations (CBOs, FBOs NGOs) in districts of Mubende, Kanungu, Yumbe, Oyam, Katakwi, Moroto, Kotido and Kaboong. The assessment was done using the Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT). The organizations were also assessed for GBV programming and implementation.
This activity was implemented as part of the 7th GOU/UNFPA country program under the Gender Component in the 8 selected districts of Uganda.
15 CSOs were targeted in each of the project districts and 2 participants preferably.
The objectives of the organizational capacity assessment included:
• Establishing organizational strengths and weaknesses for the CSO sub groups.
• Establishing training, technical and other appropriate interventions which will strengthen the overall functioning of the CSO subgroups in order to advance gender and rights.
• Establishing CSO knowledge levels on gender based violence and reproductive rights.
• And identifying gaps and recommendations for an improved performance of the GBV service delivery and GBV referral systems.
The organizational effectiveness was assessed based on the 7 elements of the OCA tool namely governance, management practices, human resources, financial resources, service delivery, external relations and sustainability of the organization.
Over 75% of the participating CSOs reported that they had been addressing GBV for over three years and the reasons that prompted them to undertake GBV interventions were varied and included high prevalence of GBV due to development of camps as a result of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in war affected areas, family breakages, HIV discordant couples fighting over the right to sex, stigma and discrimination, increasing domestic violence, rape and defilement among others.
CSOs noted a number of challenges faced that included ignorance of the community about gender and rights, women’s reluctance to report cases of GBV, limited participation and lack of support from men, poor follow up on GBV by Local Councils and police because inadequate facilitation and reluctance of the police to handle BV related cases among others.
Some of the areas suggested for addressing the challenges faced included GBV prevention and advancement of reproductive rights plus referral system and process, GBV (forms, causes and effects), GBV Management, legal frameworks in handling GBV such as the Domestic Violence Act, Marriage and Divorce Bill and policy development like the financial policy, human resource policy, information systems policy.
They also called for more sensitization/ awareness about GBV and Reproductive Rights through community dialogues/ meetings and trainings, formation of women groups and supporting them financially. Formation of a strong GBV coalition in each of the project districts and provision of relevant literature and IEC materials on GBV and Reproductive Rights was also discussed as a possibility.
The facilitators noted that the OCA was a great opportunity for the participating CSOs to assess themselves and establish their capacity gaps in which they would be trained in order to build their capacities and also contribute to organizational development. The assessment revealed that there is still a lot that needs to be done with regard to the knowledge levels of CSOs on GBV so that they can together, with the district based alliances ensure GBV prevention and advancement of Reproductive Rights.
Submitted By Sandra Nassali
Public Relations & Communications Officer
Action For Development
No comments:
Post a Comment