WHO IS INDEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT FUND?

Since its establishment in 2008, The Independent Development Fund (IDF) has supported various kinds of Human Rights projects in different parts of the Country. As various reports indicate, each locality has specific human rights challenges, to which local organisations aim to respond to with specific targeted interventions. This is done either through human rights education, promotion for reforms in the judicial systems, or advocacy for ending human rights violations and practicing good governance approaches. IDF strives to assist the promotion of human rights taking into consideration Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI).

IDF also works through extending grants to local organizations that operate at the grassroots. This support in the form of grants and technical assistance, gives IDF the sense to believe that engagement between the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and administration at the Districts, and national levels, illustrate the thoughtful application of various approaches to empowerment and promotion of Good governance.

To date, IDF’s growth provides a good strategic foundation to pursue its ambition of being a highly efficient, transparent grant making institution for small and medium-sized organizations working on human rights and good governance issues at local level, and a grant manager of choice for funding partners aiming at enhancing protection, fulfillment and observance of human rights and good governance in Uganda.  Currently, IDF is funded by the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) a multi-donor funding mechanism supported by Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the European Union Delegation, whose aim is to strengthen democratisation, improve the protection of human rights, enhance access to justice, promote peaceful co-existence and improve accountability in Uganda..

The IDF vision is - “A vibrant indigenous grant-making institution contributing to the achievement of human rights, good governance, rule of law, local democracy and better quality of life” And the Mission is: “To enable indigenous CSOs access grants through an efficient grant making system”.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM IDF’S 2013 -2018 STRATEGIC PLAN

Being the first of its kind in Uganda pioneering a new grant focus on small and medium organizations in the Central, Western, Eastern and Northern parts of Uganda, IDF’s goal in the next five years is to transition into a highly efficient and transparent grant making institution for small and medium-sized organizations working on human rights and good governance issues at local level and a grant manager of choice for funding partners aiming at enhancing protection, fulfillment and observance of human rights and good governance in Uganda.

In the bid to achieve the different strategic objectives stipulated in it’s strategic plan, IDF will build upon its achievements, address highlighted challenges and also transform into a Results-Oriented Centre for Excellence for grant making to small and medium sized organizations pursuing human rights observance and good governance in Uganda. 

It should be noted that the formulation of the IDF strategy is hitched on several lessons from previous implementation and that the five year transformation of IDF will be along three thematic lines; the clarity on IDF’s niche, scope and development goals of IDF support-Under this IDF’s clientele will be the afore mentioned small and medium sized CSOs (Faith based, media and Non Government organizations). They will be serviced through technical, institutional and grants support to enhance observance, protection and fulfillment of human rights. The second aspect of transformation shall be the heighted focus on results and learning. These results will be around four areas; competent and vigilant public monitoring of human rights and governance in the community, target CSOs empowered to monitor compliance to human rights and good governance norms and provide rapid response to victims of violations, new frontiers for the protection and observance of human rights at local level opened up and promoted and an efficient, effective, transparent IDF grant making structure responsive to strategic needs. Lastly will be institutional growth, being an institution in transition, IDF will be creative, innovative, flexible and seek to open new frontiers through generation of new knowledge at local levels. In the same vein will develop performance plans to direct and focus its resources to relevant target areas.

The IDF theory of change is that small and medium funded CSOs working at the individual, community and district level, will be able to mobilize and bring out more cases of human rights violations reported and attended too, knowledgeable and active citizenry, thus further contributing to reduction of human rights violations incidences and poor governance, local policies and systems that support the promotion and protection of human rights and good governance. These combined are expected to result in responsive, accountable local governments to human needs and accountability demands by citizens and reduction of violations of human rights in communities and households.

Cognizant of the dynamic working environment IDF conducted a situation analysis from which it learnt of the different limitations, existing challenges in the work of human rights and governance and those risks that are likely to hamper the successful implementation of it’s strategic plan; they include; low level of rights awareness among communities, low level of primary mobilization of communities by small and medium sized organizations, less visible public activism at the local level, inadequate, slow out of pace response of duty bearers and of course the internal and external challenges facing the small and medium CSOs. As a measure several strategic interventions to these challenges have been developed and are to be implemented along the five years journey. For instance, IDF will invest heavily in raising public rights consciousness, pursue and adopt collaborative approaches with partners in pursuit of its objectives to mitigate the slow duty bearer response and adopt a facilitative yet firm stand to ensure that all grant recipients’ projects are both relevant and honest to community needs.  

On the whole the purpose of this plan is to ensure value addition to IDF’s work. The four value addition areas shall include; building civic competence through “grass rooting’ human rights and the demand for good governance among the public in Uganda particularly the vulnerable and disadvantaged populations; to enhance community mobilization, public activism and access to recourse/redress mechanism; and to open up and promote new frontiers for the protection and observance of human rights at the sub-national level.

Conclusively IDF’s strategic plan shall provide a broad, strategic direction that will direct the growth and set the development agenda for the next five years. And its effective implementation shall be fundamental to the realization of the long term vision of the National development plan of Uganda to foster a rights based approach to national development to promote economic growth, employment and prosperity. The same plan has been designed to contribute to the strategic objectives of IDF’s partners.

A COMMUNITY BASED PARA – LEGAL RESTORES HOPE OF AN ORPHAN

Musimenta Winnie is a 17 year old, HIV positive orphan who has been under the care of her uncle since 2005. Life did not turn out the way Winnie expected nor did it get better over the years. The care provided by her uncle was inadequate and unlawful. Her basic needs were barely met, her uncle stopped her from taking ARVs, and he began seizing her parents' properties.

The situation worsened in 2013 when her attendance at school became irregular because she could no longer access scholastic materials. Moreover, her uncle had started selling off some of her parents' properties. The poor girl desperately approached Ssewajje Emma; a paralegal of Kasankala parish trained under the Rakai Community Based Rights project. The paralegal swiftly intervened and advised the relatives of Musimenta to organize a clan meeting to discuss the estates of the deceased and the future of the orphans. Despite the fact that the meeting was held, and the members resolved that the estate be handed over to another relative who could manage it properly, when Winnie attained the age of the majority, the uncle refused to hand over the estate.

With the uncle's refusal, Emma turned to law enforcement for assistance. He referred the case to Lwamagwa Police Station. The police were able to track down the person who had purchased the property; however, they failed to take action. Emma then referred the case to Rakai Police Station. With the support of the District Police Commander, the case was successfully settled when the buyer was asked to immediately vacate the premises and stopped any developments on the banana plantation. Consequently, the poor girl regained control over land.

An alternative care family was also identified for Winnie. Winnie is currently happy living with Mr and Mrs Hamuzune Sadiq of Nongo village (another relative to Musimenta) in Kasankala parish. She has also resumed taking ARVs and attending school regularly.

"Nashemererwa munonga ahabwo Mwami Ssewajje ahabwokuba anyambire kyihango munonga omu magara gangye. Anyambiire munonga okugaruka kutunga itanga ryangye, okugarukamu okushoma kandi tinyerarikyirire ebiro by'omumisho n'obunakuba ndwire siriimu" she proudly narrates
In English: "I am very appreciative of the support by Mr. Ssewajje which has significantly changed my life. As of now I have secured my land, regularly attend school and not worried about the future despite being HIV positive"