The Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (Nusaf) is a World Bank-funded development project to boost the development of districts in the part of Uganda that has particularly been hit by war and cattle cattle-rustling.
The fund is divided into two phases. The first, worth $133m, started in 2003 and ended in March last year. The second phase, worth $100m, was approved last May and implementation started on 25 November. The phase is expected to last five years.
The first phrase of the project was to help districts in northern and eastern Uganda, including Soroti, to "catch up" with the rest of Uganda. While most of Uganda enjoyed growth rates of between 5% and 7% since the late 1990s, the north has been the seat of conflict and poverty.
Its aim was to fight poverty using a combination of four approaches: building community infrastructure, such as roads, schools, health centres and water sources; funding income-generating activities for vulnerable groups; promoting community reconciliation and conflict management and supporting institutional development.
A key aspect of Nusaf was community empowerment: money went to activities that were largely selected by the communities, who also participated in managing the projects.
"Communities would be facilitated to participate in identifying and prioritising their needs, followed by planning, implementing and managing sub-projects through civil society organisations, extension workers, private individuals and agencies whom they will directly contract," says a report on the World Bank website.
According to the bank, districts in the Teso region performed particularly well in the first phase, with Soroti, the district in which Katine is found, named as "probably the best performing district". Katine sub-county itself benefited from Nusaf's first phase, with the building of at least 11 boreholes, houses for teachers and a stretch of road. Livestock was also distributed.
However, Nusaf's public image was tainted by allegations of corruption. Government officials and service providers have been accused of embezzlement and of doing sub-standard work or no work at all. Some reports have put the number of Nusaf-related court cases at 100. But not so in Soroti, where district chairman Stephen Ochola has spoken glowingly of Nusaf's tangible legacy, compared to the work being carried out by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and its bias towards training.
With UShs 8.6bn (around $5m) allocated to Soroti district, Nusaf delivered 114 boreholes 165 teachers' houses, 87 classrooms, a 50km stretch of road, 6,453 heifers, 93 breeding bulls, 123 ox-ploughs, 412 modern beehives and 121 sewing machines – among other things.
The second phase
Following widespread complaints about accountability for Nusaf funds, there had been fear that the World Bank would not fund a second phase. But the bank decided there were enough positives to warrant Nusaf II, which would be implemented in 40 districts, up from 18 under the first phase.
Nusaf II is one of the many projects now under the largely donor-funded Peace Recovery and Development Plan for northern Uganda, a overarching development programme for the war-affected areas in northern and eastern Uganda, which was launched in 2007.
"Although Nusaf 1 has made significant contributions, widespread poverty, vulnerability and service delivery challenges remain," says the World's Bank's Nusaf II appraisal document. "Nusaf II will contribute to resolving some of these challenges by building on the lessons learned in Nusaf I."
Nusaf II will have three major components: livelihood investment support, community infrastructure rehabilitation and institutional development.
In Soroti, Nusaf II activities have already begun with the selection of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) officials, who will assess project proposals. An information campaign about the availability of funds and how communities can apply for money is due to being soon.
According to the Soroti district Nusaf coordinator, Benjamin Ogunia, the district has been allocated $2,576,002 over five years to implement sub-county projects and $120,423 for operational costs at the sub-county level.
Katine's Nusaf II share, over five years, is $152,209. For this 2009-10 financial year, Katine will get $30,422 for projects and $925 for operational costs.
To get funding for a project, Ogunia says community members need to fill in a form stating what need they feel Nusaf should address and submit it to the sub-county office. The sub-county chief and the community development officer will study the proposal and decide whether to assign a PRA official to work with the community to generate a formal project proposal. Eventually all the proposals from the sub-county will be scrutinised and those that can be funded within the available budget will be selected. Other activities may either be rejected or deferred to the next financial year.
"The next stage is now going to be sensitisation of the community, for instance through radio programmes and community meetings. After that the forms will be released for the communities to fill in," explains Ogunia.