Uganda Youth Network

Youth Budget Advocacy Alliance

(YBAA)
Engaging Slum youth in the Budget process
Bwaise Youth empowerment centre/AFFCAD
Friday May 1, 2015
Concept Note
Introduction:
It is a civic right and duty for every Ugandan citizen to participate in the planning
and implementation of Government programmes at all levels of development both
at the Local Government and national level. Civic rights and participation is further
enforced by article 17 and article 38 of the constitution of Uganda. In order to
influence government policies, civic organizations are engaged in promoting and
advocating for increased transparency and accountability at local government and
national level through public expenditure tracking. This is because it provides an
opportunity to take advantage of existing policies and legislation like the Uganda
Constitution and the Local Governments Act, that require Government agencies to
ensure public participation in planning and budgeting processes, especially at local
level.
The need for meaningful youth participation and involvement in governance and
development processes is essential to ensure that the programmes, policies and
services sufficiently address the specific needs and concerns of young people.
Effective programming must reflect the needs of young people and can only do so
through full and meaningful participation of young people at all levels of programme
development. Thus young people must participate at all levels of planning, design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of government programme, policies and
services related to youth issues. However, some of UYONETs findings on youth civic

participation reveal and indicate the limited accountability to young people by the
duty bearers. There is limited youth engagement in monitoring their leaders at the
district and national level and demanding accountability from them. Accountability
is a key component in delivering good governance. The concept of accountability
has moved from basic financial reporting to include elements of transparency and
integrity in service delivery.
It is against this backdrop that UYONET through the Youth Budget Advocacy Alliance
(YBAA)1 plans to engage youth in Naguru and Bwaise slums to gather their views on
how best budgetary allocations can best address their priority concerns. UYONET
will ensure that young peoples aspirations especially in slum and rural communities
are mainstreamed at all levels of development planning and that budget allocations
address their priority needs.

This approach is in line with UYONET ongoing

processes to engage young people in the Budget processes.

Background
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the overall progress towards improved living
conditions for slum area residents is showing the least positive results. The number
of poor people living in urban slums is rapidly increasing throughout the world.
According to estimations of the UN almost one billion people residing in urban areas
live under housing conditions that are characterized as slum areas or squatter
settlements. In developing countries including Uganda, the process of urbanization
is extraordinarily rapid due to extensive migration to the cities in combination with
high fertility rates. In some countries the proportion of slum dwellers is currently
higher than the number of residents living in non-slum areas. The above description
provides an indication about the magnitude of the problems related to the
increasing urban housing needs in developing countries. Among the many problems
facing many urban slum dwellers especially in Kampala is the gross lack of access
to basic services such as water, sanitation, waste removal, health services.
Overcrowding,

sky

rocketing

youth

unemployment,

limited

opportunities

1 YBAA is a National platform created by UYONET to engage young people in Budget

Monitoring and Accountability to Young People particularly on allocations that have a
bearing onto Young people priority needs

to

participate in leadership and critical decision making processes, early and unwanted
pregnancies, increasing HIV and STI infection, school dropout

coupled with drug

abuse, high mortality and insecure forms of tenure are some of the many
challenges that slum dwell experience on daily basis.
The dialogues that YBAA intends to hold thus are expected to amplify the voices of
the young people residing in slums areas and help find solutions to above
challenges by gathering citizen thoughts on how best the development priorities of
these vulnerable slum based youth populations can be integrated in government
plans and programs at both local government and national level.
It is expected that the findings from these consultations and dialogues will also help
to generate information that compels Young people and key policy actors to take
action about improving living conditions in slums
Objective
The overall objective of the community slum visits is to identify right, development
concerns as well as citizen priorities in order to ensure that more collective,
sustainable efforts are taken to enhance accountability to young people by their
duty bearers
Specifically;

To gather views of the citizens/community on their priorities concerns

regarding the budget and the means by which citizens, majority of whom are

young people can collectively demand for accountability from government.

To create a truth telling platform for YBAA members to connect, engage and
discuss issues pertinent to young people with citizens in slum communities

and draw recommendations for YBAA budget advocacy initiatives

To provide an infrastructure platform and free space for the youth in slums to
discuss and deliberate on the key issues in the National youth Manifesto
2011-2016

Rationale for the proposed YBAA slums public dialogue

It is a right for all Ugandan citizens including those in vulnerable communities such
as slum to participate in the design, planning & implementation of programmes &

activities that affect or benefit them. Since introduction of Decentralisation, it has

become increasingly important that local people / or civil society participate in
development activities. Government especially at national levels has attempted to
involve various stakeholders in policy processes e.g. the budget processes.
However, the majority of the citizens especially the youth in slums do not know
their role or that its their right to influence policy formulation & implementation.
The two dialogues to be held in slum communities of Naguru and Bwaise are part of
the unique ways in which to engage citizens in these urban settlements into the
budget process. This approach is expected to enable YBAA members to generate
citizen views on a range of issues which will inform the groups budget advocacy
messages and position papers to be adopted. This process is expected to also give
YBAA members a platform to discuss and interact directly with key stakeholders in
these communities on budget related issues and get to understand their priority
concerns on the budget allocations. It is also expected that this process will
generate views from citizens on how the government has responded to key issues
enshrined in the National youth Manifesto including Education, Employment, limited
access to quality health care, youth representation and meaningful participation in
politics and access to education.
The outcomes of this process will inform the YBAAs advocacy work as well as shape
key advocacy messages and position papers that it will provide to governments and
other stakeholders including the civil society Budget Advocacy group (CSBAG).
Community contribution to this process will help the YBAA team to also influence
budget allocations that affect millions of Ugandans including youth in slum
communities.
Methodology of the dialogue
A citizen hearing platform will be created to gather responses on key issues that
locals are grappling with. A survey on key issues as enshrined in the National youth
manifesto that directly affect young people in the slum communities will be
conducted.

The aim of the survey is to gain a better understanding of slums

communities in order to support

youth budget advocacy work for youth

employment, education, health and general wellbeing of all Ugandans. The two
consultative dialogues will be held in two selected slums i.e Bwaise and Naguru

Slums respectively. These will be open gathering targeting over 100 citizens in each
mainly youth leaders, leaders of women groups, representatives from CBOs, and
faith based groups, councilors, the mayor, the town clerk, the DRC, the DPC among
others. The meeting shall involve welcome remarks from the hosting Institutions
including Bwaise youth empowerment centre and Naguru slum project and opening
remarks from UYONET.
The dialogues will be facilitated by YBAA members themselves who interact with
citizens on a number of issues that affect them. Presentation of citizen involved in
budget process will be made by YBAA representatives who will stir thinking and
stimulate the debate on a range of issues which will form basis for interaction.
Before the dialogue, members of YBAA will tour the slum areas to have a better
understanding of the conditions under which the people in these communities live
under. A dialogue with key leaders and the citizens will be held in the afternoon to
seek views from the citizens especially on the issues that are pertinent to young
people. These questions asked will rotate around the National youth Manifesto 2.
These consultative dialogues will end with open discussion of the issues by the
citizens
There shall a social media team directly engaging and updating the online
community on the proceedings of the dialogue. This is expected to widen the level
of discussion and feedback during this process. During the dialogues, the media
shall be invited to cover the proceedings of the dialogue.
Expected output of the dialogue
The following are the expected results of the slum outreaches:

At least 2 policy/position paper on issues related to budget allocations

developed and linked to the YBAA/CSBAG and eventually to the Policy and
Accountability actors at National level

2 Questions are based on the four themes of the National youth manifesto
developed by UYONET

It is also expected that a toolkit on budget information for youth leaders will
be developed and shared with key partners in budget advocacy work
including the CSBAG

It is expected that members of YBAA will at the end of these engagements

gain knowledge and a better understanding of slum communities in general

At least two media articles covered about each of the two dialogues in two
major news papers in the country

A fully detailed and insight social media report produced at the end of the
two dialogues

A 5-10 minutes advocacy video will be produced to support YBAA advocacy

activities

UGANDA YOUTH NETWORK

Programme for slum visits
Bwaise youth empowerment centre
8:00-25:00am
Arrival and registration of Participants
UYONET
9:00- 10:30 am
Touring of slums by YBAA members
UYONET/YBAA
10:30-11:00am
Presentation of the citizen involvement in the budget process
11:00 -11:30am
Citizens proposals for the Budget
Feedback Plenary by participants/YBAA
11:30-12:00pm
Recap of emerging Concerns
Dissemination of UYONET IEC materials and general entertainment
Closure
UYONET
Afternoon program
Naguru Slum Go down project
1:00-5:00pm

1:30-2:00pm
Arrival and registration of Participants
UYONET
2:00-2:30 pm
Touring of slums by YBAA members
UYONET/YBAA
2:30-3:00pm
Presentation of the citizen involvement in the budget process
3:00 -4:30pm
Citizens proposals for the Budget
Feedback Plenary by participants
4:30-5:00pm
Recap of emerging Concerns
Dissemination of UYONET IEC materials and general entertainment
Closure
UYONET