By Charles Odongtho and Patrick Mutumba
Dr. Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is Senior Research Fellow, at the Institute of Social Research, Makerere University, and a columnist for one of Uganda’s leading independent newspapers, the Sunday Monitor.
As an experienced researcher he talks about enhancing citizen participation in governance, Normally the focus of effort is in encouraging participation in meetings and sessions, the assumption being that the more often the ordinary citizen takes part in decision making, the more likely it is that good governance will be the outcome.
- But to what extent is this assumption valid?
- What happens in practice?
- Can citizens with their living to earn and other commitments to family really participate fully?
People cannot be compelled to participate, and Dr Golooba thinks it more practical to create avenues by which people can complain about services and express themselves without assuming they will participate in council and other meetings as a matter of course.
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I agree that citizens whose minds are focussed on daily subsistence cannot be expected to participate in the conventional ways such as by attending meetings. Participatory democracy demands for mechanisms which enable citizens to raise their concerns spot-on, whether at the workplace, school, market, clinic etc. Investment in and use of Information and Communication Technologies could help.
participation wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially in issues with directly or indirectly affects wheather socially and other wise. But look at it this way. They have all the nice ideas, but real issue is for the leadership and policy makers inaction on such issues as raised. The seem to be no committment to issues as raised to them, for no results impacting squarely on the social and economic welfare of the participats.