Organisation Profile

Founded in 2002, Kabarole NGOs/CBOs Association (KANCA) is a district network of NGOs and CBOs both local and international operating in Kabarole District, in western Uganda. It is a platform for collective voice of civil society organisations and has a membership of 100 active CSOs.

Before the National District Network Support Program (NDNSP) support, KANCA and her members were weak and could not engage and interface with the leaders and even could not conduct internal activities that included supporting member organizations.

In 2007, KANCA got support under the NDNSP in partnership with DANIDA – HUGGO Department. This has significantly strengthened the growth and development of the network to effectively deliver to her core mandate and have built internal governance structures that are accountable to the public and member organizations. This further strengthened the capacity of the network and member organizations to start initiatives to effectively engage and dialogue with civic leaders in improving service delivery and inclusion of community needs in development interventions.

KANCA aims to;
1.    Improve service delivery through promotion of good governance
2.    Enhance social Mobilisation to lobby and advocate for a conducive policy environment
3.   Improve knowledge development through research, documentation, and knowledge brokering
4.   Improve collaboration and coordination of KANCA stakeholders for improved service delivery

The key program areas are; lobbying and advocacy, networking and partnership development, capacity building for its member organisations and knowledge development

Key achievements

•    Initiated the “birth” of the District Development Forum (DDF) as a platform where CSOs, District Local Government and the private sector come together. This provides an avenue for dialogue, participation, advocacy and generation of innovative ideas towards the economic development and growth of the district.

•    Streamlined the internal control systems and governance structure of the network and some member organizations (MOs) thus attracting more financial support from Care International in Uganda and Independent Development Fund (IDF)

•    Mentored Kaguma Broad Based Integrated Child Care (KABBICCA) Project, Literacy and Empowerment, Kyamukube United Youth and Orphans Group and linked them to BANTWANA INITIATIVE and linked to Hives save lives Africa that have supported their programs.

•    Increased avenues for engagement with leaders on emerging Issues from the community and service delivery.  KANCA presents the civil society budget frame work paper during the budgeting and planning

•    CSOs data base developed & hosted at KANCA.

Our Future strategies
•    Stimulating member organisations to participate in planning and budgeting process for improved service delivery
•    Increasing citizens’ access to information so as to voice out their concerns
•    Establishing accountability for a at all levels in the district
•    Strengthening on learning, networking, information sharing and documentation

Our needs
Linkages for networking and partnership with other development actors

Resources (Financial, material, human, etc) to scale up interventions

Our challenges;
Limited resources

Low participation of NGOs/CBOs in planning & budgeting processes at all levels

Founder members owning and manipulating organizations for their own benefit

Low attitude towards sharing information by many NGO leaders
Failure to fulfil all the members’ expectations