PA III: Objective

To provide general and tailor-made information and other support services to a wide range of NGO Forum service subscribers to inform their work and enhance their capacities.

Brief Description

We acknowledge that, for any membership organisation to remain useful, it must manage and satisfy to the extent possible, expectations from a diverse group of members and other actors. This programme area presents the National NGO Forum as a service organisation providing regular and specialised services to members, other NGOs, civil society and a wide range of other actors that demand information and other support services. These include students, government, private-sector and development partners. The aim of this programme area is to provide both general and tailored information and other support services to a wide range of NGO Forum service subscribers to enhance their capacities and inform their work

UNNGOF Membership

UNNGOF is a membership organisation for NGOs in their diversity; both local and international, working in Uganda.  UNNGOF members enjoy a number of benefits that accrue to them as members including sharing and networking among each other; and collectively taking action to influence governance and development processes that are relevant to them. Your organisation is welcome to join over 400 active members of UNNGOF. To determine your eligibility for membership and the benefits please refer to the Membership Charter that articulates the eligibility, and other requirements for membership at the UNNGOF.

Join UNNGOF Membership

UNNGOF welcomes new organisations to join its membership. Membership to UNNGOF is voluntary and not all NGOs in Uganda are members of UNNGOF however, in an effort to promote collective action and influence, UNNGOF endeavours to reach out to other NGOs and civil society organisations that are not members but subscribe to the objectives of UNNGOF.

Please read the Membership Charter to determine the category of membership you would like to apply for. An organization wishing to become a member submits to the UNNGOF Secretariat, a duly filled out Membership Application Form together with following attachments:

• A copy of the Certification of Registration from the NGO Board and/or relevant Government Authority;
• A copy of the Organization’s Constitution;
• A copy of the most recent Annual Report

While the primary constituency of UNNGOF is NGOs, other institutions and platforms; that are not generally referred to as NGOs but whose interests are in line with the vision and mission of UNNGOF can join the membership of UNNGOF. See Membership Categories in the Membership Charter

In addition, there are many other service subscribers to the work of UNNGOF including government, researchers, students, private sector, development partners etc. While these are not members, they are constituencies that UNNGOF provides required services to; primarily aiming to profile the work of members and NGO sector.

1. Collective Voice and Influence to engage and influence Government and other stakeholders on issues of concern to NGOs.
2. Sharing, Learning and Networking through the ‘platform’ character of UNNGOF that fosters reflection space and open debate on important issues for engagement.
3. Representation of members’ views and interests in lobbying for relevant change at national fora.
4. Participation and Involvement in Strategy Development and Decision Making to shape the direction of the organisation and to influence decisions on UNNGOF policies, priorities, and actions including attending the General Meeting
5. Information and Updates about UNNGOF programmes, activities and events; through ‘The Platform’ on what’s happening in the NGO sector; and on other key information on relevant for NGO growth and collective action.
6. Opportunity to stand for election to UNNGOF Governance Organs such as the Board. Members can provide comment and offer recommendations to the Governance Organs on matters relevant to the activities of UNNGOF
7. Solidarity and Support from other members and NGOs mobilized to stand in solidarity with its members who may be illegally threatened in the course of their work and promotion of democracy and citizen’s interests.
8. Technical and specialized advice and support on different aspects to enable your organisation grow and improve its work.

The Membership and Constituency Servicing Team regularly reviews the above Member Benefits to identify new ones other valued products for members.

1. Members must subscribe to the Vision, Mission and Values of UNNGOF.
2. Members should participate and monitor the success of UNNGOF programmes.
3. Members should regularly report on their work to the Secretariat so it can be shared with other members, the wider civil society and other stakeholders
4. Members will abide by the NGO Quality Assurance Certification Mechanism and strive to achieve the NGO Quality Assurance Certificate
5. Members will remain in good standing through payment of annual membership subscription dues.
6. Being proactive and prompting the organisation on important issues it needs to engage with
7. Continuously update the UNNGOF of changes in the organisation

 
The NGO Quality Assurance Certification Mechanism (QuAM)

The NGO Quality Assurance Certification Mechanism (QuAM) is a self regulation initiative developed by NGOs and for NGOs in Uganda; to promote the adherence by NGOs and NGO Networks to generally acceptable ethical standards and operational norms. Since its launch in 2006, Uganda National NGO Forum has remained at the forefront of the QuAM process, supporting buy in by NGOs themselves and other stakeholders but also engaging at all levels to fast track its implementation, working with the National QuAM Council and the QuAM Secretariat.

The organisation has continued to promote the wide use of the QuAM as a strategic undertaking - to ensure that NGOs and indeed Member Organisations and other NGOs appreciate the QuAM and seek its benefits by getting certified.

Uganda National NGO Forum was the first organisation to be vetted under the QuAM and the organisation formally received its Full QuAM Certificate from the National QuAM Council, upon satisfactorily meeting all the QuAM minimum standards. The organisation is in advanced stages in the pursuit for the QuAM Advanced Certificate.

UNNGOF has embarked on a deliberate process to ensure members’ readiness for certification. Through Members’ QuAM Readiness Fora, it is expected that over 100 members will be ready for certification each year. The Fora supports members to practically focus on the QuAM self assessment for their individual organisations and to identify any gaps that may impede their certification.

Download QuAM Documents here

• What is the QuAM?
• QuAM Standards Booklet
• QuAM Self Assessment Form
• QuAM Implementation Guidelines

Watch a short version of the QuAM Documentary here

Thematic and Constituency Groups

The tradition of thematic, sector and constituency organizing has proven to broaden and deepen civil society participation and sharing on specific advocacy, development and policy process.  Uganda National NGO Forum is an inclusive membership organisation that embraces diversity of its member organisations in terms of themes and constituencies as well as their geographical areas of operation. These organisations identify themselves as members of UNNGOF under different Thematic and Constituency Sgroups. The Thematic and Constituency Groups are therefore major pillars, organizing and coordinating arms of the work of the National NGO Forum. They provide a platform to bolster focused engagement and enhanced interaction among members in the different thematic and constituency groups to facilitate broad based consensus on identified thematic issues in order to strengthen effective contribution by members to specific, development, multi-stakeholder and/or multi-sectoral policy processes.  Specifically there are 6 Thematic Groups and 3 Constituency Groups:

A series of meetings for the different thematic and constituency group have been organised for members to discuss share experiences and practical knowledge on the issues within the thematic/constituency group; in addition to mapping out key opportunities and emerging concerns and/or actions for the thematic and constituency groups; that the different groups can collectively act on.  The main objective of the meetings thus far has been to provide an interactive reflection space and platform to dialogue, discuss and share on emerging issues that the specific thematic group can collectively engage on in building the thematic group’s engagement agenda and to draw out an action plan in this regard.

 Learning and Exchange Visits

Uganda National NGO Forum is committed to a deliberate effort to create and nurture independent space for NGOs to share, reflect and interface with each other on a wide range of issues in their work; to influence governance and development processes in the country. The Forum is steadfast to promoting dialogue, learning, sharing of best practices, challenges and opportunities among members and other CSOs to foster the realization of their collective potential.   Members’ Learning and Exchange visits provide a platform and space for members to reflect on the contribution of civil society to development and also to learn from peers and appreciate the challenges, successes on specific programmes.

Members Visits

UNNGOF also promotes individual members visits aimed at profiling and updating its membership data and sharing individual organizations development challenges and how UNNGOF can help to solve them. During such visits, UNNGOF also share experience with local leaders on the role of NGOs in fostering good governance and community development. This is meant to foster a good working relationship with CSOs themselves, local government leaders and communities. 


Regional Civil society Days

Uganda National NGO Forum repositioned itself as a sharing and reflection platform for NGOs to contribute and influence governance and development processes in the country. We are therefore committed to promoting dialogue, learning, sharing of best practices, challenges and opportunities among members and other CSOs to foster the realization of their collective potential. 

Regional Civil society Days and meetings are organised to create and nurture an independent space for members and other NGOs at sub national level to share, reflect and interface with each other on a wide range of issues about their work and more importantly focusing on on civil society development effectiveness with a particular focus on civil society enabling/operating environment, civil society internal governance, civil society capacity issues; civil society financing and sustainability; donor relations; civic participation in national and sub national development processes etc.


UNNGOF Best Practice Awards

UNNGOG believes that change is a factor of life and it happens at all stages in all development interventions. This means that some members will excel in some areas in different ways using the same or different resources. Owing to this, Uganda National NGO Forum came up with the best practice awards initiative among NGOs aimed at identifying and rewarding CSOs that have excelled in some areas of interventions using unique and or extraordinary approaches. Through out this event, best practices will be documented in writing and on video to enable learning and benchmarking among the CSO fraternity. It is also aimed at promoting innovations among CSOs using little or no resources in their development work with the highest degree of sustainability. 

Key Documents

• UNNGOF Strategy
• UNNGOF Constitution
• Membership Charter