NGOs Validation exercise
Sunday, 22nd September 2019MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS PRESS RELEASE PRESS CONFERENCE
The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Act 2016 established the National Bureau for NGOs (NGO Bureau) as a semi-autonomous entity under the Ministry of Internal Affairs to replace the National NGO Board. The NGO Bureau is mandated to register, regulate, monitor, inspect, coordinate and oversee NGO operations in the country. A National NGO Register was established in 1989 after establishment of the National NGO Board under the NGO Registration Act Cap 113 of 1989. Since 1989, there was no verification or validation of the register to establish the exact status of registered NGOs. In order to effectively implement the NGO regulatory framework, there was a need for a verification and validation of the information on NGOs.
During Financial Year 2018/19, the NGO Bureau embarked on a verification and validation exercise which is still ongoing. The purpose of the exercise was to build a reliable and credible data bank of information on all NGOs operating in Uganda for evidence-based decision making. The exercise will also help to determine any meaningful relationships, correlations and variations in the data with the NGO Bureau and the districts, to ascertain the status of NGOs operating in the Country.
This exercise began on the 1st day of November 2018. On the 8th day of April 2019, a communication was sent out to all districts requesting for a copy of the Community Based organizations (CBO) register and NGO inventory. Out of 128 districts, 71 districts submitted their data and 57 districts did not comply. We are making a follow up on the non-compliant districts and also engaging the Ministry of Local Government. A database for CBOs was developed and the process of updating is on-going. With effect from 31st July 2019, the National NGO register indicates that there were 14,207 registered NGOs, out of which 3,810 had valid permits, while 10,397 had expired permits. The method of establishing those figures involved physically going through every registered NGO file at the Bureau for verification.