Introduction

Community Integrated Development Initiatives, CIDI was founded in 1996 and registered in 1999 as a legal not-for-profit NGO with the Ministry of Internal Affairs under registration certificate No. 2715 and Reference No. S-5914/2868. It was founded by a team of experienced and competent professionals motivated by the dire need for concerted efforts to fight poverty in Uganda about 60% of whose population is poor and 35% core poor. 

 CIDI mainly focuses on actions that directly improve on the lives of the poor, vulnerable and marginalized communities in urban, peri-urban and rural areas. CIDI is to continue investing in community empowerment programs that contribute towards poverty reduction through the provision of sustainable integrated technical and material support, in broad areas of sustainable agriculture, environmental conservation, lobbying, health promotion, income generation, water and environmental sanitation, lobbying and advocacy.

 

Strategic Goals

CIDI is driven by the following strategic goals:

• Improved access to clean and safe water, hygiene and sanitation services for the target poor communities.

• To improve house hold food security and income generation among the rural poor subsistence households.

• To contribute to increased community awareness and health literacy on accessibility, disease prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles and productive population.

• To increase the capacity of the disempowered local communities - directly affected by a number of challenges and policies to be their own advocates in bringing about positive change in their lives.

 

CIDI’s Sector Programs

CIDI’s sectoral interventions are all interlinked in such a way that they are all critical for the quest for achievement of MDG’s and general improvement in livelihoods.

 

1. Water and Environmental Sanitation

Goal: Improved access to clean and safe water, hygiene and sanitation services for both the rural and urban poor communities.

The program is implemented in the rural areas of Rakai, Soroti, Napak, Katakwi and Amuria as well as in the urban poor settlements of Kampala City.

Key activities include

§  Community based Water Management and Education

§  Citizens’ empowerment for action, voice and demand for improved and accountable WATSAN service delivery.

§  Community and civil society empowerment for better understanding of WATSAN sector policies, rights and financial regimes.

§  Provision of water and water harvesting facilities

§  Construction and promotion of sustainable sanitary facilities for both communities and schools.

 

 

CIDI also  runs a Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) System, which involves: collection, transportation and definition of an operational system for linking primary collection with, UGAVACS, cesspool emptier trucks and an in-built community managed O&M system to support an effective sludge collection especially in informal settlements around Kampala city.

CIDI has championed feacal sludge management in Kampala city by emptying toilet facilities ( household facilities,schools,markets,churches,mosques,hotels among others) and this has tremendously reduced on the incidences of Cholera in the targeted communities.

These activities are driven by the desire to promote improved livelihoods in communities. CIDI is also aware from its previous works that good and inclusive sanitation and hygiene practices are key in not only increase in school enrollment but also in retention. This also has a multiplier effect as the school children act as change agents with in their homes and communities which improve on the general primary health outcomes. Sanitary facilities especially the toilets promote the dignity of women and lower incidences of infant mortality. The reduction in water borne diseases also reduces on the care burden the women suffer. However CIDI well knows that improved access to safe water and sanitation are not enough in promotion of both primary and secondary health care and therefore is involved in Health care Promotion and Advocacy.

2. Health Care Promotion and Advocacy

Goal: To improve peoples’ health welfare and contribute to the health sector’s intervention in promoting a health and economically productive society.

 Thematic Areas: Sexual Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Malaria Control, Nutrition, Communicable Diseases and Pro-poor Health Policy Advocacy.

 CIDI is cognizant of the fact that 75% of the diseases in Uganda are preventable and therefore preventive and good health practices need to be promoted. This calls for a participatory approach where communities are enabled to identify their health needs, rights and impediments to good health. In this line CIDI has implemented programmes aimed at improving people’s knowledge on all Sexual Reproductive Health aspects, Maternal Child Health, specifically immunization, nutritional aspects. 

CIDI’s health strategy is intended to guide mobilization of commitment and support maternal and child health services and their providers in Uganda as well as contribute to the attainment of 4^th and 5^th Millennium Development Goals. Besides, the strategy will contribute to concerted efforts in place towards the reduction of infant, child and maternal morbidity and mortality. CIDI is also aware that health is central to all the MDG’s in that productive life is key in their realization. The right to health is central to CIDI’s health interventions.

CIDI’s strategy on health interventions is designed in such a way that it addresses the imbalances in decision making at the household level, autonomy on reproductive health issues, availability of women friendly HIV barrier methods, all of which continue to pose a threat to the health of children, adolescents and women. Major emphasis among others is placed on sexual health, reproductive health, malaria prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support. These efforts compliment the Ministry of Health Strategic Investment towards reduction of infant and child morbidity and mortality, incidence and prevalence rates in HIV/AIDS and malaria between 2011 – 2015.

Key Project Activities

§  Create awareness on issues of sexual reproductive health and rights(SRHR), nutrition, HIV/AIDS, and related policies with a view of understanding and influencing them

§  To build coalitions and alliances for sexual reproductive health and rights(SRHR), malaria, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS services at districts, national and international level through advocacy and lobbying geared at policy influencing

§  Identify, refer, follow up and provide psycho-social support and food supplements to at least 50% of the targeted communities infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health related problems

§  Document and disseminate best practices and lessons learnt in engaging the targeted communities in HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, malaria and health rights.

§  Community sensitization and empowerment in health issues

§  Facilitating interface between community members, policy makers and health service providers

§  Capacity building of communities and partner NGOs/CBO to carry out health related lobbying and advocacy activities.

 

3. (a) Sustainable Agriculture

Uganda is largely an agro based economy with Agriculture employing over 65% of the population in 2010.[1][1] However despite this maternal and child malnutrition is still rampant where 38% of the children below 5 years are stunted, 6.0 per cent are wasted and 16% are underweight (UDHS, 2006). CIDI therefore seeks to promote further good health with improved food security and nutrition as well as improved incomes through agriculture. CIDI also empowers communities to lobby duty bearers on service delivery like roads in order to increase access to markets.

 

Goal: To improve house hold food security and income generation among the rural poor substance house holds. The program is implemented in the districts of Rakai, Soroti and Amuria.  

Main activities include

§  Sustainable agriculture and technology development such as improved poultry management, programmed hatching of chicks, livestock development etc.

§  Capacity building of rural farmers in sustainable agriculture, post harvest handling and value addition.

§  Improved household nutrition

§  Mobilization of farmers into formation of saving groups and in-put revolving fund.

§  Farm business education and marketing.

§  Community based education and farm input support

 

 

4. Micro Finance

This targets the rural poor people who can hardly access financial services from commercial banks and other financial institutions.

 Goal: To provide sustainable credit facilities and other financial services to the poor communities in different CIDI program areas targeting the economically productive but poor community members. 

 

5. Lobbying and Advocacy

CIDI is employing the community led advocacy approach cross cutting in all the thematic areas. CIDI employs people centered approaches like Rooted Advocacy, Rights Based Approaches which emphasizes the rights and responsibilities of the communities and the mandate of the duty bearers. Among all its thematic areas CIDI uses a participatory approach and the communities are empowered with the skills of identifying their needs and how they can be solved. Communities have been supported by CIDI to establish advocacy structures where they can engage meaningfully with the duty bearers. CIDI is also keen on public accountability as a key tenet of good governance and this transcends from communities where they are empowered to identify their needs and make recommendations to the duty bearers to address their needs. CIDI has also participated in collaboration with other CSO’s to do budget work to ensure that budgetary allocations are within the international conventions the government has assented to as well as the Uganda National Development Plan 2010/2011-2014/2015. 

 

Key areas of engagement

• Grass root empowerment in advocacy and human rights awareness
• Facilitation of community engagement with policy and service providers
• Joint Research and advocacy with other development partners
• Learning, documentation and information sharing
• Policy advocacy holding  government accountable to its policy framework
• Conflict prevention and peace building
• Budget advocacy

 

6. Consultancy and Advisory Services

CIDI provided consultancy and advisory services to a number of development partners in the thematic areas of sustainable agriculture, advocacy and WATSAN.

 Goal: To contribute towards CIDI’s resource base and public image. CIDI also uses the consultancy and advisory services as an avenue to share experience in service delivery and persuade other development partners replicate them.

CIDI has in the past three years been putting up efforts in lobbying and advocacy as a cross cutting component in all its programmes and operational areas CIDI implements other activities including, rights awareness creation, conflict prevention and peace building and gender mainstreaming.

 

In all her areas of operation, CIDI has established strong collaborative partnerships with different Government bodies e.g. the District Extension Coordination (DEC) offices, Serere Agriculture Research Institute (SAARI) and Non-Governmental Organizations, Uganda Network of AIDS Service Organizations (UNASO), The AIDS Support Organization, Ministry of Health, Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO). CIDI is a member of several networks such as Food Rights Alliance (FRA), Participatory Ecological Land Use and Management Net work, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG, Voices for Health Rights, Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Net work. CIDI also collaborates with Maternal Health Coalition, Ministry of Health – Maternal and Child Cluster.