OKWEGATTA GEMAANYI ANNUAL REPORT NATIONAL SLUM DWELLERS FEDERATION OF UGANDA

Transcription

1 OKWEGATTA GEMAANYI ANNUAL REPORT NATIONAL SLUM DWELLERS FEDERATION OF UGANDA

2 Contents; 1. Letter from the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda (NSDFU) President. 2. Letter from the ACTogether Uganda Executive Director. 3. Organizational overview. 4. NSDFU Coverage Uganda. 5. Federation status 6. Slum Profiling and Mapping. 7. SUUBI Livelihood. 8. SUUBI Sanitation. 9. Forums. 10. Plan Your Settlement Project supported by Slum Dwellers International and Cities Alliance. 11. Enumeration Biometric Registration. 12. Energy Justice Project. 13. STDM project. 14. Kampala Tugende! Supported by Comic Relief. 15. Participatory Governance Project Supported by UNDP. 16. Slums Project: Supported by LWF. 17. The Jinja Materials Training Centre. 18. Youth Programs. 19. Financials. 20.Partners. 2

3 Letter from the NSDFU President. The National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda (NSDFU) in the year 2015 with support from ACTogether Uganda continuously sought to improve the lives of the urban poor in the different municipalities that they work in. This was done through encouraging the federation members in the different municipalities of Mbarara, Mbale, Kabale, Arua, Jinja, Tororo, Masaka, Gulu, Entebbe, Moroto, Soroti, Fortportal, Hoima, Kampala (Kampala Central, Kawempe, Nakawa, Makindye and Lubaga) and Wakliso to save with an aim of improving their lives and the standard of living. A lot was achieved in the year 2015 at a strategic level as highlighted in the annual report. In 2015 vibrant municipal development forums and settlement forums were held and these and have fostered the transformation of the slum communities. The Jinja material training Centre was complemented is fully functional. Finally I would like to acknowledge the tremendous financial, technical and moral support of all our donors, ACTogether staff, development partners and all other stakeholders for their tireless efforts and valuable time in helping transform the lives of the urban poor in Uganda. Kiberu Hassan, Chairperson, National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda. 3

4 Letter from the ACTogether Executive Director; On behalf of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of ACTogether I wish to present the 2015 annual report, which captures insights, moments and energies of the National slum dwellers of Uganda and the support NGO ACTogether Uganda. The vision to achieve inclusive cities has been the driver of all activities that we have identified as key solutions to the challenges of informality in our urban centres. This report comes at a time when the urban majorities in Uganda reside in informal/unplanned settlements with limited or no access to basic services like Water, sanitation, access roads, affordable housing and tenure security. ACTogether Ugnada and NSD- FU believe that this situation can get better if communities and Government officials work together to design solutions, which are more sustainable and affordable. In 2015, the Federation strengthened its core root of Savings across 167 slum- settlements in Uganda in the cities of Gulu, Lira, Arua, Mbarara, Jinja, Mbale, Tororo, Kampala, Hoima, Fortportal, Masaka, Entebbe, Soroti, Moroto and Wakiso (Nansana and Wakiso Town Council). This coupled with strengthening the urban poor fund have built strong foundations for the economic empowerment of the groups as it helped them access loans to improve their daily earnings. The fight for participatory governance and inclusion was enhanced by the Participatory forums that we had in Kampala and other municipalities as well as the community driven settlement planning processes which were a learning process in Entebbe, Tororo, Masaka, Jinja and Kampala. The slum upgrading interventions through providing affordable sanitation and water projects have been quite significant in modelling the perceptions of the communities and City Authorities on the concept of rights and responsibilities because the partnerships in delivering these services has been a major success. Through generating the most reliable data on slums in Uganda, ACTogether and NSDFU have managed to influence decision making processes as well as community and Municipal priorities. Through our SDI network, we have launched our KNOW YOUR CITY Campaign to push and impress governments to increase their awareness on the informal settlements to be able to generate solutions from an informed position. This campaign is driven by slum communities themselves as a way of demonstrating their responsibilities and the need to be engaged meaningfully for sustainable city growth. All these achievements could be hardly realized without the commitment and support from our key partners Slum Dwellers International that identified Uganda as a learning centre, Comic relief with support in Kampala, Fin-church Aid and Lutheran World Federation, Un-Habitat-GLTN on tenure issues, Kampala Capital City Authority for the commitment to transform slums and Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development. As we all know that Uganda is urbanizing at 5.5% per annum, we have to bring on board all relevant stakeholders to think and develop mechanisms and framework for managing this urbanization. Slum redevelopment has quite diverse aspects that need a multi-dimensional approach to be able to harness the potential of communities, academia, Civil society, Government and other relevant to develop sustainable ideas. 4

5 2016 is yet another year of the fight for inclusion and demonstration of alternatives through implementing Biometrics data capturing in slums and Informal workspaces, Social tenure model tools to improve tenure security for slum dwellers, markets and housing redevelopment schemes, alternative sanitation technologies, Municipal and City Forums and promoting learning exchanges amongst the urban players in Uganda and across the SDI network. I take this opportunity to thank our committed BOD, staff team and Federation leaders in the departments of SUUBI, Enumerations and Profiles, Forum, Documentation and Finance for the hard work and creativity that has pushed us this far. We hope to work again with you for better slum transformation as we always say Okwegatta Gemaanyi Lutwama Muhammed Executive Director ACTogether Uganda. 5

6 Organizational overview; ACTogether Uganda is the national support NGO charged with providing technical and financial assistance to the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda (NSDFU). ACTogether was established in 2006 to facilitate processes that develop organizational capacity at the local level and promote pro-poor policy and practice in Uganda s urban development arena. ACTogether Uganda vision is to have Inclusive cities where the urban poor utilize opportunities to transform their communities and mission is To build the capacity of the urban poor to improve their livelihoods and increase their access to land, housing and basic services with this, she strives to create inclusive cities with united and empowered communities of the urban poor who have the capacity to voice, promote, and negotiate for their collective interests in the 20 municipalities of operation; Mbale, Jinja, Soroti, Tororo, Moroto in the east, Gulu, Arua, Hoima, Lira in the north, Fortportal, Mbarara, Kabale, Masaka in the West and Kampala Central, Kawempe, Nakawa, Makindye, Lubaga, Entebbe and Wakiso. In these municipalities, the federation has 70,906 people saving in 1,952 saving groups. In partnership with organized communities of the urban poor, ACTogether works to increase access to secure tenure, adequate shelter, basic services, information, and many of the other building blocks required for healthy communities. The primary strategy for achieving these aims is to support the development of a strong and active urban poor federation. Support takes the form of resource mobilization, partnership support, technical assistance, capacity-building, leadership and management support, outreach, advocacy, research and documentation. A lot of achievements were registered in 2015 in all the thematic areas which included; Profiling mapping and enumeration, Livelihoods, water and Sanitation, Forums and documentation in which different activities were conducted. The results and achievements presented in this report are accredited to funding from the different partners listed at the end of the report. 6

7 Federation coverage in City/Municipality Saving Groups City/Municipality Saving Groups Arua 116 Wakiso 42 Mbale 86 Gulu 112 Mbarara 108 Lira 284 Kabale 48 Hoima 65 Jinja 60 Moroto 77 Nakawa (K) 60 Tororo 57 Makindye (K) 49 Soroti 71 Kawempe (K) 35 Entebbe 110 Kampala Central 78 Masaka 79 (K) Rubaga (K) 80 Fort Portal 10 7

8 Federation Status Report; The federation is getting at a higher level in knowing their federation. The different twenty regions that the federation is operating continuously engaged in quarterly activities aimed at updating the federation data. The data collected is verified through the National Executive Council meetings. The exercise has enhanced the capacity of the federators in areas of data collection, report writing and records keeping of the secretaries, youth documenters and regional executive members who directly engage in the activities. How many settlements in in the country? 177 How many savings groups in the country? 1,952 How many of your savings groups are youth groups? 186 How many savers do you have? 70,906 How many are female? 45,764 How many are male? 25,142 How many are under 24? 1,562 Daily Savings (UGX) 1,256,964,680 SUUBI Savings (UGX) 69,004,221 SUUBI Livelihood Loans Received (UGX) 143,705,700 SUUBI Livelihood Loan Repayment (UGX) 52,547,700 Number of SUUBI Livelihood Loans 55 SUUBI Sanitation Loan Received (UGX) 620,950,200 SUUBI Sanitation Loan Repayment (UGX) 48,125,500 Number of Sanitation Loans 25 How much land has the federation secured in your country? (acres) 10,108m 2 Has the federation secured the tenure of any households through its 1,954 How many toilets has the federation constructed in your municipality/ 32 How many households benefit from these toilets? 237 How many toilet seats do they have in total? 162 How many water taps has the federation constructed in your municipali- 40 8

9 How many households benefit from the water taps? 353 How many drainage projects has the federation constructed in your mu- 11 How many households benefit from the drainage? 10,850 Does the federation have any waste management projects? If so, how 3,650 Has the federation managed to help households access government 10,255 Has the federation established any community centres? 8 Has your municipality conducted city-wide profiling? Yes, 33 How many settlements have been profiled? 177 How many settlements have been enumerated? 72 How many settlements have been mapped? 173 Does the federation have any MOUs signed with government? 20 Do you have a municipal forum? Yes How often does the forum sit? Quarterly How many people usually come to the forum? Average 70 Does your municipality have settlement forums and if so, how many? Yes, 214 How often do they sit? Monthly or How many people usually come to the settlement forums? An average of Does the federation sit on any working groups with the municipal gov- Yes, 9 9

10 ACTOGETHER/ NSDFU KEY PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS. 1. Profiling Enumeration and Mapping; ACTogether Uganda and the National Slum Dwellers Federation in getting to know their city at a greater level have continuously carried out settlement profiling mapping and enumeration of the different slum settlements. The information gathered has continuously been useful as a tool used to inform urban planning in the different municipalities as different urban stakeholders use it. Data centers have been established in regions and this makes profiling and enumeration information available at the blink of an eye. The National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda and ACTogether Uganda in 2015 conducted enumeration around the Bwaise III sanitation in Mayinja zone, settlement profiling, Mapping, Enumeration and planning in four municipalities; Tororo, Entebbe, Masaka and Mbale, solar enumerations and biometric enumeration in Kasubi Market. Among the deliverables of the conducted exercises included; maps, settlement plans and settlement profile information. 2. Livelihood Loans; With an aim of improving living standards of slum dwellers in Uganda, in 2015, NSDFU used the Suubi fund to fundraise more funds to support community livelihood projects like; Poultry, Piggery, Briquette Making, Candle making, Mushroom growing, crafts, books making, liquid soap making among others. Using the Suubi funds, saving groups have been able to access small loans to boost their livelihood projects and in turn increase their household income. 10

11 Achievements; Loan Disbursement: The department has been able to disburse 138,707,000 UGX to 54 groups and 45,308,400 has been recovered. Groups that benefited from the livelihood loans have realized great boost in their businesses and thus income. This is evident in the improved standards of living and making timely repayments. More improvement in the disbursement systems i.e. monitoring of groups after proposal review meetings to confirm existence of projects and groups before funding them. Learning: An exchange was organized between AMT and ACTogether to strengthen Suubi systems. Federation and Professionals from AMT spent 5 days in Kampala and we learnt several lessons. The outstanding output was SUUBI data base that we are using to streamline our loan tracking and recovery systems. There has also been several inter-regional exchanges with different groups for example Youth Action for Development Saving group on Bagiya making and Muno Mukabi saving group on books and soap making where a lot of skills and ideas were learnt for making and managing different kinds if projects. Small scale business training was conducted and the key lessons were understanding yourself as well as your business, marketing and managing sales and above all managing calculations (book keeping) for a business.this has impacted positively on Federation saving groups through proper records keeping, management and Marketing of their project. An annual loan holders meeting that bought together 50 groups that had benefited from the loans participated. Discussion looked at challenges, achievements, and next plans for the projects. Members shared knowledge on how to boost the businesses, challenges encountered achievement from the projects, reasons that have affected repayments, project next plans. Market analysis was also done with three groups that include Munomukabi, Action for development, Salaama miracle to: Understand the current situation of their business The current market. And plan for improvement Plan for the next steps for next steps. Salaama Miracle Women s Association; Is one of the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda saving groups that received a loan worth 5million shillings in October This group is made of 46 members who live in Salaama - Munyonyo settlement located in Makindye Region in Kampala City. The group does a tailoring and crafting business to boost their income and a small community vocational training center to support group and community members with skills in tailoring, shoe making and other crafts materials. They are doing well in their project and savings. The group was commended on its project and the 11

12 3. Sanitation loans; In ACTogether Uganda and NSDFU s efforts to improve the health and living conditions of slum dwellers living in Kampala and beneficiaries at large, in 2015 Suubi funds continued to leverage support from Comic Relief and managed to distribute out sanitation loans to saving group members to have sanitation units in their households as seen in the table below; Saving groups Date signed Toilet description Nsambya Railways HIV/AIDS May stance Biofill toilet belonging to Namugga Anna of Makindye Salama Kitintale Development Association Mukiga Joseph (paid cash) Akawamu saving group March 2015 July 2015 November stance Biofill toilet belonging to Dhikusoka Martin of Nakawa Kitintale 1 stance Biofill toilet belonging to Mukiga Joseph of Makindye Bunga 4 stance public toilet with 2 shower rooms and 1 urinal belonging Akawamu saving group members in Mayinja zone Garage in Bwaise - Kawempe Kamu Kamu saving group December stance Biofill toilet belonging to Hajat Sifa Senjala of Bukoto - Nakawa Kisenyi 1 saving Dec stance double pit toilet belonging to Nabatanzi group Mary of Bukoto - Nakawa Mungu mugaga saving group Nov 2015 Water point belonging to Nakanjako Irene of Kasubi Kawaala - Rubaga Kisenyi 1 saving Dec 2015 Water point belonging to Katana Gorreti of Kam- Sanitation Achievements in applications were approved to receive sanitation loans and 2 water loan applications this year and out of these 6 sanitation units were constructed totaling to 12 toilet stances in Makindye, Nakawa and Kawempe. The water points were also set up in Lubaga and Nakawa regions belonging to Nakanjako Irene and Katana Gorreti respectively. Improved sanitation in the community especially households and the garage where the toilets were constructed. A case in point is Mayinja zone Bwaise where the public toilet was put up. In this area they had an old and filthy toilet which was inconveniencing members of this garage. Continuous training of project management committees/sanitation teams and beneficiaries on the maintenance and management of these toilets in all the divisions of Kampala that have supported the loan process from identification of beneficiaries, collecting applications and review of applications and follow up of beneficiaries to do repayments. The sanitation exchange that was done in Lubaga for the new beneficiaries of Akawamu exposed them to how bios fill toilets work and the design. 12

13 Sensitization has been done through forums to awaken community members about the availability of sanitation loans, toilet models and its operation, this has been done in all divisions of Kampala and other stakeholders like structure owners and land lords have been brought on board. This has given chance to community members outside the federation to benefit from this project. Community Voices on Sanitation: My name is Nakabuye Margret Saaku a former member of wakaliga development group which got a visit from Kisabagire Andrew a federation leader from Lubaga division who sensitized them on how the federation works. Her group members however did not understand the federation so she decided to join another group Bwavu Mpologoma which is registered with the federation. She was sensitized on sanitation and because she had a toilet that continuously disturbed her it was sticking, on realizing the procedure of getting a toilet, she filled the toilet application form, it was approved, she deposited 20% and in three weeks the materials were delivered at the site and in two weeks, the toilet was fully constructed. Her home became a tourist attraction because of the toilet. The toilet is fully tiled. The land lord and tenants are now happy because through uniting with the federation, they now have a toilet. 13

14 4. Forums: Citizens Engagement and inclusive planning. Forums from the time of initiation have continuously provided space for dialogue between the urban poor and the key stakeholders in the different municipalities. This has been achieved through the quarterly Municipal Development Forums and Monthly settlement forums held. These meetings have informed development in the different municipalities for through them, issues from settlements are discussed. In Kampala, 20 municipal development forums, 127 settlement forums and 2 city forums were held. These brought together the different key actors for example, Water and Sanitation and Health, City officials, representatives from the different Non - Government Organizations, Academia among others, Key issues that affect the slum communities discussed included; Evictions, Drainages, Security, HIV/AIDS, Roads and Garbage. Municipal Development Forums have taken place in the other 14 municipalities of Gulu, Masaka, Entebbe, Mbarara, Jinja, Fortportal, Hoima, Arua, Lira, Mbale, Moroto, Soroti, Kabale and Tororo with support from the ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MULHUD). It is believed that; Strengthening the forums for participatory governance will be achieved through a bottom-up demand driven strategy starting with settlement level forums, followed by Municipal Development Forums (MDFs), citywide forums, national forums, to international forums. Through the year, the forums have registered a lot of successes and these include; They have promoted participatory governance through public dialogue meetings held and engagement of the urban poor in planning. The community is able to organise for cleaning activities with support from municipal leaders who provide the necessary equipment. Issues affecting the different settlement are worked on by the municipality. In Kampala, settlement forum meetings and issue based committees have been established. Participation in Uganda Support For Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) projects in the 14 municipalities of; Gulu, Masaka, Entebbe, Mbarara, Jinja, Fortportal, Hoima, Arua, Lira, Mbale, Moroto, Soroti, Kabale and Tororo with support from the ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MULHUD). 14

15 Plan Your Settlement Project; Supported by Slum Dwellers International and Cities Alliance The Association of African Planning Schools (AAPS) project aimed at promoting collaboration between planning institutions and country based affiliates of SDI while broadening the student s knowledge on the bottom-up approach of planning. The project was rolled out in 3 municipalities (Entebbe, Jinja and Kawempe) with the aim of producing development plans that would be approved by authorities and included in the city wide slum upgrading and development strategies. Project partners included; Makerere University, The Institute of Surveys and Land management, National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda, ACTogether Uganda, Municipal Councils of Jinja, Entebbe and KCCA-Kawempe Division. A team of enumerations and mapping experts in the National Slum Dwellers Federation, 10 urban and regional planning students from Makerere University and ACTogether Uganda staff together formed a complete team of professionals and community members to roll out the planning studios in the 3 municipalities. A settlement was selected from each municipality except for Jinja where two settlements were selected. The selected settlements included; Katabi-Busambaga (Entebbe), Kibugambata and Soweto (Jinja) and Kalimali (Bwaise III, Kampala) and existing profiling data was reviewed to establish estimated population size, settlement size and community priorities. Enumerations and mapping were conducted in each settlement except for Kalimali settlement that had previously conducted enumerations households were enumerated in Soweto, 254 households were sampled in Kibugambata, and 367 households in Katabi- Busambaga settlement. The data was shared and discussed in Municipal development forums, technical planning committee meetings at city level and in Settlement level forums. These stakeholder meetings held in each city generated unique ideas that informed the subsequent planning process in each settlement. Planning outcomes; The outcomes of the AAPS project included; problem specific design interventions in Kalimali and Katabi-busambaga and a detailed plan for Kibugambata and Soweto settlements. Problem specific design interventions for Katabi-busambaga landing site; 15

16 Problem specific design interventions in Kalimali Solid Waste Management Project; Detailed plan for Kibugambata; Maps Generated; The AAPS project opened doors for a new engagement between slum dweller communities, academia and the government authorities. The outcomes demonstrated that the advantages of this kind of engagement cannot be underestimated. Through this partnership, the information gathered through the enumerations informed the detailed plan for Soweto. This will result in a detailed physical development plan acceptable by both the community and Jinja municipal council. Under the Systematic Land Adjudication and Certification (SLAAC) program by the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, residents of Soweto will attain surveyed plots of land at a much lower cost compared to private firms. 16

17 Enumerations- Biometrics Registration; The biometrics system is a form of registration that captures individual bio data inform of picture data and figure prints in order to ameliorate the enumerations system. ACTogether Uganda and the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda have previously partnered with the city authority in the implementation of projects such as the sanitation units and city wide settlement profiling and a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed to that effect. It is through this partnership that the registration of Kasubi market vendors was entrusted to ACTogether and the federation to take lead. Kasubi market is one of the largest street markets in Kampala city. The market is located along major roads including Hoima road, Kawala road, Kimera road, and Nakulabye road. The market has existed from as early as 1975 when the first vendors established food stalls. The market has since then expanded to include over 1420 market vendors according to data gathered from the enumerations exercise. Energy Justice Project; Solar Enumerations; Solar enumerations were conducted in 2015 in Jinja with an aim of determining the level of need for Solar Energy as an alternative to hydro-electricity in Jinja Municipality. This was done by sampling 200 households representing the settlements of; Masese 1 also known as Kibuga-Mbata, Bugembe, Daninda and Kimaka. The larger percentage of households sampled (55%) had no access to electricity in their home and 11% of those that were connected to the electricity grid was illegal connections. The reason given for this situation was the high cost of electricity that is not affordable for the average slum dweller. In fact 45% of the population that uses hydro-electricity said they had illegally altered to the meter to allow them access to electricity at no cost. It is no wonder that 99% of the respondents expressed need for solar energy since it costs less than hydroelectricity. 17

18 STDM PROJECT PHASE 2: Building a country wide PARTNERSHIPS on land tenure security in Uganda. The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) Phase II carried out in 2015 focused on prioritizing, pilot-testing and rolling out of priority land tools and approaches at country level, integrating capacity development and training into tool development process, implementing capacity development programs and support tool implementation in targeted countries, cities or municipalities, advocacy and knowledge management efforts and mainstreaming gender, youth, human rights and grassroots in this land work. The program had three Expected Accomplishments: EA 1: Strengthened land-related policy, institutional and technical frameworks and tools and approaches to address the challenges in delivering security of tenure at scale particularly for the urban and rural poor EA 2: Improved global knowledge and awareness on land-related policies, tools and approaches that are pro-poor, gender appropriate, effective and sustainable towards securing land and property rights for all EA 3: Strengthened capacity of partners, land actors and targeted countries, cities and municipalities to promote and implement appropriate land policies, tools and approaches that are pro-poor, gender appropriate, effective and sustainable. Performance on expected accomplishments of the STDM Project in Four learning centers were established in Masaka, Entebbe, Tororo and Mbale ACTogether Uganda having been so instrumental in broadening the appreciation and applications of STDM in Uganda, the project enabled the establishment of these centres to play a critical in up scaling STDM usage to more municipalities. The data centres were launched across the 4 towns of Entebbe, Mbale, Masaka and Tororo between the 12th and 28th of February The launching involved re-tooling of data centres with computers, Printers and Cameras to promote co-management of information between communities and professionals. These four learning centres are now serving as anchors of activity and learning in the 14 municipalities participating in the World Banks USMID program. 2. Settlement profiling and enumeration informs decisions taken in the USMID program While Government uses information from its structures, the settlement profiling, mapping and enumeration processes have been very vital in organizing communities to understand their needs, priorities and capacities. The role of communities in USMID is to ensure that the government implements projects that have been prioritized by the communities and of course communities need to be aware of their needs for them effectively engage in such discussions. To achieve this, enumerations and settlement mapping were conducted in Kingungu, Naluwerere and Katafali settlements. The door to door enumeration for the selected slums was done in partnership with Academic institutions and Municipal Councils The enumerated Households in Kigungu settlement Entebbe municipality were 1,709 Households, in Naluwerere settlement- Tororo municipality they were 343 Households and 610 Households were enumerated in Katafali settlement Masaka municipality. 18

19 KAMPALA TUGENDE! A joint project of ACTogether, NSDFU, LWF and DRT. Increased engagement and participation of Kampala slum dwellers in planning by Slum dwellers involvement has continuously been achieved, Municipal Development forums which is a platform for community dialogue with the different stakeholders has been done quarterly in the five different divisions of Kampala, five dialogue meetings were also held in the different five regions of Kampala and a Kampala city wide forum was held. The slum dwellers have been engaged in the different development plans in their municipalities and this has seen issues like garbage, poor sanitation, water among others being delivered into their municipalities. In Kampala, 20 municipal development forums, 127 settlement forums and 2 city forums were held. These brought together the different key actors for example, Water and Sanitation and Health, City officials, representatives from the different Non - Government Organizations, Academia among others, Key issues that affect the slum communities discussed included; Evictions, Drainages, Security, HIV/AIDS, Roads and Garbage. Improved data and evidence to inform Kampala planning, advocacy and learning by 2018 Sanitation is one of the pillars of the federation in Uganda. The federation has established public and private toilets in 12 settlements in Kampala based on profiling data that indicated improved sanitation as the most pressing need in the settlement. This year, an enumeration was conducted in Mayinja zone prior to the establishment of the sanitation unit to determine the level of need in the settlement. More so, information gathered through the enumeration and mapping exercise would reveal deeper insight on the state of sanitation in the settlement. The enumeration revealed that only 2 people had individual toilets which were in very poor conditions forcing the majority of the population to use toilets in the neighboring settlements. The settlement also lacked bathroom facilities at individual homes. The federation has now established a sanitation unit with four toilet stances, two bathrooms and a urinal to serve approximately 122 residents according to the enumeration exercise. (Left) Open defecation before construction of toilet. (Right) After construction of sanitation unit in the same location. 19

20 Increased access to water and sanitation facilities for slum dwellers by Following the introduced toilet prototypes in 2014, the project has continued to make sanitation facilities accessible to the slum dwellers. In 2015, 15 applications were approved to receive sanitation loans and 2 water loan applications. Out of the applications, 6 sanitation units were constructed totaling to 12 toilet stances in Makindye, Nakawa and Kawempe. The water points were also set up in Lubaga and Nakawa regions belonging to Nakanjako Irene and Katana Gorreti respectively. Increased access to credit and small scale business training for Kampala slum dwellers by ACTogether Uganda has supported the Slum dwellers improve their livelihood. Suubi has given out 54 livelihood loans worth 138,707,000ugx.Through community documentation carried out in 15 groups, it was noted that there is tremendous improvement in the living standards of the slum dwellers. Capacity building is done for the groups in line with small scale business training and this has enabled them to have criteria of choosing a project that can be successful. A suubi event with a theme: Promoting livelihoods for sustainable urban employment and this focused at publicizing groups to easily receive CDD support; to this effect the groups have been able to compete for government funds, 6 groups have been able to receive CDD funds that is, 5 from Makindye and 1 group from Kawempe. The groups have also been supported to get market for their products through market analysis that has been carried out. The end of year perception survey conducted indicated a great improvement given the following reached conclusions; The results of the perception survey indicate that forums appear to be making a positive impact in communities of the urban poor. Slum dwellers express improved opportunities to engage council and improved responsiveness. There is clearly room for further improvement in the subsequent years of the project, but the survey lends support to the idea that we are headed in the right direction. The profiling and map reports were distributed to all forum leaders, federation chairpersons and municipal council leaders both technical and political. This accounts for the positive response in relation to accessibility and accuracy of information in the settlements, emphasis will be placed on wider dissemination and training on how to use profiling information most strategically. The forums will provide a key space for this work. Sanitation beneficiaries report resounding satisfaction with projects, in terms of reducing odor, sickness and open defecation for beneficiaries. As expected, impact on the wider community is limited due to high populations and the small projects. Scaling provision will be necessary to improve impact and this has been rolled out in all settlements where the federation is now working with structure owners to have these units for their tenants. Livelihood beneficiaries are satisfied with the project and all unanimously agree that the project resulted in improvement of their incomes in different activities they are involved in however there is need to increase the amount that is loaned out so that they can diversify the different activities they are doing. 20

21 Participatory Governance. In 2015, United Nations Development Program partnered with ACTogether Uganda and the National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda to; enhance skills for enumeration and community mapping in 2 informal urban dwellings, training community leaders in management and people engagement skills, training community leaders in community planning development skills, establishment of informal settlements planning platform in two cities and establishment of an informal Settlement Development Fund Loan disbursement and exchange activities. A lot of successes were registered. Enhanced skills for enumeration and community mapping in 2 informal urban dwellings in Uganda During the second half of the project, Data centres in Kabale, Kawempe and Nakawa have been established to facilitate the quick accessibility to the data generated by communities. The centres have been equipped with computers to facilitate the management and routine updating of the community generated information. In summary the data centres have helped the communities and municipalities in (1) Promoting co-management of information between communities and professionals (2) Building capacity for municipalities, (3) Communities and MDFs in analyzing and using available information (4) Promoting information sharing and access for all stakeholders to inform engagements at settlement and city level and (5) To improve accuracy of planning data through regular data updating processes. Community leaders in informal dwellings trained in community management skills and people engagement skills; Municipal forums: This project has facilitated the Municipal Development forums (MDFs) in the towns of Soroti, Mbarara, Kabale, Gulu, Lira, Moroto and Fortportal. Kampala/KCCA community dialogues: The program also facilitated the engagements between the communities and KCCA officials as well as other stakeholders to design a much concrete follow up framework for the issues that were resolved in the forums. These meetings were attended by key identified partners who ultimately also committed resources to the implementation of resolutions. In Rubaga the HIV/AIDS support NGOs facilitated the HIV awareness campaigns and communities were to be trained and similar cases were sighted in Nakawa, Kampala central on Garbage, and Kawempe on drainage improvement. National Urban Forums were also conducted where communities leaders and forum representatives met at national level to reflect and review strategies for building capacity to be able to engage in the on-going development processes. 21

22 Cluster meetings: these meetings were also held as a mechanism to enhance information sharing and peer to peer learning amongst the slum dwellers in the 4 regions (western, Northern, Eastern and Central). The peer-to-peer learning was seen as the best way the different municipalities can check and enhance accountability and transparency amongst the stakeholders in those towns. Such meetings are also planning meetings where the municipal representation of Forum, Federations, and the municipal authorities set targets and agree on the lead player for a given component. And Finally, the Kampala city forum: the project also contributed to organizing of the 2 nd Kampala city wide forum that brought a much wider stakeholder network of NGOs, Academic institutions, Business community, Universities, slum dwellers, all KCCA directorates (health, physical planning, gender, Engineering) utility companies among others to deliberate on the direction of the city and high levels of marginalization experienced by the slum dwellers. Mayors from the divisions were all present to respond to issues raised and this gave confidence that slum dwellers are now ready to engage meaningfully and the city authorities are ready to act. Community leadership in informal urban dwellings trained in community planning development skills While the 1 st half of the project concentrated on building capacity and establishment of settlement forums, the last half of this project has facilitated real engagements at settlement level in the selected municipalities. Across the 7 municipalities supported, 119 settlement forums were held to ensure some level of transformation in the conditions of those communities. The settlement forum representatives are increasingly gaining capacity to mobilise, organise and facilitate the engagements of communities at settlement level and to ensure an acceptable level of fulfilment to the promises and commitments made by the stakeholders. The learning by doing methodology that the federation uses is working particularly the issue based committee framework, which has seen several members of the community become more active as they engage themselves with the activities of the settlement. Establishment of informal settlements planning platform in two cities UNDP funded regions have on different occasions engaged various stakeholders in the slum development fraternity like Community Based Organizations (CBO s), Civil Society Organizations (CSO s), Non Government Organizations (NGO s) and Municipal council leaders, saving groups, MDF s in planning for the settlements as they engage the various key duty bearers like health inspectors, Community Development Officer (CDO s), Town Clerks (TC s), Mayors, Physical planners, etc. For all the municipal and settlement planning documentation in terms of reports are developed and shared among all stakeholders for further review and follow. ACTogether Uganda supported the engagements by developing a tentative reporting template to help community capture key issues and deliverables from these engagements. Establishment of an informal Settlement Development Fund Loan disbursement and exchange activities; ACTogether Uganda and the NSDFU have continuously supported the urban poor to improve their livelihood using the Urban Poor Fund called SUUBI which denotes hope in the local language - the Suubi fund empowers Urban poor communities to leverage resources from government and other actors to finance livelihood and community upgrading projects (water and sanitation). The Suubi event was organized under the theme, Promoting livelihoods for sustainable urban employment. Different groups from the five divisions of Kampala attended the function and were given money in the presence of the Wamala Ssonko the Community Development Officer working with KCCA Makindye division. The money they received is meant to enable these groups increase capital in their livelihood projects for sustainable urban livelihood development. 22

23 The monitoring exercise was done in the regions of Wakiso, Kampala and Jinja. The exercise involved visiting groups that sent their project proposals to receive Income generating activity loans from the urban poor fund (SUUBI). The aim of this activity was to assess groups in terms of project status and performance. The groups performance on both SUUBI and daily savings was done with proof of receipts and saving books. Loan history of groups that is; internal and external loans that the group has ever acquired and how they managed it. This was to help us entrust the SUUBI funds with the group after knowing well its loan management. The photo below shows some of the loan beneficiaries carrying a cheque. 23

24 Slums Project involved final implementation of the different project activities to tackle the everchanging needs of the urban poor in Kampala, Jinja and Mbale. The project performed tremendously well in the final year 2015 as it went on to fully achieve 100% of what was set out to accomplish in the whole year in areas of Water and sanitation, improving livelihoods, strengthening partnerships with municipalities and KCCA and influencing national policy around inclusive development and integrated urban development. Negotiations for security of tenure: By end of the year 2015 the alliance (ACTogether Uganda and National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda) deeply concretized and intensified negotiations with landlords in Kampala as regards land sharing processes aimed at securing work spaces and living areas for the urban poor on top of contributing to development in the city as envisaged in the Kampala city development master plan. These positive and promising negotiations are to be continued in 2016 in Kampala central and Nakawa urban councils for Kisenyi and Kinawataka projects respectively. In Kampala central, negotiations between the alliance representatives and the land lord are ongoing while in Nakawa plans and negotiations have continued between the alliance, vendors and the KCCA leadership aimed at upgrading the market and creating conducive areas of work for the urban poor vendors. Participatory planning and governance: In 2015 Forums continued to be a community platform community utilizes to discuss governance issues that are pertinent to the development of the slum communities. The project facilitated settlement forums were communities brought out key issues affecting them like poor garbage disposal, evictions, insecurity for duty bearers like KCCA to act upon and issue based committees were put in place to follow up in selected issues with KCCA. This has greatly improved the working relationship between the alliance and the authority which has seen them partner in another of projects like biometric registration of Kasubi market which saw an exchange of affiliate country come down to Uganda to train federation on how to undertake the process which was hugely successful as shown blog link attached here ; Livelihood support: The project enabled several families to improve their daily income through extending resources to the saving groups and skills to improve business management, transparency and accountability. The saving groups were equally supported to leverage funds from government programs, which enabled them to take their interventions to scale. The program tremendously contributed to the strength of the local fund to support sustainability of such projects in Kampala. Water and sanitation: The systems supported by the project enabled the communities to be prepared to receive sanitation and water projects. This was through trainings in project management skills, resource mobilization strategies. Documentation: The final year of the project has also seen a tremendous improvement in documenting of the different activities of the project by youth documenters and interns. Thought the year their capacity has been greatly built to document grass root issues using various alliance norms and mediums like forums and livelihood groups much of which has been clearly documented through different alliance social media channels like face and tweeter including ACTogether website. Refresher trainings were held with youth documenters from Kampala, Makindye, Nakawa, Lubaga, Kawempe, Jinja and Wakiso to enable them revisit their skills in blog writing, reporting and documenting best practices and success stories. Because of the continued mentoring and capacity building of the youth documenters by the alliance (ACTogether and NSDFU) many of them have been elected to represent fellow youth in their municipalities on the Municipal Development Forums. 24

25 The Jinja Materials Training Centre (JMTC) The completed Jinja Training Material Centre, community hall and hostels is a national project implemented and managed jointly by the National Slum Dwellers federation of Uganda and ACTogether Uganda. It is located in Jinja within Walukuba settlement. The project is engaged in building basic structures and facilities to train the local community of the urban poor in Jinja and other areas especially the youth on how to make bricks, to commercially produce them and to practically construct houses using the expertise acquired in the training thus improving their livelihood. In 2015, the following achievements were registered; The construction of the community hall, hostels (accommodation rooms) was completed. During this reporting period, 50 women have been trained in production of affordable construction materials and the centre issued its 2 nd set of graduates. This was in a partnership with Shelter and Settlement Alternatives. Documentation on this is being complied into a book as a deliverable and achievement of this centre. 50 women were trained in production of affordable construction materials and 27 members from the Housing Cooperative of Uganda were trained on how to make low cost building materials (among the materials learnt were making blocks, laddys and T-beams among others) The federation meetings were hosted in the community hall; the recent East African Hub meeting, the National Executive Council meeting and the Eastern Cluster meeting. The hostels are used for accommodating people who come for the different trainings. The centre has also received many visitors from the local community and council as well as from other towns who are interested in the building technology. 25

26 Youth Programs. In a way of continuously engaging the youth in the federation in knowing their cities, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) introduced the Know Your City T.V which had four youth trained in capturing videos on their informal settlements with an aim of enhancing their knowledge on the different cities in their country. The four trained youth continuously captured videos on the issues underling the different settlements. Quarterly trainings have been conducted for youth documenters and these have led to the promotion of their different skills on blog writing, minute taking and report writing thus making them able to make reports on the activities in their different regions. Through the Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM) tool, a number of youth trained in the different four regions of; Mbale, Entebbe, Masaka and Tororo and these were engaged in the different profiling, mapping, enumeration and settlement planning held in these cities. Left are the Know Your City T.V. youth shooting a video, in the middle and right is a training of youth documenters. Some of the videos produced by KYCTV crew in 2015;

27 STAFF NEWS. The year 2015 had noticeable boots in fortunes for most ACTogether Uganda staff s career paths in terms of promotions, recruitments and farewell. Promotions; Mr. Lutwama Muhammed was promoted from position of program coordinator to being the Executive Director ACTogether Uganda Miss. Amaniyo Gloria was promoted from being an intern to Cashier/ Administrator Jinja Material Training Centre. Miss. Namuli Hafisa was promoted from being an intern to program officer in charge, Profiling Mapping and Enumeration. Recruitments; During the year 2015, the following joined ACTogether Uganda team; Mrs. Namirembe Samalie joined in July as the Project Finance officer. Miss. Kasobya Christine joined in August as the Accounts Assistant. Miss. Nshemerirwe Fiona joined as head Profiling, Mapping and Enumeration. Farewell; 2015 has been a year of transition for some AC- Together Uganda staff; In March, Mr. Dan Mugabo, the accounts assistant left for greener pastures. Miss. Hellen Nyamweru who was the Administration and Documentation officer left in November for greener pastures. In August, Mr. Freddrick Mugisa left to pursue a Master s Degree in Urban Planning at the Norwegian University. Successes; ACTogether Uganda was able to develop her 5 year strategic plan. ACTogether Uganda finalized its organizational policies which are now fully operational. The Jinja Materials Training Centre was constructed. 27

28 Financial Report Comic Relief 640,583,108 Slum Project 226,463,600 UN - Habitat - STDM 263,000,000 SSA 14,076,500 Total 1,144,123,208 SDI SDI 035/2015 Walukuba Material Training Centre 310,500,000 SDI/034/2015 Kinawataka Project 135,000,000 SDI Exchanges and Hubs 119,905,760 SDI - 055/2015 LME 375,767,100 SDI - 032/2015 UNDP 130,000,000 SDI - 063/2015 KYC/AAPS 129,319,200 SDI Total 1,200,492,060 Grand Total 2,344,615,268 28

29 PARTNERS. Great thanks goes to the following partners and donors that worked with ACTogether Uganda in 2015 for collective achievements and lessons shared. MINISTRY OF LANDS HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT OKWEGATTA GEMAANYI 29

30 For more information, visit the ACTogether Uganda website at 30