“We Are Now the CMO – What Next?” Developing Strong Working Procedures for Catchment Management Organizations in Uganda
In several catchments across the country, Catchment Management Organization (CMOs) had already been established -some in operation for more than a year- but with different ways of operating and mixed success. There were no guidelines on the operation or self-organization of CMOs. In July 2017, RAIN was asked to develop CMO working procedures (i.e. how CMOs should function, their internal rules and procedures and principles, etc) and how to operationalize different bodies of CMOs.
A CMO is a multi-stakeholder body charged with planning, coordinating and monitoring how water and related resources in a catchment are managed. A CMO comprises the following bodies:
- a Stakeholder Forum that brings together, for planning purposes, stakeholders whose activities affect or are affected by the status of water and related resources in the catchment (e.g. non-governmental organizations, district local governments, private sector, academic and research institutions, government agencies, religious and cultural institutions).
- a Management Committee that is the executive board responsible for strategic guidance and overall coordination of catchment management.
- a Technical Committee that supports the executive board on technical matters and is responsible for integrating the catchment management plan into the strategies of districts, organizations, and other agencies/institutions in the catchment.
- a lean Secretariat that is responsible for the day-to-day operations of a CMO.
Earlier we informed you about an assignment where RAIN and partners developed catchment management plans and facilitated the establishment of CMOs in 2 catchments in Uganda (for details click here and here). After their establishment, the CMOs asked questions such as, “how do we self-organize, what are our working procedures? etc.” This inspired an additional assignment of developing working procedures for the modus operandi and operationalization of CMOs in Uganda.
From July – August 2017, RAIN developed a “CMO Procedures Manual” for Uganda, through a consultative process that involved document reviews, one-on-one interviews with members of existing CMOs and other stakeholders, and a validation workshop where the draft manual was presented and discussed. The final Manual is now ready for use by CMOs.
For more information contact: James W. Kisekka or Maarten Onneweer.
Client:
Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM)
Ministry of Water & Environment (MWE)
Republic of Uganda
Financial support:
Co-funded by German Development Cooperation and DFID (under its Enhancing Resilience in Karamoja Project), implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
