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Policy Recommendations

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Policy Recommendations

The Center of Faith Family and Justice recommends the following policies for the common good of Ugandan communities.
Our main focus is to promote a society with strong faith, sound families, and just institutions

Family

Policy Recommendations

Protecting the family is rightly on top of the agenda for many societies because families make the nation. Amidst the fast-changing global world, families face a number of challenges. In Uganda families face loss of family values, poverty and poor health, _ unethical conduct, crimes, malnutrition, poor mental health and often, death. We recognize that family in Uganda has some unique characteristics including the extended family systems and polygamy and some with no clear bread winners and many dependents. On the basis of a wide range of reviews of the evidence and biblical teaching we identify the following areas for possible policy interventions:

Family Values

  • The heads of families either male or female, should take their roles of instilling values, character and discipline in their members seriously as they bear a large effect on the society in general. The Uganda National Parenting guidelines and the National Ethical Values Policy are recommended to families as they build themselves on solid foundations.
  • Families should be sensitized on the value of having family savings, investments and insurance. For poorer families, the GoU, NGOs, the Church and other organizations should create sustainable programs that are geared towards skilling individuals to utilize opportunities around them and providing access to cheap capital.
  • Families should endeavor to acquire financial literacy and discipline in order to manage their finances better for their generations. In addition, the Ministry of Finance and planning should establish an information repository on its website and educate families on starting businesses, licenses, taxes, legal requirements, contacts and much more in order to simplify the business processes.

    • Family Health Practices

  • Families should be sensitized on the value of good health practices like proper feeding, proper exercise, vaccinations, mental health awareness, so that they can prevent long term illnesses.
  • The GoU should deal severely with cases of child defilement. Since domestic care workers are part of family life in Uganda, children must be protected from any criminal actions they may face from relatives, domestic workers, and other potential perpetrators.
  • Civil Societies can also play a part in educating people about their rights, their health, and how people can seek redress, in case any other of their rights are violated by the consumption of harmful health tools and services.
  • The Ministry of Health should establish a family health insurance scheme that can provide a safety net for families in case of critical health conditions that are costly.

Faith

Recognizing the fact that the majority of Ugandans are Christian (84% - 2014 census) and that the majority of the public trust
religious leaders more compared to government leaders (63% Vs 18% - Afro barometer 2020),
the church ought to take up its role in policy and the economy at large to create
a better environment for Ugandans to thrive.

The Church and leadership

  • The Church and other religious organizations should instill ethical leadership values and standards amongst its congregation and Nation by first being good examples, sensitizing communities on their call as leaders under God and rewarding / recognizing great leaders.
    • TThe Church and other religious organizations should hold regular leadership training and workshops to engage business and government leaders on ethical leadership and its impact on the economy and citizens.

    The Church and Family

  • The Church should reclaim and continually re-affirm the honorable calling to enable men and women to enter holy matrimony, to form holy and consecrated households, and for those households to be formed into the larger Body of Christ, the people of God, the Bride of Christ.
  • The Church and other religious organizations should solidify their roles in the families as counselors and exhort the hopeless, instill Christian values, pray for the sick, take care of the orphans and widows as Christ called us to do. This should be done with a mission of unifying families, caring for the broken and sharing the love of God.
  • The Church should also encourage the family to reach out to their communities, have proper health practices, and take care of their environment for generations to come.

    • The Church and the Economy

  • The Church should work together with the government and other institutions in creating public policies that benefit their congregation as well as be positive influencers when it comes to policy implementation.
  • The Church should inform the communities it serves on any policies that benefit them, how to benefit from available opportunities, and how to be innovative among others via its notice boards and announcements. This is because the Church can easily communicate to its communities in different languages and in the context they can understand.

Justice

For several years, Uganda has grappled with corruption, poor public performance, cultural injustice and among
others, and it is the responsibility of every Ugandan and the Judicial system at large to ensure that
justice prevails, and crime is punished. We believe that the following issues should be
tackled on the road to building justice in Uganda.

Just Institutions

  • It is important to build structures with robust check and balance mechanisms to manage all manners of transactions and interactions more effectively through digitization of critical channels and publishing public conduct reports. Automation of service delivery processes goes a long way in streamlining service delivery for greater efficiency. Public eyes and ears must follow the money and actions of the Government. The GoU and all its agencies must be accountable to the people.
  • As opposed to a self-above-service culture, a service-above-self culture should be rewarded and encouraged to thrive in order to transform the systems in Uganda significantly. In addition, dealing with kleptocrats may require the intervention of global agencies, as many culprits usually hide under the wings of those in power.
  • Continuous civic education even for the illiterate, is vital and should go along with increased public participation. The citizens’ voice must be heard and considered in public dialogue for considerate decision making. Public village meetings, for example, to discuss issues in the communities would allow community members to harness their time and creative energy and resources to solve problems in the community.

    • Youth

  • Institutions in partnership with the Government of Uganda(GoU) and concerned organizations should provide adequate accelerated learning programs to provide school dropouts with a redemptive chance to acquire education. Such a scheme would educate, equip and skill many under-educated/under-skilled civilians, providing them a fighting chance to live more productively, and granting them access to better opportunities and prosperity. This would further promote the nation’s growth and development.
  • The GoU must deal with youth unemployment and underemployment if citizens are to place a high premium on education. An economy with a very high demand for skilled labour would drive Uganda’s demand for education. Unemployment and under employment can be dealt with by promoting investments in the country both from local and international investors.
  • The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development should fast track investments in the skills sector and more so in innovation and technology through coordinated efforts with donors and the private sector in order to contribute to job creation. All government agencies should be encouraged to harness and support youth development by reviewing the plans and implementing them with a bias towards youth development.
  • The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development should provide regular safety checks for young migrant workers abroad, especially in the Gulf countries which are notorious for mistreating migrant workers. This can be done through the Ugandan Embassies or in partnership with respective countries.
  • The Government of Uganda needs to promote inclusiveness and ownership of the programmes by youth. Moreso, tax paid by all employed youth could also be directed towards funding youth programmes. This would develop the youth’s capacity and increase their participation and involvement in policies that affect them.
  • The youth should be more intentional about supporting their colleagues in special interest youth groups, this would allow the strong to lift the weak, providing equal opportunities for all the youth, abled and disabled.
  • The Government of Uganda needs to promote inclusiveness and ownership of the programmes by youth. Moreso, tax paid by all employed youth could also be directed towards funding youth programmes. This would develop the youth’s capacity and increase their participation and involvement in policies that affect them.
  • The youth should be more intentional about supporting their colleagues in special interest youth groups, this would allow the strong to lift the weak, providing equal opportunities for all the youth, abled and disabled.

    • Women

  • The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development should conduct a national survey of the gender profile of Uganda’s economy in order to collect data related to the skills and wage gap, social and cultural women discrimination, informal cross border trade, access and ownership of resources and information, among others in order to inform policies.
  • pecific women-related actions should be incorporated in policy design to ensure that gender needs are plainly tackled like the gap between women’s share of ownership and control of productive resources. Monitoring mechanisms that capture performance and experiences of women in businesses, society and cross-border trade should also be put in place.
  • Labour institutions should improve work-at-home policies for mothers, especially mothers of young children so that those who are more comfortable working at home may stay at home and still be productive in their official work. This would boost the psychological wellbeing of families. Alternatively, workplaces should provide nurseries at the workplace to encourage a more peaceful working environment for working parents.

    Economic empowerment

  • The Government of Uganda (GoU) should continue investing in infrastructure development such as roads, facilities, and railway lines in order to attract and promote foreign investment. Proper infrastructure also empowers businesses to increase production and trade conveniently.
  • The Ministry of Trade Industry and Cooperatives should continue encouraging local investors to set up industries by providing them with capital at low cost in order to boost local manufacturing. Ugandans continue to suffer discouragingly high costs of borrowing. The GoU should intervene to protect local investors and local manufacturers from this high cost of capital acquisition.
  • Uganda should export labor to other African countries to reduce the heavy unemployment burden its youth suffer. Uganda has implemented open migration policies which have allowed foreigners to visit, work and settle in Uganda relatively easily. Common markets like the AfCFTA, COMESA and EAC make it even easier for Ugandans to move to other African countries. For Ugandans to fully benefit from migration, high quality education and continual skilling of its labor is vital.
  • To profit from high demand of goods and services, the Government of Uganda should find, promote and exploit her comparative advantages in order to maximize benefits from exports and trade within common markets like the AfCFTA, COMESA and the EAC. Some known comparative advantages include education services, tourism services, natural resources, and fresh farm produce.
  • Uganda should digitize the economy in order to facilitate efficient use of financial instruments, travel logistics and embrace e-commerce. This would allow producers, retailers and consumers to connect more easily.
  • Farmers should be educated on modern and scientific farming practices. Upgrading their farming methods would climate-proof their harvests, minimizing crop losses, while increasing crop yields. In addition, agricultural entrepreneurship should be promoted to facilitate the financial empowerment of individuals.
  • The Government of Uganda should grant local governments more autonomy over fundraising and development within the national development framework. Autonomy also increases once the districts are more vigilant in raising more local revenues and donor funds. A self-financing model for local government financing would reduce the central government's funding burden while boosting local development.