Enhancing Capacity Of National CEWERU

Uganda CEWERU convened a- two day’s National Steering Committee meeting on 7&8^th November , 2019 at Fairway Hotel- Kampala. The purpose of the meeting was to reconstitute the National Steering Committee Structure on Early Warning and Early Response and to bring on board new players in Early Warning and Early Response activities in line with the expanded National coverage.

The meeting was co- funded by the Women’s International Peace Centre (WIPC) as partners in Peace Building  and Conflict Prevention initiatives. WIPC’s main objective is to promote women’s effective participation in Peaceful electoral processes in Uganda.

The meeting brought together Key Actors from Government Institutions/Dpts, Non-State Actors, Development Partners (UN Women), NRIs among others. A total of 30 participants attended the meeting.

The new actors that were identified include:

• Ministry of Lands
• Electoral Commission
• Ministry of East African Community (MEAC)
• Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC)
• UN Women
• National Research Institutions (NRIs)
• President’s office

In partnership with Center for Basic Research (CBR), CEWERU in Oct 2019 co- hosted a Delegation of Ethiopians from the Ministry of Peace who came to Uganda to learn about the Best Practices in Peace Building and Conflict Transformation, Diversity, disarmament and the progress made with the Karamoja communities in Uganda.

The delegation was trained in CPMR and made on site visits in Karamoja to interact with the Local Leaders, NGOs, Women groups and reformed warriors for experience sharing. They visited the Peace Dividend Projects like Kobebe dam that hosts Turkana, Bokora, Matheniko and Jie pastoralists. Kobebe dam has a storage capacity of 2.3 million cubic meters (or billion liters) (Republic of Uganda 2007b, 7).

Uganda CEWERU organized Country regional consultations and Validation in August 2019 of a National Strategy for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) in Uganda. There is a zero draft in place and an action plan is being developed.

    Resource Mobilization

CEWERU as a component under Peace Building Program of the Ministry got involved in the preparations and development of the Budget Framework Paper for the FY 2020/21 and the Ministry Strategic Plan III that feeds into the National Development Plan.

CEWERU identified priorities for the next 5 years and the funding gap.

Under the Election Road Map CEWERU has been identified among the key players that will play a key role in providing early warning election related information.

CEWERU is a member of the Joint Technical Committee for developing a framework for operationalizing the Memorandum of Understanding between Kenya (Turkana/West Pokot) and Uganda (Karamoja). Under this arrangement CEWERU has participated in a series of meetings since July to the Nov 2019 in Entebbe when Uganda hosted the joint technical committee (Kenya and Uganda) to finalize the work plans

The Joint Work Plan is to support the cross-border programs for sustainable peace and development among the pastoral groups.

The Ministers in charge Devolution (Kenya) and Karamoja Affairs (Uganda) are travelling to New York to meet with the International Donors to seek for support