Caritas Uganda and Caritas Norway Partnership Programme

Background

The partnership between Caritas Norway and Caritas Uganda is a partnership created to contribute to the problem of poverty alleviation while focussing on promotion of good governance and democracy; gender; HIV and AIDS, and food insecurity where the participating district Caritas-partners implement directly the interventions in the thematic areas.

Purpose/objective

To carry out an assessment of partnership process, project design, resource availability, implementation strategies, and their impact as well as providing recommendations on the best way forward.

Methodology

A number of methods were adopted for the assignment and these ranged from primary and secondary methods. However, by and large, the methods were participatory.

Key findings

? Inspiring focus on the marginalised and vulnerable groups
? Partnership model
? Strong focus on democracy, food security and HIV and AIDS
? Implementing partner infrastructure
? Strategic positioning of Caritas Uganda and Caritas Norway to undertake advocacy at national and international level
? Late disbursement of funds which has been sorted out with the efficiency of the local banks through the computerisation programmes
? Operationalisation of the human rights approach to programming has not been uniformly conceptualised
? Sporadic insecurity and drought conditions that have affected certain sections of the focus areas in the diocese under the partnership
? Limited participation of certain key stakeholders in the management of the programmes

Recommendations

­ Linkage with other NGOs and CBOs is still weak, ad hoc, and, to a certain extent, informal. This is a very vital element in guaranteeing sustainability, and, a deliberate strategy to link up with other actors needs to be designed. Caritas in Masaka and Kotido are at an advanced stage of building these mechanisms because of their respective roles at district forum of NGOs and sector specific stakeholders' forum.
­ The concept of sustainability needs to be operationalised in a uniform manner.
­ It is necessary for a common approach to be adopted to support the development of farmer and other groups into independent self-sustaining entities which can carry on after the Caritas partnership period ends.
­ Some components, like food production, are fairing well and are more popular with the communities, while others like good governance are less popular. It is therefore our considered opinion that programme management at district levels explores avenues of integrating the respective components such that they are seen as part of an organic whole.
­ We suggest that respective district Caritas Offices in the partnership arrangement consider strengthening partnership functions at local level.
­ To effect implementation efficiently, all the core stakeholders should be put in the know on the budgetary allocations on annual basis to allow smooth planning for implementation.
­ Whereas we appreciate that dioceses are autonomous entities, we strongly believe that the implementation of the good governance and human rights programmes requires to harmonise approaches and procedures.
­ The existing choice of the target beneficiaries effectively leaves out the poorest of the poor. The criterion set is a tall order for the above category of people. The able poor are easily identifiable and the notion of trickle down is well thought out. But the efficacy of trickle down has been disputed and 'trickle up' advocates contend that targeting the poorest cluster at the grassroots and empowering them has positive results as compared to the specifically targeting the active (economically) poor. The district partners implementing revolving schemes need to revisit the whole approach of targeting. However, the best practice in micro enterprise development calls on aiming at the economically active poor so as to increase the performance of loan portfolios. Specific district partners will have to make strategic choices in selection criteria for economic and social (soft ware) interventions.
­ Training forms a significant component of all the partners as one of the strategic approaches. It is necessary to have a standardised manual to guide the crossing-cutting thematic areas, like human rights, good governance, food security and gender and equity.
­ The programme heavily relies on church structures which are well established and effective in terms of reaching out to the grassroots level. Certainly Caritas programmes have to be implemented through the church structures, however, when Caritas activity meetings and events take place in the church, then it may constrain the participation of non-Christians who are participating in the programme.
­ Research and advocacy unit should take a proactive role and support district partners to develop an advocacy strategy and enhance their research capacity.

Comments from the organisation

The evaluations took place at about the same time as Norad had an organisational review of Caritas Norway. The Norad-review included a closer look at the Uganda-programme as case study. The findings of the Norad-review and this evaluation are supporting each other, and they were followed-up through a "White Paper" made by the partners (including Caritas Norway) together.

Caritas Norway understand the point regarding the 'poorest of the poor', and admits that the current approach is dependent on the active participation of both the 'able poor' and even those who are more well off. The programme might believe in the trickle-down effect, but much more in the idea of making the communities responsible for those with the biggest needs. Hand-outs from outside might make a community more dependent, while solidarity between members of society can strengthen the community.