VSLAS IMPROVE HOUSEHOLD INCOMES & HUMAN RIGHTS

Village savings and loans associations (VSLAs) bring together small groups of people, usually 20 to 30 members. As the name suggests, the model is based on savings rather than debt, and, leaves the spending control in the hands of members instead of professionals.  These groups can be empowering for members, particularly women, by improving their capacity to manage money and creating access to microloans generated from each group’s savings. In the financial year 2012/2013 alone, IDF supported the creation of 38 new VSLAs (16 in Rakai, 12 in Kibale and 10 in Sironko) with 1,031 members; 90% of whom are women, with savings of 175,845,450.

Kibale Civil Society Network (KCSON) employed the VSLA model for the IDF funded project 2012/2014.  It was designed to help the poorest save as well as, a mobilization tool through which human rights information is channeled, since many are not attractive to traditional microfinance institutions.  “What is really interesting and powerful is that they (VSLAs) are self-generating. The cohesion between the people is really strong. They trust one another and are willing to experiment together.” said Paul Mulindwa, KCSONS Coordinator. 

He adds that for many people in Uganda, saving is a myth rather than a reality and a notion associated with the financial institutions like banks, yet spending is a daily and even if one has no money; he/she will borrow to spend. This situation was not different with people of Akayoro Village in Kezimbira parish-Mugarama Sub County in Kibaale district until the intervention of KCSON. With support from Independent Development Fund (IDF), KCSON facilitated the formation of a Village saving and Loan association (VSLA) in Akayoro Village in Mugarama S/C –Kibaale district.

After receiving the training in saving and promotion of Human rights in May 2013 the group (Abalihamu Buroro Akayora), the group members embarked on saving.  As a result of continuous saving and borrowing, the group’s total share by the end of December 2013 was UGX.2, 061,000 compared to UGX 300,000 they started with. The group members have been able to borrow and invest with most of them setting up small retail shops and others doing petty business such as market vending. This has enabled them to support their children’s rights to education and other necessities.

In Rakai District, Kagamba Sub County (Kasankala parish under the Rakai Community Based Rights Project supported by Independent Development Fund (IDF), Bivamuntuyo VSLA group shared out shillings 2,450,000= (Two million four hundred fifty thousand), after 8 months of their savings. As a result members have managed to pay school fees for their children  and others have also purchased land for their agricultural projects. 

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.