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The Exit of the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) will undoubtedly negatively impact on the development of democracy growth in Uganda, European Union ambassador to Uganda Jan Sadek has said.

“The democratic model is under attack! on many fronts all over the world. At this time, we all need to renew our commitment to protect the foundation of any successful democracy,” Sadek says.

He made the remarks before guests at his residence at Kololo Hill in Kampala on Thursday during celebrations to mark 12 years of DGF in Uganda and its exit from the country. The event saw officials from various districts, including Nebbi, Kabale, Mbale and Masindi.

“We have also seen excellent citizen-state engagement in the area of access to justice as state and civil society groups worked hand in hand to bring legal aid to the most vulnerable groups,” Sadek said.

When New Vision asked Peter Okiria, the Nebbi district community development officer what DGF’s exit would mean for the district operations, he described the exit as a situation that would leave them to fend for themselves.

Progress made

Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group executive director Julius Mukunda revealed how all seemed impossible when DGF started. The argument at the time by Mukunda was that engaging government and demanding accountability to yield results would be a tug-of-war.

“The Ministry of Finance has a website on the budget, if you may recall those days, the time the budget would be read, nobody would even have a document on how it looked like. Today, as we are launching the budget month, we know everything in the budget: We know who has lost, who has gained and we are now on the way on how to improve our implementation,” Mukunda said.

DGF supported major projects since 2018, such as legal aid provided to over 350,000 people including those facing land disputes and domestic violence, 15,000 individuals including conflict victims received treatment and counselling, over 5,000 public forums were held for citizens to interact with government representatives to influence laws and policies and 6,000 recommendations from citizens or civil society organisations taken on board by elected representatives. (All Photos by Andrew Arinaitwe)

Outgoing head of DGF Nicole Bjerler wished the facility had more time to contribute towards Uganda’s democratic process.

“We believe in democracy with a world free of corruption. If you want to go first run, if you want to go far, walk,” an emotional Bjerler said.

Impact of DGF depature

Geoffrey Bazira, Finance and administrative manager from the Anti-Corruption Coalition Unit revealed how they would miss a substantial amount of money to help them monitor corruption in Uganda.

“We shall miss about shillings one billion that was given to us,” Bazira said as he explained how Uganda loses billions through leakages of corruption that have not been closed.

DGF, which is made up of Norway, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark and the EU, briefly showed the guests the impact of the exit with videos they promised to upload on YouTube showing health centres being revived through the facility and schoolchildren getting benches to sit on instead of sitting on the floor.

DGF supported major projects since 2018, such as legal aid provided to over 350,000 people including those facing land disputes and domestic violence, 15,000 individuals including conflict victims received treatment and counselling, over 5,000 public forums were held for citizens to interact with government representatives to influence laws and policies and 6,000 recommendations from citizens or civil society organisations taken on board by elected representatives.