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Diplomatic Community “Disturbed” By The Narrowing Civic Space

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8 years ago

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In what started as an innocent wave of break-ins into the office premises of non-governmental organizations-especially those working to protect civil and political rights by unknown people over the past six years ago, Uganda’s security apparatus makes a broad-day raid on two NGOs’ offices.

NGOs raided on September 20th include; Action Aid, an anti-poverty international NGO and Great Lakes Initiative for Strategic Studies (GLISS) which have been critical of the move to scrap the presidential age limit.

Article 29 of the constitution of the Uganda’s constitution guarantees the protection of freedom of expression, movement and assembly. Clause 1) of article 29 states that “every person shall have the right to;” (a) freedom of speech and expression which shall include freedom of the press and other media and (d) guarantees freedom to assemble and to demonstrate together with others peacefully and unarmed and to petition.

A police search warrant said the raids were linked to “illicit transfers of funds to support unlawful activities.”

However, Government practice didn’t go down with diplomatic community in Uganda. The US embassy has issued a statement to express its “concern” with the trend.

“The United States is deeply concerned that the recent arrests and raids stifle Ugandan people’s rights to free expression and tarnish Uganda’s global image,” US ambassador to Uganda Deborah R. Malac wrote on September 21, 2017.

Uganda is at a critical stage as regime supporters are pushing for scrapping off of the 75-year age limit of any sitting president as enshrined in the 1995 Constitution of Republic of Uganda under Article 102 (b).

Museveni who has ruled Uganda for over 31years will be 77-years come 2021 when the country would go to polls to elect a new government. As of today the September 21st, 2017, major streets in the capital Kampala are experiencing heavy deployment of security personnel including military police.

In her 51-word statement, Malac added that; “we are disturbed by reports of raids on NGOs. Infringements on protected rights under the Uganda’s Constitution will impede the country’s development.”

She thus conclude that “we call on the Government of Uganda to guarantee all its citizens freedom of speech, expression, and assembly, without fear of intimidation.”

Pattern of Shrinking Civic Rights in Uganda:

The Uganda government has gradually, but seriously focused its energies on enacting oppressive laws all aimed at curtailing civic space, freedom of speech, expression and assembly in the ascending order.

In 2013, Government sponsored the Public Order Management act which made it mandatory for three or more people with interest to gather publically to discuss political issues, to seek approval from police.

The act, gave police discretionary powers to veto gatherings of as few as three people in a public place to discuss political issues. Police can also break-up meetings of three or more people discussing political issues in their own homes.

Police must receive written notice of public meetings seven days in advance and they may only take place between 7am to 6pm.

Targeting NGOs; in 2015, government passed the NGO act. The law gave the Internal Affairs Minister and National NGO board powers to supervise, approve, inspect and dissolve NGOs for what they termed as “for public interest.”

Operating without a permit, according to the NGO act could result in fine, prosecution and jail sentence of up to eight years for organization directors upon conviction.

Engaging in “any activity contrary to the dignity of the people of Uganda,” clause worried rights groups who still contend that it is open to wide interpretation.

Online civic space is not spared neither. In the run-up to the debate on whether or not to lift presidential age limit, the Executive Director of Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) Godfrey Mutabazi, issued a warning letter to Ugandans against what he termed as “irresponsible use of social and electronic media platforms.”  He said, he would arrest and prosecute anyone ‘misusing’ the platforms.

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Government and ISPs dragged to court over Internet shut down CIVIC Space Onslaught: Have Ugandan NGOs grown to be feared and discriminated by a 31 year old regime in power? Ugandan NGOs to Government: We shall not succumb to your intimidation…! “Closing Space for Civil Society and Media in East Africa: Forging a Collaborative Response” Shrinking Civil Society Space In The Horn Of Africa: Uganda Grapples As New Report Finds NGO Act 2016, In Violation Of International Standards
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NGO WORK

Climate wash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights

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5 hours ago

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November 13, 2025

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Climate wash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights reveals how the Bank is appropriating climate commitments made at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to justify its multibillion-dollar initiative to “formalize” land tenure across the Global South. While the Bank claims that it is necessary “to access land for climate action,” Climatewash uncovers that its true aim is to open lands to agribusiness, mining of “transition minerals,” and false solutions like carbon credits – fueling dispossession and environmental destruction. Alongside plans to spend US$10 billion on land programs, the World Bank has also pledged to double its agribusiness investments to US$9 billion annually by 2030.

This report details how the Bank’s land programs and policy prescriptions to governments dismantle collective land tenure systems and promote individual titling and land markets as the norm, paving the way for private investment and corporate takeover. These reforms, often financed through loans taken by governments, force countries into debt while pushing a “structural transformation” that displaces smallholder farmers, undermines food sovereignty, and prioritizes industrial agriculture and extractive industries.

Drawing on a thorough analysis of World Bank programs from around the world, including case studies from Indonesia, Malawi, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Argentina, Climatewash documents how the Bank’s interventions are already displacing communities and entrenching land inequality. The report debunks the Bank’s climate action rhetoric. It details how the Bank’s efforts to consolidate land for industrial agriculture, mining, and carbon offsetting directly contradict the recommendations of the IPCC, which emphasizes the protection of lands from conversion and overexploitation and promotes practices such as agroecology as crucial climate solutions.

Read full report: Climatewash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights

Source: The Oakland Institute

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NGO WORK

Africa’s Land Is Not Empty: New Report Debunks the Myth of “Unused Land” and Calls for a Just Future for the Continent’s Farmland

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5 hours ago

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November 13, 2025

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A new report challenges one of the most persistent and harmful myths shaping Africa’s development agenda — the idea that the continent holds vast expanses of “unused” or “underutilised” land waiting to be transformed into industrial farms or carbon markets.

Titled Land Availability and Land-Use Changes in Africa (2025), the study exposes how this colonial-era narrative continues to justify large-scale land acquisitions, displacements, and ecological destruction in the name of progress.

Drawing on extensive literature reviews, satellite data, and interviews with farmers in Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, the report systematically dismantles five false assumptions that underpin the “land abundance” narrative:

  1. That Africa has vast quantities of unused arable land available for cultivation

  2. That modern technology can solve Africa’s food crisis

  3. That smallholder farmers are unproductive and incapable of feeding the continent

  4. That markets and higher yields automatically improve food access and nutrition

  5. That industrial agriculture will generate millions of decent jobs

Each of these claims, the report finds, is deeply flawed. Much of the land labelled as “vacant” is, in reality, used for grazing, shifting cultivation, foraging, or sacred and ecological purposes. These multifunctional landscapes sustain millions of people and are far from empty.

The study also shows that Africa’s food systems are already dominated by small-scale farmers, who produce up to 80% of the continent’s food on 80% of its farmland. Rather than being inefficient, their agroecological practices are more resilient, locally adapted, and socially rooted than the industrial models promoted by external donors and corporations.

Meanwhile, the promise that industrial agriculture will lift millions out of poverty has not materialised. Mechanisation and land consolidation have displaced labour, while dependency on imported seeds and fertilisers has trapped farmers in cycles of debt and dependency.

A Continent Under Pressure

Beyond these myths, the report reveals a growing land squeeze as multiple global agendas compete for Africa’s territory: the expansion of mining for critical minerals, large-scale carbon-offset schemes, deforestation for timber and commodities, rapid urbanisation, and population growth.

Between 2010 and 2020, Africa lost more than 3.9 million hectares of forest annually — the highest deforestation rate in the world. Grasslands, vital carbon sinks and grazing ecosystems, are disappearing at similar speed.

Powerful actors — from African governments and Gulf states to Chinese investors, multinational agribusinesses, and climate-finance institutions — are driving this race for land through opaque deals that sideline local communities and ignore customary tenure rights.

A Call for a New Vision

The report calls for a radical shift away from high-tech, market-driven, land-intensive models toward people-centred, ecologically grounded alternatives. Its key policy recommendations include:

  • Promoting agroecology as a pathway for food sovereignty, ecological regeneration, and rural livelihoods.

  • Reducing pressure on land by improving agroecological productivity, cutting food waste, and prioritising equitable distribution.

  • Rejecting carbon market schemes that commodify land and displace communities.

  • Legally recognising customary land rights, particularly for women and Indigenous peoples.

  • Upholding the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for all land-based investments.

This report makes it clear: Africa’s land is not “empty” — it is lived on, worked on, and cared for. The future of African land must not be dictated by global capital or outdated development theories, but shaped by the people who depend on it.

Download the Report

Read the full report Land Availability and Land-Use Changes in Africa (2025) to explore the evidence and policy recommendations in detail.

Source: Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)

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NGO WORK

Discover How Foreign Interests and Resource Extraction Continue to Drive Congo’s Crisis

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1 day ago

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November 12, 2025

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Whereas Donald Trump hailed the “peace” agreement between Rwanda and DRC as marking the end of a deadly three-decade war, a new report from the Oakland Institute, Shafted: The Scramble for Critical Minerals in the DRC, exposes it as the latest US maneuver to control Congolese critical minerals.

Under the Guise of Peace

After three decades of deadly wars and atrocities, the June 2025 “peace” deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) lays bare the United States’ role in entrenching the extraction of minerals under the guise of diplomacy. For decades, US backing of Rwanda and Uganda has fueled the violence, which has ripped millions of Congolese lives apart while enabling the looting of the country’s mineral wealth. Today, Washington presents itself as a broker of peace, yet its longstanding support for Rwanda made it possible for M23 to seize territory, capture key mining sites, and forced Kinshasa to the negotiation table with hands tied behind its back. By legitimizing Rwanda’s territorial advances, the US-brokered agreement effectively rewards aggression while sidelining accountability, justice for victims, and the sovereignty of the Congolese people.

The incorporation of “formalized” mineral supply chains from eastern DRC to Rwanda exposes the pact’s true aim: Securing access to and control over minerals under the guise of diplomacy and “regional integration.” Framed as peacemaking, this is part of United States’ broader geopolitical struggle with China for control over critical resources. Far from fostering peace – over a thousand civilians have been killed since the deal was signed while parallel negotiations with Rwanda’s rebel force have collapsed – this arrangement risks deepening Congo’s subjugation. Striking deals with the Trump administration and US firms, the DRC government is surrendering to a new era of exploitation while the raging war continues, driving the unbearable suffering of the Congolese people.

Introduction

The conflict in eastern DRC, which dates back three decades to the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and subsequent Congo Wars, has claimed over six million lives, displaced millions more, and inflicted widespread suffering. Since late 2021, Rwanda and its proxy militia, M23, have stormed through mineral-rich lands and regional capitals, inflicting brutal violence and triggering mass displacement. While billions of dollars in natural resources are extracted from the area, Congolese communities toil in extreme poverty.

On June 27, 2025, a “peace” agreement was signed between Rwanda and the DRC under the auspices of the Trump administration, with diplomatic assistance from Qatar.1 The deal included pledges to respect the territorial integrity of both countries, to promote peaceful relations through the disarmament of armed groups, the return of refugees, and the creation of a joint security mechanism. A key clause commits the countries to launch a regional economic integration framework that would entail “mutually beneficial partnerships and investment opportunities,” specifically for the extraction of the DRC’s mineral wealth by US private interests.

Placing the deal in a historical perspective – after three decades of conflict and over seven decades of US chess game around Congolese minerals – this report examines its implications for the Congolese people as well as the interests involved in the plunder of the country’s resources.

The report begins by retracing 30 years of war, fueled by the looting of Congo’s mineral wealth and devastating for the people of eastern DRC. It then examines how US policy in Central Africa, from the Cold War to the present, has been shaped by its interest in Congolese minerals, sustained alliances with Rwanda and Uganda, and a consistent pattern of overlooking atrocities in support of these allies.

The report then analyses the implications of the regional economic integration aspect of the deal, which aims to link mineral supply chains in the DRC and Rwanda with US investors. The last sections examine the prospect for lasting peace and security resulting from the deal and the impact of growing involvement of US private actors in DRC and Rwanda.

Original Source: Oakland Institute

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