Amuria service user committees trained

By Lawrence Okwakol

Soroti: Members of service user committees which include health management units, councilors, water and school management, parents and teachers associations from Amuria district were trained  in their responsibilities for good service delivery to communities .

A  three days training took place  at strikers hotel in Soroti.

Samson Okurut Emaasit, the program officer of Development initiative for northern Uganda (DINU)  said that the training was  supported by the office of the prime minister, funded by German international organization called Kondrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and co-founded by the European Union to  strengthen  performance and accountability through community engagement.

Okurut said Kondrad Adenauer Stiftung which operates in the districts of Arua,Gulu Moroto,Lira Napak and Amuria is training local service user committees to play their oversight role of monitoring and not supervisory aspect.

“After this training, we are going to organize a public conference (Baraza) to enable people raise issues that affect them in service delivery to duty bearers. Most people have no space to raise their concerns but now that restrictions to conduct meetings have been lifted, barazas are going to be held in most sub counties with service delivery challenges,” Okurut said.

Samson Okwii, a member of the board of governors in Amuria senior secondary school who attended the training disclosed that it  was timely as schools have opened yet some members of SMC who don’t know their roles.

He said that they sometimes  storm class and attack teachers for not teaching instead of channeling the gap identified to the headteacher for supervisory action.

Okwi also revealed that  most members of the board of governors and SMCs think that  their roles are  to address accountability aspects only.

Geoffrey Ewalu, the chairperson of Asamuk village water user committee in Asamuk sub county said before the training, he and his committee were not engaging the community in decision making but directed them to pay money for maintenance of the borehole instead of sitting down to agree as a community.

Ignatius Okoboi the lead facilitator emphasized to the participants to practice leadership skills and be tolerant as they consider individual differences.

However, according to  Okoboi ,  the issue of budget gender response  should be taken seriously at all levels by  considering women in each aspect of decision making.

“Increase budget allocation to health facilities and drill boreholes because these are places where women suffer most compared to men. In most hospitals, female and paediatric are densely populated than male wards,” Okoboi said.

Anna Apio the member of school management committee of Akisim-Amuria primary school asked that the service user committee members be inducted to understand their roles to avoid conflict of interests.