UNNGOF hosts CSO actors from Lithuania NGDO Platform
Many times people prefer using exchange visits as an approach to capacity building, one may wonder how resourceful this may be! Exchange visits enhance peer-to-peer interaction, they promote participatory processes that empower people to improve their own lives, they foster mutual learning not only of obvious verbalized ideas but also the unspoken knowledge embedded in practice. Uganda National NGO Forum was thus pleased to host 2 CSO actors from the Lithuanian National Non-Governmental Development Organizations’ Platform for a working visit from the 3rd – 13th February 2020 (#FORUS). The two platforms were both linked through FORUS which highlights a strong cooperation across national, regional and global boundaries for Civil Society Organizations. FORUS is a global network empowering civil society for effective social change. It brings together 69 National NGO Platforms, 7 Regional Coalitions from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Pacific all together representing over 22000 Organizations.
With support from European Union through FORUS, Ms. Ugne Kumparskaitė and Mr. Stasys Vaitonis conducted a job shadowing exercise at the Uganda National NGO Forum. What guided this exchange was the need for sharing of tools used in communication and governance as well as capacity building and advocacy experiences that both platforms have developed over the years with regard to strengthening their membership and civil society actions in their countries under different contexts.
The dual interacted with the secretariat team, Board members, Sub National partners and selected members. This provided an opportunity for them to understand and appreciate UNNGOF programming but also identifying areas for collaborations for instance on Sustainable Development Goals and also tools for capacity building for platform members. The team met with UNNGOF Board members i.e Chairperson, representative of National Networks, representative of National NGOs and representatives of District Networks which provided detailed insights in the governance processes at UNNGOF. The team also interacted with SEATINI Uganda, Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, QuAM Secretariat, Uganda Red Cross Society among others. Ms. Ugne expressed her excitement at the way civil society in Uganda is organized right from national to the sub national level and their contribution towards influencing development processes through convening citizen-leaders meetings. On the other hand, Mr. Stasys appreciated and underscored the vital role of self-regulation (QuAM) for NGOs in achieving a credible CSO sector.
UNNGOF and Lithuania NGDO Platform with funding from European Union through FORUS will be implementing a one-year project titled “Governance and Communication in Umbrella Organizations” from December 2019 – November 2020. The aim of this project is to strengthen the internal governance of the Lithuanian NGDO Platform and Uganda National NGO Forum in order to improve the co-operation between the Platform/Forum and its members. The project’s goals will be achieved through sharing experience in communication and organizational governance tools, training of secretariat team and platform members in communication, as well as through providing coaching for writing internal policy documents in order to achieve better governance.
