Our Achievements

UDN has registered a number of achievements over the past 20 years which it will build on during the period of this Strategic Plan. These key achievements are as follows:

Debt Relief Campaign by UDN has yielded these results: 

1. Uganda received debt relief under HIPC in 1998 and 100% cancellation of multilateral debt under the MDRI in 2005.
2. Helped demystify otherwise complex of external debt crisis and their economic and social consequences for Uganda creating massive awareness on the impact thereof on the ordinary Ugandan.
3. Uganda Government revised its Debt Strategy in 2006 and 2013 to regulate government borrowing and reduce on the debt burden.

Pro-poor national policy advocacy

• Demystification of macro-economic concepts at national and grassroots levels has contributed towards creation of awareness which enhanced community-level consciousness on the effects of socio-economic policies.
• Policy makers and implementers have been able to debate and appreciate the importance of participatory planning and implementation of development programmes.
• Citizens have developed competence and are making meaningful contribution to the budget process through budget analysis and provision of alternative proposals.
• Advocacy work on the budget led to the enactment of the Budget Act 2001, which gives Parliament more powers in the budget process
• Policy advocacy work has brought important policy changes or stopped certain policy measures that were deemed unnecessary such as tax proposals.
• Work on budget transparency has contributed to the improvement in Uganda’s ranking in the Open Budget Index (OBI) from a score of 32% in 2006, to 55% in 2010, and to 62% in 2015 (with Uganda being ranked the best in East Africa and 24th worldwide amongst 102 countries surveyed in 2015).
• Advocacy and interactions with the MoFPED led to the production of the Citizen’s Guide to the Budget.
• Contributed to the development of the PEAP (Poverty Eradication Action Plan) and the NDP (National Development Plan).

Community empowerment

• MoFPED started publishing information about PAF releases in the print media and on notice boards of local governments at District and Sub-County levels. The practice by MoFPED of publishing budget releases to MDALGs has continued up to today.
• Community monitoring has influenced the revision of some regulations such as the School Facilities Grants (SFG) to include community participation to monitor the construction of classrooms.
• Government’s decision to introduce ‘barazas’ was largely inspired by the success of UDN’s CBMES model. Due to the CBMES, there is improved responsiveness, accountability and transparency among service providers; and service delivery is improving specifically in areas where they are working.
• The CBMES has helped to build a cadre of leadership with the appropriate values and value system

Governance and Anti-corruption

• Government of Uganda designed a National Anti-Corruption Strategy to combat corruption and build ethics and integrity in public office.
• Parliamentary Commission enacted a law and regulations to govern the disbursement of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) funds. The CDF was eventually scrapped by Government in 2011.
• Some government agencies such as KCCA and MoH and Amuru District Local Governmentto develop stiff regulations of the use of public vehicles.
• Government developed Client Charters for the various government sectors which have increased awareness and accountability of service providers.
• Government amended the PPDA Act to close loopholes within the law.
• Government initiated marking of drugs and medicines with ‘Government of Uganda’s inscription, which minimized the stealing of drugs in public health facilities.

Capacity Building and Empowerment

UDN has been able facilitate capacity building and support communities to monitor public service delivery and engage the duty bearers for effective public service delivery in 24 districts scattered across all regions of Uganda. This capacity building and support to CSOs has promoted learning and mobilization of resources for the community monitoring groups to grow towards self-sustainability and deepening of their interventions. Some of the community monitoring groups that have graduated into registered legal institutions as CBOs are: Iganga Poverty Monitoring Group into GAP, Bugiri Monitoring Group into COPISED, and Bushenyi Monitoring Group into WACC. Meanwhile, local or regional institutions that improved their performance under UDN partnership include COU TEDDO and MONARLIP. Over the SAPP 2012-2016, UDN has also significantly continued to support and nurturing institutions and platforms like CSBAG, IAF, FRA to deliver on their mandate.