Biyinzika Agatha Ssempijja.JPG

 Mrs. Biyinzika Agatha Ssempijja

SUB-SECTORS

• Community Development
• Gender
• Youth and Culture
• People with Disabilities and Elderly
• Probation and Social welfare

MANDATE

Mobilising and empowering communities to participate and engage actively in the development process and to ensure their self- sustenance.

CORE FUNCTIONS

• Facilitating the participatory planning processes
• Community mobilization and empowerment
• Gender mainstreaming and women empowerment
• Social protection and probation welfare
• Co-ordination and networking with Development Partners

OBJECTIVES

• To enhance community involvement and participation in development programs including Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP), Uganda Women Entreprenuership Programme (UWEP) and Discretionary Equalisation Grant (DDEG).
• To promote decent employment opportunities and labour productivity by ensuring a good working relationship between employers and employees.
• To promote rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment in the development process.
• To improve the capacity of youth to harness their potential and increase self-employment, productivity and competitiveness.
• To improve community participation in the planning process.
• To uplift the socio-economic well-being and raise the capacity of the women, youth and PWDs through engaging in Income generating activities (IGAs).
• To lobby, support and collaborate with NGOs, CBOs and other development partners.
• To contribute to the reduction of illiteracy in the Municipal Council through the FAL Programmes.
• To ensure the protection of children and raise public awareness on the rights and responsibilities of children.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• 144 groups have so far accessed funds under DDEG programme to uplift the standards of living of the community groups.
• Under Youth Livelihood Program (YLP), 69 groups have so far received funding.
• Under Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program (UWEP), 83 groups have so far received funding.
• Under DDEG, Assessment of 31 DDEG groups was done by the technical team and the secretary for Gender.
• Trained YLP, UWEP and DDEG beneficiary committee members like Project Management Committees, Social Accountability Committees and Community Procurement Committees to ensure financial management and project sustainability.
• Gender awareness trainings in Gender planning and budgeting conducted.
• Skills enhancement trainings for Youth, Women, PWDs and Elderly conducted.
• Communities mobilized and sensitized to participate in socio-economic and political development programmes /projects like UWEP, YLP and DDEG Programmes for social transformation.
• Formed the Municipal council Civil Society Organisation (CSO) network and quarterly meetings held.
• Monitored all service providers and coordinated child related issues.
• Linked and networked with Development Partners.
• Inspected and monitored workplaces to ensure that they conform to national policies and standards on occupational health and safety.
• Support supervision to FAL classes.
• Trained groups in group formation/ group dynamics, project planning and management, writing group constitutions, project proposals, financial management, record keeping, conflict resolution, minute writing.
• So far registered 983 Community Based Organisations (CBOs).
• Sensitized the Community on the Child Rights, child care and protection and Child related activities.
• Continuous support supervision and monitoring of beneficiary groups under all development programmes held quarterly.
• Continuous supervision and monitoring of YLP, UWEP and DDEG beneficiary groups.
• Sensitization of parents on the proper upbringing of their children to reduce on the risks of child abuse and neglect that lead to defilement, early marriages and other forms of domestic violence conducted.

CHALLENGES

• Low sustainability of community initiatives due to failure of the community to appreciate the group approach.
• Inadequate sector funding.
• Negative attitude and low involvement of the community towards development programmes.
• Community participation is still low, making community project ownership lacking in many areas.
• Inadequate knowledge on child related laws, guidelines and policies by the service providers doing OVC work despite the ever increasing numbers of OVCs.
• Inadequate resources to follow up probation cases and in instances of child neglect, rape cases, divorce and child abuse there is an information gap, people still need to be sensitized about the child rights, community participation rights, labour rights since many are still being exploited because of ignorance.

COMMUNITY BASED DEPARTMENT STAFF