Isooba, Moses

The article examines how the Poverty Eradication Plan (PEAP) process started in Uganda, focusing on how civil society has participated in its revision processes spanning monitoring, evaluation and implementation. The article looks at the challenges of civil society organisation involvement and provides some suggestions for more meaningful participation that can bring about changes in policy and implementation in Uganda. The article concludes by saying that existing levels of participation are inadequate.

This article focuses on the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP), which is a national development strategy of the Ugandan government that has recently undergone its second revision. The revision process involves government, donors, civil society, the private sector and poor-people. This article offers a description of the mechanisms of the PEAP and poverty trends in Uganda, and introduces two themed articles about monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the PEAP process (by the same authors).

This research report is borne out of CDRN and CAREÆs attempts to strengthen their support to civil society organisations in Uganda. The report takes the widely held belief that the needs and interests of poorer people are directly or indirectly represented through community-based organisations, and that working with CBOs is therefore a route to poverty reduction as its starting point. As more and more initiatives, both government and NGO-led, attempt to use this channel to reach the poor, the research examines the validity of this assumption.