24 June 2009
(Page 3 of 4)
To address this grave problem, we urge you to utilize more direct and proactive engagement with the Ugandan government to revitalize the recovery process in northern Uganda. We strongly believe that more proactive US leadership can ensure the groundwork is laid for lasting peace and urge that such engagement be a central component of the US' diplomatic strategy in Uganda.
Assessing the PRDP: A work in progress?
The Ugandan government's launch of the PRDP in October 2007 was widely welcomed as an acknowledgment of its responsibility to close the gaps in recovery assistance to northern Uganda. [ USAID and other development partners have thoroughly documented these gaps, including the lack of basic services such as healthcare and schools in areas of return, slow progress on transitional justice initiatives, and the weakness of vital government institutions such as the police and judiciary.]
However, senior Ugandan officials have so far failed to provide the leadership necessary to implement the PRDP, preventing forward momentum on a comprehensive recovery process.
This critical lack of leadership is most evident in the plan's failure to function as a framework to guide the recovery process.
Over a year after launching the PRDP, the central government has yet to fill key staff positions, convene the plan's monitoring body, or develop a transparent strategy to coordinate programming and funding with local governments and development partners.
In January 2009 one month after USAID reported that the Ugandan government had made "no movement" towards implementing the PRDP [USAID/OTI Uganda Annual Summary Report, January 2008 December 2008. Available at www.usaid.gov] the government suspended the year-old plan in order to improve its budgetary and implementation mechanisms. However, despite recent signs of progress, the PRDP still remains more myth than reality for war-affected communities.
[Key among these has been the Ugandan government's promise to release PRDP monies beginning in July 2009. However, this progress should be kept in perspective - its annual allocation for the PRDP, UGX 120 billion, is less than half the UGX 247 billion it spent to host the 2007 Commonwealth Summit, and only a fraction more than the cost of the Ugandan president's new Gulfstream jet (reportedly UGX 88 billion).]
The failure of the PRDP to produce tangible gains for northern communities compounds the existing marginalization of the region.
Two decades of systemic violence and forced displacement for which the Ugandan government bears significant responsibility have created poverty rates in the North double the national average, while poor management and corruption have prevented several government-led recovery initiatives from narrowing these disparities. The PRDP's failure to break from this legacy threatens to deepen divisions between the North and South and between northerners and the central government, strengthening the possibility of future instability in the country.
A crucial role for the US in getting the PRDP back on track
Though the US and international community have worked closely with the Ugandan government on the PRDP, this collaboration has so far failed to set tangible recovery efforts in northern Uganda in motion. Unless the US and international community act decisively to hold the Ugandan government accountable to its responsibilities, the process is likely to remain stalled.
Ambassador, during your tenure there have been several welcome developments in US engagement of the recovery process in the North.
The US has expanded aid to war-affected communities, taken steps to improve coordination with development partners, and opened a USAID office in Gulu. But eighteen months after its launch, engagement by the US and other donors has failed to transform the PRDP from a paper plan into concrete progress on the ground.
The Ugandan government must be at the forefront of the recovery process for it to be sustainable and help heal regional and political divisions, a fact widely recognized by US and international officials. But so far US officials have hesitated to acknowledge that political leadership in the upper echelons of the Ugandan government has been the PRDP's key missing catalyst.
Without serious investment of political will on the part of senior Ugandan officials, so far deeply lacking, the PRDP will not be adequately funded, coordinated, staffed or monitored.
Attaining such leadership requires US leaders to directly and openly engage with the Ugandan government to make PRDP implementation more of a priority amongst its senior officials. The US enjoys a close relationship with the Ugandan government, but this leverage has not been adequately utilized. However, more effective private engagement and public advocacy from your office with Ugandan officials and the donor community can help mobilize the political will needed to inject life into the PRDP.
What's at stake
Genuine implementation of the PRDP is more than a vehicle for achieving concrete humanitarian progress for war-affected communities in the North. It also offers a historic chance to help heal regional political divisions and economic disparities that pose a threat to Uganda's long-term stability, a key US interest in the region.
To date, we are concerned that US diplomatic engagement has been inadequate in overcoming the Ugandan government's lack of political will to exploit this opportunity for lasting peace and development.
More proactive US leadership can help jumpstart the recovery process, and we urge such engagement to be a central component of the US diplomatic strategy in Uganda.
We appreciate your consideration of this correspondence and look forward to continuing this dialogue about how US capacities can best be leveraged to advance our common goals of peace and prosperity for the people of Uganda.
Sincerely,
Michael Poffenberger,Executive Director, Resolve Uganda
Paul Ronan, Senior Policy Analyst, Resolve Uganda
Additional Recent Policy Papers and Analyses
(1) Finishing the Fight Against the LRA
by Julia Spiegel and Noel Atama, May 12, 2009, 11-page report
http://www.enoughproject.org /
full text at http://tinyurl.com/lx2wgv
"Operation Lightning Thunder did not end the threat of the Lord's Resistance Army, or LRA, and it sparked harsh reprisals by the LRA against civilians in Congo. Yet, it would be an even greater tragedy for civilians if key states in the region and the international community lost their collective will to end the threat of the LRA once and for all. What is needed now is a second Ugandan-led operation against the LRA. This new operation must place civilian protection front and center. In addition, it will require stronger and more effective support from the United States and the international community, and the full commitment from the Congolese government and army to complete the job in a reasonable timeframe and operate in all LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo. If the United States takes the lead in supporting a new Ugandan military operation, as Enough believes it should, it must provide solid planning, intelligence, coordination, and logistical support-and take greater responsibility for the execution and outcomes of the operation."
(2) Conciliation Resources (http://www.c-r.org)
Conciliation Resources is the international non-governmental organization with the most sustained experience of working with civil society groups in Northern Uganda. Their background resources include:
Regional conference on cross-border peacebuilding, March 2009
http://www.c-r.org/our-work/uganda/cross-border-peacebuilding.php
"More than 70 civil society leaders and representatives are calling on the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to return to the negotiating table, and for the international community to support the process."
Protracted conflict, elusive peace: Initiatives to end the violence in northern Uganda, 2002 issue of Accord, edited by Okello Lucima, with 13 articles providing extensive background on a variety of topics
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