“OURS BY RIGHT” BRITISH COUNCIL PARTNERS WITH UGANDA YOUTH NETWORK (UYONET) TO SUPPORT A DEMOCRACY IN UGANDA

ABOUT THE BRITISH COUNCIL

The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered as a charity in the UK and Wales. The purpose of the British Council is to create international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and build trust between them worldwide. We do this following five core values: valuing people, integrity, creativity, mutuality and professionalism. The British Council first opened in office in Uganda in 1952, closed it in 1972 and reopened it in 1984

Areas of focus:

In order to deliver the best in cultural relations we focus our programmes in the three major areas: English; Arts and Education & Society. Education and Society has three priority areas:

·      Internationalising education: higher education, skills and research

·      Global citizens and schools

· Governance: policy reform and systemic change

“OURS BY RIGHT”: PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE PROJECT

For any democracy to function effectively and for accountable governance to exist, there must be full participation of all its citizens. In particular, there must interaction between duty bearers and rights holders, with the latter holding the former to account for actions meant for the public good. Whilst Uganda has put in place the policy and legislative framework to ensure this participation, the actual implementation of these policies is weak.  Specifically, ensuring full and meaningful participation and engagement of youth, who represent almost 80% of the population. It’s against this background that British Council partnered with UYONET to enhance the participation of youth, in democracy.

Funded by the EU, the project is part of an intervention into good governance in Uganda. The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening accountability in four districts in Uganda through promoting and enhancing the meaningful participation of youth and youth leaders in the democratic process. We are partnering with a local youth network NGO- the Uganda Youth Network- which has done a lot of work related to youth and democracy in the past. The four districts are Bushenyi, Apac, Nebbi and Pallisa.