World Voices Uganda

General

World Voices Uganda is human rights, Access to Justice for the poor and most vulnerable and Peace building not-for-profit organization which started its operations in 2005. World Voices Uganda is part of the World Voices Global with affiliation to WorldVoices Norway and is the only independent chapter in Southern, Eastern and Central Africa. For the last 15 years WVU has developed capacity and niche with the main thrust is in providing legal aid services to the indigent people mainly women, children, PWDs and other vulnerable persons in conflict with the law, promotion of natural resource governance specifically Minerals, oil and gas, land and forestry resources as well as lake resources, promotion and protection of the rights of the marginalized mainly children and women rights, budget analysis and dissemination, Revenue enhancement and management, Tax justice, influencing and advocacy, transparency and accountability, research, youth empowerment through skills development and advocacy as well as peace building, conflict resolution and management. Our aim is to empower marginalized Ugandans and to give them a voice in society to advance their possibilities to exert agency. As echoed in our slogan, WVU is the voice of the voiceless. WVU advocates forconcrete and innovative solutions to injustice, social exclusion, poverty and its intergenerational continuity. World voices Uganda was founded by two then young people of of whom was an investigative Journalist from Uganda while another was a NorwegianSocial Anthropology Researcher named Dr Rune Hjlmar Espeland (PhD). Following their comprehensive research on and coverage of violent ethnic and land conflicts and Human Rights Violations and Injustice especially Gender Based Violence and Child Abuse inthe Albertine region, they came to an Idea of starting an Organisation would make a contribution by providing selfless and innovative approaches to finding a solution. Hence indeed the inception process and ideation kicked started in 2003, while the organisation formation process started in 2004 which eventually saw the actual operation commence officially in 2005. WVU then started with Sports For Peace Project in which sports was used as a tool for addressing ethnic differences in the Albertine and Rwenzori regions, this was followed by the Community Peace Dialogues and Roundtable for the stakeholders addressing issues of peace and then followed by creation of community legal aid clinic which was addressing Gender Based related violations and Child abuse case. WVU has since grown in both programing and operations but also geographically to covermany other parts of Uganda. WVU has of late expanded her scope to cover different Refugee settlements in partnership with OPM. World Voices which started with the development of a one year Strategic Plan in 2006-2007 is currently implementing her fourth strategic plan (2017-2022) World Voices Uganda has undergone strategic growth in terms of governance and organisation policy in which we have seen peacefultransitioning of the Board and formulation and implementation of progressive policies including Gender and safeguarding policies. World Voices is national organisation providing comprehensive programs interventions at community level, sub national and national level of which most of the physical concentration of community interventions are in Western Uganda, part of Central and Northern Uganda. Currently the organsation is running a five year strategic plan with four major core program areas namely; 1)Human Rights and Access to Justice (HRAJ) 2) Peace Building and Conflict mitigation and management (PCM), 3) Governance and Accountability, Research and Knowledge management (GARM), 4) Institutional Support Servicing and Strengthening (ISSS). Vision: A peaceful and just society in which communities are central. Mission: To spur empowerment in influencing policies and programs that equitably and respectfully addresses the needs, peace, justice, rights and freedoms of the most vulnerable persons inUganda. Core values WVU has 5 core values that underlie all actions and guide employees in the organization’s operations. These are; Justice, Transparency, Accountability, Integrity, Cooperation, Team work and Quality Principle objectives Field(s) of activity: What are the principal thematic and geographic areas in which the organisation works? Who are the social actors that benefit from the work? Thematic areas of our work: Describe what you do in each (as relevant) • Livelihoods: World Voices mainly focused on providing support to rural communitiesespecially vulnerable persons such as women, PWD, vulnerable women, boys and girls to access equal opportunities for access to resources for improved livelihood. This has been through awareness drives, provision of livelihood option for the through self-reliance short term vocational skills training at our Another Chance Skills Training Centre. Provide support to microenterprises to become organizationally and economically sustainable. WVU has support rural and urban communities to have access to funds and training to setup their own microenterprise. Younger Professionals’ Mentorship Program WVU connects young professionals to employment opportunities and appropriate training through public-private partnerships. WVU has also been at the forefront of advocating for property rightsespecially for the rights of women and girls on access to land so as to use it to generated a living. • Health: Under Heath, World Voices Uganda focuses on reproductive health rights for women and girls. WVU provides probono access to justice services for the women and girls facing reproductive health rights violations. In addition to provision of free legal services, World Voices conducts community awareness raisingoutreaches and through media to empower the communities to claim their reproductive rights hence save lives. • Protection, Peace building, Social Cohesion: This thematic area is the core niche of World Voices Uganda. Under Protection, World Voices Uganda promotes Human Rights and Access to Justice for the poor and most vulnerable people. This is through various interventions such provision of legal aid to the poor and vulnerable persons, legal rights awareness, legal representation of the marginalised persons, fighting for the rights of women and children. WVU has been at the forefront of fighting for the protection of land rights for the poor and most vulnerable communities in Albertine and Rwenzori including the respect for Business and Human Rightsprinciples. WVU promotes peaceful existence among the communities especially the historical ethnically and armed conflicts affected areas of Rwenzori and Bunyoro regions. WVU promotes community and stakeholder dialogues, innovative peace building initiatives such as Sports and Arts for Peace especially engaging the young people, WVU has also been organising youth engagement ad establishing structures for promoting peace and justice and reduction of radicalisation such establishment of the students leaders associations in the regions and organising debates. WVU has also been organising political debates for candidate at district and parliamentary levels to enable candidates articulate their strategies on how they ought to address issues of conflict and peace building and access to justice agenda with a view of enhancing social cohesion. • Environment and Energy: World Voices has interventions on environmental and climate Justice focusing on mainly respect and protection of environmental rights and conservation. Currently WVU is implementing a DRDIP Project on Integrated Natural Resources Management in Refugee Settlement in five districts to promote environment conservation and address climate change impacts. The project is being implemented in partnership with OPM with support from World bank. The project promotes community Driven approaches in environmental conservation specifically using Intensive Public Works model in undertakingvarious intervention including, Community Tree Panting, Community Wetland Demarcation and restoration, Sand pit mining restoration,Hill top restoration as well as community fish farming and apiary. Under Energy, World Voices Uganda has also a strong niche in Extractive sector governance interventions especially in the area of oil and gas and minerals. WVU has been advocating the extractive revenue transparency and accountability though contextualized research and Advocacy. WVU is also a member of the Multi-Stakeholder Group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). WVU has also been holding engagements between Project Affected Persons and Hydro Power Dam Projects officials regarding compensation conflicts. • Education: World Voices Uganda focuses on the right to education for all and more especiallythe most vulnerable girls. WVU has interventions on protection of girl child from sharks by providing free legal services to victims of abuse and neglect but also we institate legal proceedings against the perpetrators.