Fundraising Drive for UNNGOF House Launched at the 12th AGM.
The Uganda National NGO Forum, during the 12th Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 27th March at Hotel Africana launched a fundraising drive to establish the UNNGOF House as a home for CSOs in Uganda. The idea was presented by the Board Chairperson Ms. Beatrice Mugambe and majority of the 249 members agreed to the proposal and committed to work together to the realization of the desired house. The UNNGOF house Committee, headed by Mr. Fred Batte from Hunger Free World will take lead on developing a fundraising strategy that will move this process forward.
As a measure to improve its governance and programme implementation modalities, constitutional amendments were proposed and adopted. Among these were; the separation between thematic and constituency groupings for effective governance and thematic engagements. The six new and adopted constituency groupings include; International NGOs, National Networks, National NGOs, District Networks, District NGOs and Faith based NGOs. Further amendments were made for grammatical and numerical corrections in various readings in the Constitution.
Further to this, amendments were made on managing board transition and procedures for vetting member organistions seeking election to the UNNGOF Board.
Using the new Constituency groupings, , five positions on the Board were filled through free and fair elections under the guidance of the Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU). The new members include Mr. Arthur Larok – International NGOs, Mr. Edson Ngirabakunzi – National Networks, Ms. Pamela Kertho – National NGOs, Hon. Aidah Mehangye – District NGOs, and Richard Nuwamanya – Faith Based Organizations.
In the same regard, the position for Vice Chairperson, which fell vacant, was filled by Mr. Arthur Larok, who was nominated and unanimously accepted as an unopposed candidate.
Additionally, UNNGOF members made a resolve to start a CSO Multi-purpose Cooperative named NAFASI. The initiative will work towards transforming the economic and social wellbeing of CSO staff and their families while guaranteeing financial security beyond focusing on the monthly salary. This came after an inspirational sharing by Uhuru Institute and Y-Save on the practicality of NAFASI and the importance of wealth creation for the sector.
This year, new partnerships were built within the private sector and this attracted financial support from the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), who also offered financial literacy training. More sharing was done on “Alaberstrone”, a Women mentoring programme that provided insights on how women can work together to cause change in their communities.