Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA) -www.deniva.or.ug

Uganda CSI Report: Executive Summary. Downloadable in pdf [37KB]
Uganda CSI Report: Full Report. Downloadable in pdf [860KB].
Project Evaluation for Uganda: Executive Summary.Downloadable in pdf [25KB].

Civil Society in Uganda: At the Crossroads?

The Civil Society Index Report for Uganda was produced by the CIVICUS Civil Society Index (CSI) and its country partner, the Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Associations (DENIVA). The report provides a rich description of the current state of Ugandan civil society and stresses its most interesting features. Civil society in Uganda is very diverse and comprises national-level organisations as well as a myriad of community associations and groups. Interestingly, high levels of participation in civil society activities (both in urban and rural areas) go hand in hand with limited political involvement. Uganda’s civil society promotes many important values (particularly, poverty eradication), although it does not always practice them as wholeheartedly.

CSOs overwhelmingly focus on service delivery and often refrain from getting involved in the more political terrain of advocacy, while limited dialogue with government and scant popular base for those CSOs that engage in advocacy tend to deepen a divide between service delivery and advocacy work and thus reduce civil society’s impact on society at large. In the conclusive remarks, the authors of the report pose a crucial question: Will civil society in Uganda confine itself to a somewhat docile role, focusing on service delivery and sub-contracting from government?

Or will it further develop its capacity to question the socio-political make-up of Uganda, striving to augment its autonomy, its sense of independent identity, its cohesion and its local ownership?