The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) is a non-government organisation started in 2000 by several women’s organisations in Uganda to develop the use of ICT among women as tools to share information and address gender issues collectively. WOUGNET provides information access to human rights, health, agriculture, democracy and other areas that promote women development in Uganda.
The widespread corruption and poor service delivery of public goods by local governments coupled with the lack of civic awareness makes public monitoring of service delivery unattainable in many districts in Uganda. Leaders, both political and civil servants, have been noted to be the most corrupt in the country. Uganda introduced the decentralised system of governance which meant that resources including financial and human were transferred from the central to lower administration. This kind of system, however, requires a well-informed public with capacity to monitor public resources and service delivery.
With focus on Northern Uganda, WOUGNET is undertaking a project to empower local people and communities to monitor district service delivery through use of ICT. Through the use of FM radio stations and mobile phones- SMS – the project will raise awareness on the need to have good governance and effective service delivery; carry out capacity building workshops to impart ICT skills to communities and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to enable them collect, package and disseminate information on corruption and poor public service delivery from their localities to the wider public. Furthermore, WOUGNET will document and disseminate information using web-based platforms and hold district information sharing meetings to review district performance and service delivery at parish level.
For details, please visit: www.wougnet.org.
