Shifting the Power: Regional Advocacy Networks trained as Changemakers

Published By UNNGOF |  November 8, 2021

Funding for NGO work has steadily declined in recent years, forcing actors to be more creative in acquiring support for their activities.

The Philanthropy for Development programme in a bid to build the capacities of the Uganda National NGO Forum Regional Advocacy Network (RANs) as key implementers of the program, partnered with Change the Game Academy and conducted ‘twin’ trainings of Mobilising Support (MS) and Local Fund-Raising (LFR).

The trainings delivered a comprehensive programme empowering RANs with skills in domestic resource mobilisation techniques to realize systematic change and create sustainable local solutions for purposeful development change.

The Mobilising Support course unpacked how organizations could influence policies, practices and behaviours of stakeholders to push their projects and thematic agendas. The organisations should ensure to adhere to the CLASP principles of Credibility, Legitimacy, Accountability, being Service-Oriented and Power.

For organisations to achieve this, the start point would be to clearly identify the priority problem in their communities and come up with the most ideal solution. Organisations would then involve the necessary community and national stakeholders and then involve their organisation to push for policy formulation and review.

Participants of the Local Fund-Raising course were equipped with skills in communication, fundraising techniques, identifying and appreciating donors.

The training aimed to enable actors to take up local fundraising as a responsibility to strengthen their capacity to raise funds in house. Coaching and mentorship support was offered to participating organizations. The training sessions were an active blend of video documentaries, pictorials, individual and group assignments as well as live presentations. Participants were then guided to design and work out local fundraising assignments and action plans. 

Wilberforce Makeri, a participant from Namutumba District NGO Forum was ready to use the skills acquired to tap into the local resources needed for his organizational work. “We have previously been held back by mindset which has now been unmasked by the knowledge I have gained today.”

Brenda Namuwonge from Open Space Center was grateful for the knowledge and skills she had gained from the training, which would enable her to be a pioneer of local fundraising in Uganda. “International donations are shrinking and I am glad that we are thinking ahead to see that organizations remain sustainable using local resources,” Namuwonge added.

The twin trainings were crowned with a certificate giving ceremony for the participants.

Whereas many CBOs and NGOs are largely dependent on foreign contributions, Change the Game Academy is working to shift the narrative of dependency to sustainability to empower organizations as frontliners for community development. 

Participants were thrilled with the knowledge received and ready to jump onto the domestic resource mobilisation movement to become changemakers in their communities.