WHAT WE DO
Since the start of its activities in 2007, the Platform has been very active in gaining understanding of current trends in social protection in Uganda, and using this knowledge to create awareness and generate debate about the importance of social protection in Uganda.
Our work revolves around four pillars:
Creating Awareness And Knowledge Sharing
Increasing local awareness of Social Protection, including facilitating the exchange of experiences.
Creating Awareness And Knowledge Sharing
Increasing local awareness of Social Protection, including facilitating the exchange of experiences.
Knowledge Production
Carrying out research and studies, such as policy analysis, evaluations and social audits.
Knowledge Production
Carrying out research and studies, such as policy analysis, evaluations and social audits.
Advocacy
Influencing government decision making on social justice and social protection.
Advocacy
Influencing government decision making on social justice and social protection.
Capacity Strengthening
Carrying out research and studies, such as policy analysis, evaluations and social audits.
Capacity Strengthening
Facilitating capacity building actions for the membership and diverse groups of stakeholders.
- In the early years of our existence, the SPPU engaged the media on the importance of keeping the social protection discourse alive in the public through media reporting. A media forum on social protection was formed. Since then, the SPPU and the media forum on Social Protection collaborate from time to time given the nature of the advocacy issue at hand.
- We published newspaper supplements and held talk shows on radio and TV to raise awareness among the public. We aimed to cause the public to demand for social protection; to call on the government of Uganda to fulfil its commitment to finance social protection and to agree to a national roll-out of the Senior Citizens’ Grant.
- We have been engaged in promoting the meaning and understanding of Social Protection Faith Based Organizations.
- Conducted research on children’s rights and social protection in Uganda.
- Published Social Protection issue papers.
- Research and publication of a policy brief on issues of social justice and Social Protection for the informal sector.
- The Platform was a significant player in monitoring the implementation of Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment (SAGE) in the 15 pilot districts
- In the early years of its existence, the SPPU engaged members of Parliament on the need to promote social protection on the floor of the house; the MPs at that time decided to form the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Social Protection, to boost social protection engagement within the house.
- Wrote a formal letter to the Minister of Finance Planning and Economic Development requesting the government of Uganda to fulfil its commitments towards financing social protection.
- Presented a petition to the Speaker of the Parliament with 1500 signatures of older persons from various regions of Uganda, calling upon the government to publish a plan with clear timeframe for rolling out the Social Assistance Grants for the Elderly (SAGE) program for all districts; and allocate resources to fund the national roll-out of SAGE program to all the districts. This involved coaching and mobilisation of Older Persons Associations (OPAs) to demand for the roll-out of senior citizen grants.
- Held dialogue meetings with political leaders at local government levels to encourage them to include social protection as a core need in the village, sub county, and district plans of subsequent years.
- Held national level dialogue meetings with the Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) and the National Association of Local Government Councilors (NALCA) on the issue of including social protection as a core need in local government plans and budgets.
- Supported the creation of “social protection action groups” in the 14 pilot districts of the SAGE program. The groups comprised religious leaders, community development officers, cultural leaders, and other opinion leaders, who were supported to conduct dialogue meetings with local government leadership, and conduct public dialogues to stimulate social protection debates among the general public and within district councils.
- We trained journalists on the meaning of social protection, the current trends and its importance;
- Participated in a Regional Consultative Meeting on Social Protection HIV/AIDS and Older People which took place in November 2011 in Nairobi.
- Participation in policy activities at the African Union and UN levels to contribute to regional and international discourse on social protection.
- The Platform contributed to the development of the Social Policy Framework for Africa 2008, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), on the Rights of Citizens to Social Protection and Social Security, and processes that led to the creation of the Global Coalition on Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), as well as participation in the UN Women conference that focused on gender and social protection in New York in 2019.
