However, it is now a wide spread  political debate among Ugandan people on whether to continue with the present system of governance or to allow pluralism in the country to give way to multi party system establishments.

Uganda Area Programme Manager, George Omona

People access to education, health, water and other infrastructures has significantly improved in the past decade. In the area of HIV/AIDS, Uganda is the first country in Africa which has made significant effort and achieved a lot in the mitigation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Despite all the achievements, the country is still among the poor countries suffering from external trade shock (Coffee) and debt servicing. The level of development has some level of disparity between the North and the southern part of the country with the former being marginalized.

The people living in northern part of the country are suffering from the consequences of the conflict caused by the Lords Resistances army.  Despite many years of fighting between the government army and the rebel groups it has never been possible to secure peace in the area. The LRA has been crating atrocities against the people of Northern Uganda by way of killings, abduction, rape, amputation etc.

Failing to keep the security of the people in their settlement area, the government called most of the inhabitants of the rural are to leave in displaced camps. As a result, presently, people in the north particularly in 90% of the population Gulu district leaves in displaced camps. They are no more on production and become dependent on relief supplies for their survival.

Thematic focus and Activities
 

Livelihood : the livelihood activities involves practical supports to the displaced people by way of provision of non-food household items in IDP camps as well as provision of financial and material supports to women groups and associations of people leaving with HIV/AIDS to operate businesses and credit activities.

HIV/AIDS: the activities are focused towards enhancing the capacity of partner CBOs and local NGOs to deliver awareness raisings and provision of services to people leaving with HIV/AIDS and Orphan Children’s. It includes; support to music and drama groups, distribution of condoms, distribution of IEC materials, support to AIDS radio talk shows, training of PLWHA on improvement of households’ incomes, positive living and home based care and provision of start up funds to vulnerable families through solidarity groups of PLHA.

In addition the program is supporting local partners to mainstream HIV/AIDS into their activities


Conflict: the program is working at four different layers to addressing conflict in Northern Uganda:

Influencing Government policies: ACORD is part of the Local Network of NGOs that works to address the restorative peace process in Northern Uganda. Together with other ACORD advocates for peaceful resolution of the conflict which has resulted into issuance of declaration of amnesty to the rebel group by the government. Though some rebel commanders surrenders as a result no significant progress was achieved.

Building local capacities for peace work: The program strengthens the capacity of local CBOs, NGOs and religious institutions by way of creating forums to voice their concerns on the prevailing conflict in the area. Facilitation of network and provision of the training in conflict resolution and peace building are the main activities. They are also made to effectively engage in the conflict research conducted which will soon be disseminated widely shared with various stakeholders.

Youth empowerment and conflict mitigation: The program work addresses youth unemployment by way of provision of skill trainings and income generations as a means to prevent the youth to become active agents in the conflict. The youth groups are also assisted in areas of understanding the causes and consequences of conflict, peace building and conflict resolution skills to make them effectively engaged in the peace building processes.

Conflict Early Warning System (CEWARN): this activity is conducted mainly in Karamoja Pastoralist Areas to regularly monitor the causes of the cycles of conflict. The movements of the pastoral communities are closely monitored, incidences are recorded and analyses are made to address the conflict in the long term. In the short term the program benefits different warring pastoralist group to have a platform and discuss issues to resolve their conflict. This Activity is linked with IGAD conflict early warning system and Centre for Basic Research in Kampala, particularly in the formulation of data to be collected, training of peace animators and analysis of the findings.


3.3. Civil Society and Good Governance: ACORD works with CBOs, local government district and sub county levels to enhance the capacities of local offices in the area of planning and facilitation of effective participation of various community groups in the planning process. As a result, it has been made possible to develop participatory Parish Development Plans involving other interest groups such as women, youth, PLWHA and the disabled. The Parish Development Plans were incorporated into the Sub-county Development and investment plans, which in turn were incorporated into the District three year rolling plans. These activities strengthened the relationship between ACORD, its CSO/CBO partners and the local governments. Thus providing an entry point for advocacy and lobbying.