Strengthen the Capacity of LC1 Committee

Limited data to support service delivery to the vulnerable, marginalized groups and the general village/slums communities in Uganda. The project will strengthen the capacity of Village Executive Committee to use smartphones to collect/register the village members in their constituencies. In Uganda, for instance, the Village committee members comprise of including, inter alias, a) a chairperson; b) a vice-chairperson who is the secretary of children welfare; c) a general secretary; d) a secretary for information, education, and mobilization; e) a secretary for security; f) a secretary for finance; g) a secretary for production and environmental protection, etc…. Using the Village Committee Members can be scaled globally most effectively in countries operating under decentralized governance system because they have already established structures. Village Committee members are well known by the community/citizenry and the people can trust them than anyone who might be coming outside their constituencies especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Least Developed Countries, in general, and Uganda, in particular, are struggling with the challenges of inadequate data needed to support the provision of service delivery and financial support to their vulnerable groups and the general population especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the people don’t have IDs or are not known thus making it difficult to receive assistance from their governments and the development partners. According to the statement published in the Daily Monitor, Thursday March 2020, the minister told the House of Parliament that out of 29,343,615 Ugandans who registered for National IDs, National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) managed to issue only 15,227, 171 cards as of March 1, leaving a 14 million without IDs. The minister said an additional 2,713,413 applications have not been processed. Furthermore, the Uganda National Population Housing Census conducted in 2014 and it is now 6 years and 6 months which makes the data inadequate due to the high migration rate, high birth rate and death rates among Ugandans.

Therefore, the project will work towards strengthening the capacity of the Village Executive Committee members with technical skills on how to register their village members in their constituencies using the smartphones with applications. 

Through strengthening the capacity of the Village Executive Committee members to use smartphones in collecting/registering the vulnerable groups and the general community in their constituencies to obtain the ID, this process will benefit more the vulnerable, marginalized, and the general village community members in Uganda. The Lock down and closure of businesses as a result of COVID-19 has left many citizens with no disposable income to meet their daily needs and yet the government does not have adequate data about their people to be able to support them with the necessities like food, medicines especially for the people living with including, inter alias, Aids, cancer, hypertension, and other diseases. The availability of data will help in planning and in the distribution of the necessary support to the vulnerable thus improvement in livelihoods, and sustainable development.

For almost seven years, I have been implementing projects across Uganda and I have got chance to leaders from slums of Kampala. I am also in the process of registering a non-government organization “Citizen Platform for Social and Economic Development” it will focus on the improvement on the livelihoods of the people living in slums of Kampala city. The data will governments in planning processes.

There is inadequate data about the total number of people, what they do; their sex and age in a given village/ constituencies in Uganda. Therefore, massive data collection is needed and the only way to conduct this process inclusively without living anyone behind especially the vulnerable and marginalized community members in especially during this COVID-19 period is through strengthening the capacity of the Village Executive Committee Members with health, and technical skills on how to use smartphones with data collection application to move house to house registering people for IDs needed for provision of service delivery and financial support. 

In the current Global COVID-19 pandemic, I have not got to know of any person or organization with the view to use the Local Council 1 or Village Executive Committee members as a resource in collecting data or registering the village members for Identifications needed for improved service delivery and financial support. It is unique in the way that for all along, the Population and Housing Census in Uganda is conducted by the enumerators assigned by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics but still some people are not captured. This approach is going to use the Local Council 1 (LC1) Executive Committee members to collect data after being equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills on how to use the smartphones with data collection application. They will go houses to house while generating data. The other unique thing about using Village Executive Committee members is that they are well known by the people within a given village, and they interact with them regularly before COVID-19 pandemic.Being a crisis, and moving towards another election it will act as a double-edged sword for both the data collectors and the citizens in the way that the Village Executive Committee will use the process  as a window of selling themselves to the voters but also an opportunity to the village community members to hope for improved service delivery from their leaders and the development partners. An example, refugees can be given IDs but the local authority (s) have a hug role to play. 

On several occasions, many people are not interested in sharing their personal issues or information with new individuals and most often they hide the critical information to the strangers. However, with this approach of using village Executive Committee members to collect data which is needed for generating IDs in a particular village and to Uganda in general 99% of the total village members will be registered because they know their people and they have an obligation. In terms of innovation, the approach is not far from what the Uganda Bureau of Statistic uses during the National Housing Population Census, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and the public-private partnership of URSB, Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) and UNICEF used before of a Mobile Vital Registration System (M-VRS). M-VRS enabled use of mobile phones and a web-based application to register births and death. However, this one is going to focus on building the capacity of the LC1 Executive Committee Members to register all their villages’ members for IDs using smartphones with application. This data will help the government in planning processes for improved service delivery and financial support most especially during the COVID-19, and in the future. In addition to that, the approach will not require citizen to move to the sub-county, parishes or divisions but Executive Committee members moving houses to house to register people using smartphones. Internet will be provided on those smartphones and at least every day in the evening the data is forwarded to the command center.

There is limited data about who we are what we do and the total number of citizenry in a given village in Uganda. Such data is needed to provide service delivery and financial support to the vulnerable, marginalized groups and the general village/slum communities in Uganda most especially during the COVID-19 pandemic where measures like social distancing and lock down has affected the citizens incomes and livelihoods. Although this would have been solved by the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) data out of 29,343,615 Ugandans who registered for National IDs, NIRA managed to issue only 15,227, 171 cards as of March 1, 2020 leaving a 14 million without IDs. The minister said an additional 2,713,413 applications have not been processed. The other alternative could have been Uganda National Population Housing Census data which was conducted in 2014 but it is now 6 years and 6 months which makes the data inadequate due to high migration rate, high birth rate and death rates among Ugandans. Uganda needs to have viable and adequate data about total number of people in a particular village and the country at large showing; who we are, and what Ugandan’s do. This will inform the government and development partners in planning and in distribution of the necessary support to the vulnerable groups thus improving their livelihoods, and attainment of sustainable development where no one is left behind. However, this is not the case. Therefore, the project will work towards strengthening the capacity of the Village Executive Committee members with technical skills on how to use smartphones to collect the required data from their village members; the project will also facilitate the Local Council 1 Executive Committee Members to be able to collect the data; smartphone will be distributed to the Executive Committee to start the process; community/village will be sensitized to be aware of the process and how to conduct it. It is anticipated that with the available data it will lead to better planning, better budget allocation towards service delivery especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and in future for improved livelihoods and sustainable development.

Uganda has used several approaches to ensure that Ugandan register or be issued with an ID. Some of these attempts include, inter alias, Registration of births, deaths, and marriages which was introduced in Uganda in 1904, then the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA). This law also replaced the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1970 and transferred responsibility for birth and death registration from URSB to the newly established NIRA as of January 1, 2016, but also there was a public-private partnership of URSB, Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) and UNICEF using the Mobile Vital Registration System (M-VRS). M-VRS was registering births and deaths. However, through strengthening the capacity of the Local Council1 Executive Committee members on how to use smartphones with data collection tools to register village members of all ages it will ensure that no one is being left behind. This approach is going to work with the National Identification and Registration Authority and other authorities to come up with a user-friendly application/tool which is going to be installed on smartphones to register. They will move house to house in their constituencies registering their village members thus allowing the marginalized and vulnerable members to register since many cannot move out of their homes because they are handicapped others because of stigma and now the current COVID-19 pandemic. The call will also go to the development partners to provide computers to LC1 to have updated data of their village members for better planning and service delivery.

Through using the Local Council or Village Council Executive Committee Members is an approach that has been not used before.  However, from the experience, I have worked with Local Government on Local Revenue Management Processes in districts of Kitgum, Lamwo and Pader where we requested the Districts to nominate their representative who later become District Resource Person (DRPs). They were trained and were able to mentor as well as coach their colleagues in their constituencies about the processes. I am of the view that even the Local Council 1 Executive Committee members can. What is needed is to equip them with the knowledge and skills on how to use the smartphones with the data collection application or web page to be able to move house to house to register their village members for IDs. The aspect of incorporating digital identification is through using smartphones with data collection applications or web page to enable them register their village members there and then. The data collected will be forwarded to the commanding center where the identifications are going to be  generated from.    

A study will be done to compare the different data collection tools that have been used so far in Uganda to collect data for the different purposed. For instance, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) data template and the public-private partnership of URSB, Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL), and UNICEF used before of a Mobile Vital Registration System (M-VRS). Those two templates will be useful in coming up with a comprehensive data collection template which will be developed on smartphones and used in registering the marginalized, Vulnerable, and village members or the general population of Uganda for identifications while using the Local Council 1 Executive Committee members to collect data in all district of Uganda following the election of local council 1 in July 2018.

Through using the Village Council Executive Committee members this will require them to be first trained on how to use the smartphones and the application to collect data. As per the decentralization policy, the Local Council 1 Executive Committee members are supposed to be 10 people or 11 if the Chairperson is added but in this process he will do the supervisory role. Therefore, the remaining number is ten people who will be trained and provided with the smartphones to collect or register their village members. In this process, the internet will be provided to only those Executive committee members on their lines to serve the purpose of sending the data to the commanding center. In terms of literacy and numeracy levels, the village committees are members of their village, they speak the same languages and they know their people. Therefore, where there is a need to translate they will translate the English questions into their native or local languages thus making the exercise a success.

Currently, I am not serving any citizen but planning to start with the people living in the slums of Kampala city. However, Kampala city houses the largest urban slums; lying on 14. 6 sq. km, and administratively divided into 20 Parishes and 135 zones with a population of 90,392. At this time even, it is somehow challenging to have the real data of people living in a given village due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Several Ugandans moved to the village following the loss of their jobs, poor returns on their investments, etc...This, therefore, make it significant for collecting or registering the village members to know the exert number of the people in a given village, the vulnerable and the marginalized brought up by the increased migration, birth rates and death rates for better planning and improved service delivery.

An example; the 2014 Census indicated that Kampala had a population of 1,516,210 people, and when it came to the houses; each house a according to the data was comprised of 4.2 and 4.8 urban to rural houses respectively. The data will collected village by village and centralized .

CPSED’s goal is to promote social and economic policies and practices that are coherent and progressive to the current and future social and economic challenges and provide platforms for generating alternatives for sustainable development and improved people’s livelihoods.

Problem: currently, Uganda’s social and economic policies and practices are inconsistent and lack coherence to enable the country and its citizenry to achieve sustainable development and improved people’s livelihoods.  In the address this, the project will;

• Stimulate and support the economic activities of the people living in slums of Kampala city to enable them to increase their household income. This will help the slum dwellers to generate a return on their investments, be able to save, investment while increasing their household income. The increase in the household income will support them to look for better places away from the slums, meet their necessities for improved livelihoods and attainment of sustainable development.  
• Promote fair and inclusive Local revenue Mobilisation, Utilisation, and accountability in local governments. This will help the citizen/local taxpayers to participate in revenue mobilization, utilization, and accountability for inclusiveness as well as ensure that they are part of the tax processes.
• To identify the source of population information for better planning purposes both at lower Local Government and at the national level. With the current pandemic and since time immemorial Uganda does not have accurate data about the total number of its citizen thus failing to have better planning and provision social service for improved livelihoods and attainment of sustainable development. 

- Financial – Limited disbursement of funds. Delays in approval of the project may lead to delay in the implementation of activities as per the work plan. This may affect project delivery in terms of efficiency in implementing project activities

- Technical- Limited staff capacity, some of the project staff may not have sufficient capacity to effectively deliver on the project. This will lead to the failure of the project to achieve the intended results. Limited understanding and appreciation of the basic concepts and approaches of the project

- Legal - The long time frame of the policy approval process. This will lead to delay in assessing the progress of policy advocacy based on the stages of policy advocacy cycle especially those around social and economic of the people

- Cultural - Citizens Apathy, Social Unrest this is due to citizen’s ignorance about the laws and their rights, for instance, the right to access social services like health, clean environment, water, and education. This may delay the implementation of the project as many of the citizens are not aware to be able to engage their leaders and to influence policy issues

- Market Barriers. This is a non-profit making organization or ideology, therefore, the aspect of marking may not be encountered.  

Human Resource: Aloysious Kittengo the founder of Citizen Platform for Social and Economic Development (CPSED) has and experience in Taxation and Trader advocacy for over 9 years, working with Government both at sub-national and national levels, Parliamentarians, Civil Society organization, Academia, youth and women organization. All that experience is going to use where it is required for the successful implementation of the project. However, though CPSED has the required credentials to be registered, it is not yet registered due to the COVID-19 because it was supposed to be registered in March 2020 but the offices were closed due to the COVID 19 pandemic. In addition to that, new staff will be recruited and be oriented to understand the project and the methodology to be used to implement planned interventions.

Financial Resource; winning the Mission Billion Challenge is going to be a huge achievement individually but also in the name of Citizen Platform for Social and economic development. Those funds if attained will support in piloting the idea in the selected slums/villages in Kampala city. As per the Local Government Act [CAP 243] cities are equivalent to the districts and districts are comprised of sub-counties, parishes, and villages. Therefore, the project is going to be piloted in the selected villages.

Limited disbursement of funds; the project implementing team will communicate with donors and address issues accordingly.

Limited staff capacity; orientation of key staff to understand the project and the methodology to be used to implement planned interventions

I entered the World Bank Billion challenge as an individual but because I am in the process of registering the Citizen Platform for social and Economic development (CPSED) a non-profit organisation which is going to focus more on the improvement people's livelihoods especially those living in slums of Kampala city. I do not know of any organisation that have registered or with interest to participate in the World Bank billion challenge. Therefore, if my Idea is relevant I will find those that a willing to work with me.

I entered the competition as an individual, however, being the founder member of Citizen platform for Social and Economic Development (CPSED) I thought that it could be relevant to bring it on board. It is new organisation which has two volunteers that have been helping in doing ground work like meeting the targeted groups. Therefore, The only person how is working full-time is the Country Director and that is me Aloysious Kittengo. Nevertheless, we can recruit new staff provided funds are available.

Aloysious Kittengo the team leader is a Social Scientist with a Postgraduate Certificate Course in International Trade Facilitation and development. He has Trade and fiscal advocacy skills of over 8 years while working with Southern and East Africa Trade Information and Negotiation Institute -(SEATINI-Uganda). He has experience in collecting data using smartphones, for instance, he conducted a feasibility study for the World Citizen panel Commissioned by the Dutch Management Consulting Firm on behalf Oxfam Novib, and he an enumerator for Financing for Development (F4D) to collect data using smartphones for Oxfam Uganda partners supported by World Citizen panel in 2016. He has also conducted a number of baseline studies but specifically on Local Revenue mobilisation, utilisation, accountability, citizen participation, and good governance. 

Citizen platform for social and Economic Development (CPSED) is going to be registered in Kampala city or district where it is going to focus more on improving the livelihoods of the slum dwellers in Kampala. However, partnership and network will be used as strategies where the needs arises. 

The Organisation is not working with any organisation but only works with Local Village leaders on the issues that affect the communities. Some of the issues highlighted by the leaders lack opportunity to participate in decision-making process at their lower local level and other issues which we have used to inform programming in the organisation. Nevertheless, the organisation will work with youth organisations, women organisation and other organisation that strive to improved the well being of the people living in slums of Kampala city.

Key resources

-Workshops and service-

Partners +key stakeholders:

Local Council 1 Executive Committee members, main district Local Government officials, however, when it comes to the implementation of the goal for organisation working in slums; Kampala Capital City Authority and other orgnisation working in Kampala will be brought on board

Key activities

• -Organise inception meeting
• -Conduct strategic meeting
• -Data collection and registration
• -Monitoring and evaluation

Channels

• -Media engagements
• -Workshops
• -strategic engagements

Segments

• -Beneficially

Marginalized, vulnerable and general village community members especially those living slums of Kampala district.

Values proportions

• -Improved service delivery to the village community members
• -Improved budget allocation to social needs of the community
• -Increased citizen participation in decision-making at all levels
• -Improvement in house hold incomes especially for the vulnerable poor living is slums of Kampala city, Uganda

Cost structure

• -Facilitating the Executive committee members on daily basis to conduct the work
• -Purchasing of the smartphones to be used during the exercise
• -Internet subscription for the period of conducting data for 11 Executive Committee members
• -Facilitation for Executive Director CPSED
• -Transport to do monitoring and evaluation during and after project implementation
• -Workshops for the Executive committee members
• -Refreshments

Surplus

Supporting/advancing the individual groups/individuals who want to improve their business

Revenue - This is the first time to sale the idea to the world.

Being a non-government organization, her financial sustainability is going to depend more on sustained donations. Nevertheless, the project is expected to spend around UGX. 222, 810,000/= for one village to; facilitate the Executive Committee members to register the village members, purchasing of smartphones, data/internet subscription, fuel for hired care to take the Executive director to the field, car hire, facilitation for the staff, conducting the inception meeting and end of project report.

The fact the World Bank Billion Challenge called for the organization and individuals, I was motivated to share my idea and this is first time to front this idea to any donor or for donations. Though, individual were given the chance to front their idea, I was motivated also to indicated Citizen Platform for Social and Economic Development (CPSED-Uganda) as an organisation I  will use to implement the project because it is my organisation which is yet to be registered and it is going to work within Kampala, Uganda most especially with people living in slums of Kampala city. I have so far submitted one mini-proposal on “Idea for Action” to World Bank Group, Wharton and Zicklin Center. The overall objective for the project was "Capacity of slum dwellers to take a more effective part in decision making processes on revenue mobilization and Utilization enhanced, and they have better understanding of their businesses for improved household income and attainment of tremendous sustainable development".

To be able to register the Vulnerable, marginalized and village community members in Uganda using the Local Council 1 Executive Committee Members it will require us to incur expenses on facilitate the Executive Committee members to register the village members, purchasing of smartphones, data/internet subscription, fuel for hired care to take the Executive director to the field, car hire, facilitation for the staff, conducting the inception meeting and end of project report. Around $ 59,722.5 Dollars is expected to be spent on only one village.

Around $ 59,722.5 Dollars is expected to be spent on only one village for 2 month and $119,445 for 4 month.

Uganda is faced with limited data about who we are what we do and the total number of citizenry in a given village in Uganda. I am applying for the for the challenge as an individual who has for some time been engaging the community for some time I came to realise the many of the citizen in Uganda are not planned for because the government dose not know their total number, what they do and where they live. This has affected service delivery and effective success of government projects. Therefore,this project will strengthen the capacity of Village Executive Committee to use smartphones to collect/register the village members in their constituencies and ensure that the marginalised and vulnerable groups are not left behind during the registration process.

Civil Society Organisations to plan together, advocacy and engagements

Media houses Putting to put issues in the public domain

Government agencies for Technical support and provision of information on how to improve the tools we are going to use during data collection 

Lower Local Council Executive members - to undertake the role, agree on the timeline and other issues that may arise.

National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA)- To appreciate the new approach of using smartphones well going door to door than making people to come together at a sub-county or village 

Local Governments to mobilise their fellow leader to join hand during the registration process.

Uganda Bureau of Standards to appreciate the need to collect the data or register the community members know than waiting till a decade passes 

Media to put the project issues into the public domain 

Private sector- most especially those with the IT expertise to put the tools together.