STATEMENTS

World Bank Group’s Evolution Process must prioritize Civic Space and Participation

Published

12 months ago

August 6, 2023

witnessradio.org

We welcome:

the current opportunities to offer comments on the Development Committee report on the Evolution Roadmap;
growing recognition by several States that the World Bank Group (WBG) – and the multilateral financial system at large – need broad reform and revamping; and
commitments by the new WBG President, Mr. Ajay Banga, to: “forge new partnerships with civil society”.

We welcome statements in the text of the Roadmap that recognize the importance of: “greater social inclusion and citizen and beneficiary engagement”, “improving gender equality”, creating “opportunities for youth”, “inclusion of marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities and ethnic and racial minorities”, “consideration of the particular needs of people facing compound risks of exclusion” and inclusion of “citizens and beneficiaries” from “fragile countries”.

However, environments that stifle safe and robust engagement make meaningful inclusion unattainable. Restrictions on the enabling environment for civic engagement threaten the WBG’s development impact and disproportionately silence the marginalized and vulnerable.

This statement, drafted with extensive consultation and collaboration, provides recommendations for how the Roadmap and WBG’s overall Evolution Process should address civic space and participation.

Recommendation A: The Evolution Roadmap must acknowledge the importance of civic space and participation to foster inclusive development.

1. The Roadmap must acknowledge the global crisis of shrinking civic space, as has been established by credible sources:

According to the Civicus Monitor tracking civic space, as of 2022, only 3.2% of the world’s population lives in countries rated as having “open” civic space.
According to the Democracy Report by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at the University of Gothenburg, says “72% of the world’s population – 5.7 billion people – live in autocracies by 2022.”
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, only 14.4% of countries are full democracies, 35.3% are authoritarian regimes, and in between 50.3% are flawed democracies or hybrid regimes.

2. The Roadmap should recognize that shrinking civic space threatens the revised WBG goals to foster “sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development” and requires direct WBG action.

3. The Roadmap should incorporate commitments to protect civic space, similar to statements that States – including several WBG shareholders – have made. See, for example:

In 2023, 70 governments and authorities endorsed the Summit of Democracy Declaration, committing to protect human rights, civic space (including media freedom), and the rule of law; and
In the 2022 Resilient Democracies Statement, several states across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas committed to protect and foster open and pluralistic civic spaces.

Recommendation B: The Roadmap should recognize that defenders’ participation and their protection are crucial for a just transition.

4. The Roadmap should make clear that communities are the experts of their own development pathways and priorities, and community-led development models are essential for a just transition. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is clear that we must shift development pathways towards sustainability, with attention to equity and broad and meaningful participation to build social trust and deepen and widen support for transformative changes. Open civic space is critical to ensure trust and participation. The WBG’s top-down development model and failures to address civic space compromise the stated priority to combat climate change. The absence of civic space and community-led development in the Roadmap calls into question whether the WBG fully recognizes the fundamental relationship between just transitions and participatory development.

5. The Roadmap should acknowledge the critical role of environmental and human rights defenders, especially activists advocating for climate justice and just energy transitions. The Roadmap must also recognize that environmental and human rights defenders are one of the most at-risk groups of activists working today, too often as a result of development bank-supported activities in the renewable energy and transition minerals sectors.

6. The Roadmap should commit to taking all necessary measures that ensure protection of defenders – both individuals and the communities/collectives they are a part of – in investment contexts. Reprisal risk assessments and subsequent action plans and remedies must be developed with full participation and consent of affected defenders and must be situated in the specific realities the defenders face. The plans should also include pathways
to address the impacts defenders might face, directly or indirectly, from WBG supported activities about which they are raising concerns.

Recommendation C: The Roadmap should advance transparent, accountable and participatory development supported by a rights based framework.

Background

On paper the WBG recognizes the importance of citizen engagement “in making public institutions more transparent, accountable, and effective, and contributing innovative solutions to development challenges.” It touts support for transparency, accountability and participation in protocols and policies including: The Environmental and Social Framework, performance standards, a citizen engagement mainstreaming commitment, an access to information policy, a statement on zero tolerance for reprisals and accountability and grievance redress processes.

Yet, these fall short of international human rights law and standards and thus limit ensuring robust civic engagement and participation in WBG-supported activities. There also has been inadequate reflection on how a disproportionate focus on private sector-led approaches to development contributes to reprisals and ineffective development. These gaps do not only risk human rights violations in extreme cases. They also prevent the WBG from fully knowing the real effects of day-to-day operations on local communities or understanding the longer term, cumulative social development and human rights impacts of overarching policies and programs.

7. To advance human rights based and participatory development, the WBG should develop and adopt a strong, intersectional human rights-based framework in close consultation with communities, social movements, unions, defenders, Indigenous Peoples and civil society organizations. At the very least, the framework must comply with applicable local, national and international human rights law. The framework will require the WBG to develop new policies and adapt existing policies and practices, including:

Require human rights due diligence (HRDD) on the direct and indirect impacts of WBG supported projects and policies on peoples and communities, which incorporates reprisal risk assessments. The HRDD must be conducted before investment decisions are made, and in close consultation with directly affected defenders and communities, creating opportunities for them to contribute in a safe and reprisal sensitive manner.
Prioritize civic space conditions in country partnership and investment decisions by institutionalizing assessments that determine the risks and challenges to civic engagement and include appropriate redress. HRDD must
also respond to risks related to clients, contexts, and countries where participation may not be possible due to contested or closed civic space, authoritarianism, criminalization, retaliation, power imbalances or a general environment of fear to speak up.
Build institutional capacity, expertise and protocols to distinguish between different contexts in which people can and cannot participate. The WBG must require governments and state-owned agencies to comply with their duties
and responsibilities to preserve defenders’ rights, protect them from attacks and threats, and create and maintain an environment in which the right to defend human rights is upheld. The WBG must have frameworks for using its leverage over business partners so that they respect human rights, remedy violations, and support defenders to exercise their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association. The WBG must also better address inaction, impunity and/or illegal actions by state authorities when they protect investors rather than those impacted by the investments.
Consultatively develop human rights-based development indicators to meaningfully evaluate overall development impact, especially for social and environmental impacts. Additionally, the WBG must incorporate a civic space metric and indicator in the WBG Corporate Scorecard.
Link staff incentives within the WBG to meaningful measures of development impact. These should include environmental and social impacts assessed with the participation of directly affected populations, especially Indigenous Peoples and local communities where projects and activities are sited – rather than the quantity of funds disbursed.
Improve transparency and information disclosure policies and practices to proactively make key information public, ensuring it is accessible and can be promptly updated.
Expand capacity to conduct work and provide information in all languages spoken where the WBG operates. There are several examples of multilateral organizations – like the United Nations and the European Investment Bank – that support participation in multiple languages, so it is unconscionable that information disclosure and participatory processes associated with WBG activities are primarily in English. Even in this consultation process,
documents and consultations were initially only available in English.
Provide more resources and capacity building to WBG’s environmental and social departments and build capacity across the bank on issues relating to transparency, accountability, participation and human rights.

8. The Roadmap should ensure the independence and effectiveness of WBG’s independent accountability mechanisms (IAMs) and grievance redress processes:

Expand the mandate of WBG IAMs to independently look at the environmental and social impacts of all WBG activities, including development policy loans. Empower IAMs to make binding recommendations with the participation of directly affected communities.
Ensure management and staff respect processes and findings of WBGIAMs. The WBG must also work with its accountability mechanisms to address client, country or context specific barriers that may hinder communities from accessing the complaints mechanisms, especially on issues related to civic space and reprisals.

9. The Roadmap should agree to a human rights based remedy framework, such that communities negatively impacted by WBG projects – including where WBG’s IAMs have found non-compliance with WBG policies and standards – can shape and receive remedy.

Remedy should also be provided to legacy projects where communities have been harmed.

10. The Roadmap should recognize the value of an external, independent evaluation of how the WBG’s projects, policies, practices and underlying top-down development model — with its focus on advancing economic growth and the role of the private sector in development – have impacted and continue to impact human rights and civic space.
This evaluation would need to be conducted with extensive participation of grassroots communities, defenders and others, including those who are critical of WBG activities, and should also make recommendations to redress past harms and options for moving forward.

11. The WBG must allow communities and civil society to hold it accountable for human rights impacts using legal processes in national and international courts.

Recommendation D: Ensure that changes to the WBG’s operational model and financial capacity provide robust, dedicated resources to participation and civic engagement,

12. As it seeks to dramatically increase the quantity of the financing it mobilizes, governs and disburses under the Evolution Roadmap, the WBG must ensure it allocates the necessary budget for all of the above recommendations.

Expanded budgetary allocations must reflect the reality that the current funding for environmental and social safeguard compliance is already not commensurate with the environmental and social risks of the bank’s activities.
With any substantial increases to the volume of WBG financing and more emphasis on leveraging private sector investment must come increased resource allocation to transparency, accountability and participation.
Reforms to the operational and financial model must consider how to provide civil society organizations from the Global South with substantial, dedicated funding mechanisms that could be administered by civil society or jointly with the WBG.

In conclusion, the quality of WBG spending and operations is as important as the quantity of funding made available, which requires that citizens and civil society be more systematically brought into decision-making and implementation across the WBG.

For years now, social movements, Indigenous Peoples, communities in the Global South, and civil society organizations have been providing concrete policy recommendations (as above) and systemic solutions to address concerns about:

the top-down development model advanced by the WBG which prioritizes economic growth and private profit; and
the role of the WBG in the interconnected crises of inequality, food-insecurity, climatechange and closing civic space.

However, the WBG’s projects and policy recommendations, under the watch of its shareholders who are human-rights duty bearers, have continued to cause or contribute to human rights violations related to forced evictions, rising debt burden, environmental degradation, increased carbon emissions, and reprisals against those who speak up. These harms are caused (at least, in part) by the WBG’s failure to ensure meaningful participation for directly affected people and the inability (and unwillingness) to address civic space dynamics in the countries where it operates and as a result of the clients with whom it partners.

The WBG Evolution Roadmap process could be a unique opportunity to more systematically understand, promote, and protect enabling environments for civic engagement using a human rights lens. Following the recommendations in this statement would enable the WBG to move towards realizing the new vision of achieving development that
is “sustainable, resilient, and inclusive”. These are critical first steps necessary for any meaningful institutional reform to take place in good faith. Given the leadership role of the WBG in the multilateral financial architecture, the roadmap could also positively influence others in the multilateral development finance system to address issues related to human rights and civic space.

Signatories

AbibiNsroma Foundation (ANF), Ghana

Accountability Counsel, Global

Accountability Lab, Global

Accountability Research Center, USA

ACTC Développement communication, Mauritanie

ACT Alliance, Global

Aid/Watch, Australia

Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Philippines

Appui aux Initiatives Communautaire de Conservation de l’Environnement et de Développement Durable (AICED), République Démocratique du Congo

Arab Watch Coalition (AWC), USA

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Regional (Asia)

Association LaSiesta pour la protection de l’environnement, Morocco

Bank Information Center, USA

Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), MENA region

Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), International

Centre de Défense des Droits de l’Homme et Démocratie, République Démocratique du Congo

Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA), India

Centre for Women & children Solidarity Network (CWcSN), India

Centro de estudios e Investigación sobre Mujeres, Spain

Coalition for Human Rights in Development, Global

Committee for Peace and Development Advocacy, Liberia

Community Empowerment and Social Justice Network (CEMSOJ), Nepal

Conectas Direitos Humanos, Brazil

Confédération Nationale des Travailleurs du Sénégal (CNTS), Senegal

Conseil Regional des Organisations Non Gouvernementales de développement, République Démocratique du Congo

Council for People’s Development and Governance, Philippines

Debt justice Norway, Norway

Defenders in Development Campaign, Global

Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR), Perú

Enda Lead Afrique Francophone, Senegal

Foundation For Environmental Rights,Advocacy & Development (FENRAD), Nigeria

Friends with Environment in Development, Uganda

Fundación CAUCE: Cultura ambiental – Causa Ecologista, Argentina

Fundación Humedales/ Wetlands International LAC, Argentina

Fundeps, Argentina

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Global

Green Advocates International, Liberia

Green Development Advocates (GDA), Cameroon

Instituto Maíra, Brasil

International Accountability Project, Global

International Rivers – Brazil, Brazil

International Rivers, United States of America

Mongolian CSOs Network on the SDGs, Mongolia

Narasha Community Development Group, Kenya

Natural Resource Women Platform, Liberia

NGO Forum on ADB, Asia Regional

NomoGaia, USA

Observatoire d’Etudes et d’Appui à la Responsabilité Sociale et Environnementale, OEARSE en sigle, République Démocratique du Congo

Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization Public Union, Azerbaijan

ONG Sustentarse, Chile

Oxfam, Global

Pakaid, Pakistan

Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Pakistan

Plataforma Internacional contra la Impunidad, Suiza

Protection International Mesoamérica, Centroamérica

Protection International, Belgium / Global

Recourse, Netherlands

Réseau de Développement et de Communication des Femmes Maliennes / Musonet, Mali

The Reality of Aid Network, Global (based in the Philippines)

Twerwaneho Listeners Club (TLC), Uganda

Uma Gota No Oceano, Brazil

urgewald, Germany

Vikas Adhyayan Kendra, India

Witness Radio, Uganda.

Source: rightsindevelopment.org

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STATEMENTS

Thirty-six (36) groups from all over the world have written to industrial agriculture investors, Agilis Partners Limited to stop human rights violations/abuses against thousands of indigenous/local communities, settle grievances, and return the grabbed land.

Published

4 weeks ago

June 27, 2024

witnessradio.org

Open Letter

26th/06/2024.

Mr. Benjamin Prinz,
Managing Director,
Agilis Partners Limited.

Dear Benjamin,

Civil Society Organizations and individuals demand justice for Ugandan community members whose lands were grabbed by agribusiness company Agilis Partners Limited.

Kiryandongo – Uganda; We, the undersigned organizations condemn human rights abuses by the agribusiness company Agilis Partners Limited (owned by two American citizens) and its financial backers against the people of Kiryandongo District where Agilis is establishing a massive industrial farm.

Thousands of people from local and Indigenous communities have been forcefully evicted from their land to make way for Agilis Partners Limited’s large-scale farming operations, in violation of international human rights law. The alarming situation involves severe human rights abuses including forced evictions and lack of prompt, fair, and adequate compensation; violations of Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent; abduction, arrest, torture, and judicial harassment of human rights defenders, and alleged sexual violence against women and girls, as well as other negative social and environmental impacts.

About Agilis Partners Limited On 9 January, 2018, Agilis Partners Limited was incorporated via registration number R200000884113 as an agribusiness company in Uganda. It is owned and directed by American businessmen and brothers, Philipp Prinz and Benjamin Prinz. Through its subsidiary, Agilis Ranch 20 & 21 Investment Company (Uganda) Limited (registration # 80020000586929), it is pursuing large-scale grain agriculture in Kiryandongo District in Uganda.

In 2019, Agilis Partners received an Award for Corporate Excellence from the US Secretary of State under the category of “Sustainable Operations”. Agilis Partners has also received financial investment and support from various government [1]agencies and private foundations, including the Dutch Oak Tree Foundation, USAID, and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC).

Since 2022, Agilis Partners Limited has been receiving funding from the World Bank through the International Finance Corporation to create a sustainable business model for 6,000 smallholder farmers and improve smallholders’ maize production, provide them with a digital marketplace, and to improve farming processes of the company.

Purpose of the Fund: The loan from the IFC is for advisory service, and the project description states that the funding aims to improve smallholders’ maize production, provide them with digital marketplace, improve farming processes of the company and, most importantly, to advise Agilis regarding compliance with the IFC’s Performance Standard 5 on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement.

This support from foreign governments, foundations and multilateral agencies has occurred despite numerous documented incidences of violations of the rights of affected community members:

1. Evictions carried out for Agilis’ agricultural operations have not only displaced hundreds of families but have also led to the arrest and torture of individuals advocating for their land rights. Community leaders and activists who have stood up against these injustices have faced brutal treatment, aimed at silencing their voices and discouraging resistance. This blatant disregard for human rights and the rule of law is unacceptable and demands immediate
attention and action.

2. Residents of Kiryandongo have reported several human rights violations in Kiryandongo district in Kimogola and Kisalanda villages where Agilis has been operating since they evicted people from their land in 2017. People have been murdered, maliciously arrested, and tortured especially those who refused to vacate their land. People’s crops have been destroyed thus increasing the levels of poverty and hunger in the villages since most of the residents living there are farmers. Project-affected persons are not [2] allowed to grow crops on their land thus leading to people sleeping on empty stomachs. People’s cattle are abducted every day only to frustrate them into giving up so that they can leave the land for the company.

3. There is also an increase of sexual abuse amongst women and school-going girls by men working for Agilis who are brought in from distant communities. There are reports of increasing incidence of sexually transmitted diseases and early pregnancies resulting into school dropouts. [3]

Our Call for Action.

Witness Radio and its partners representing PAPs have written to Agilis Partners seeking a dialogue between the company and people who have been harmed on several occasions however, the company has not responded to any of our communications. We call upon civil society organizations globally to urgently join us and demand that Agilis Partners Limited and its financial
backers take immediate action to stop the human rights abuses and harassment committed against community members, engage in dialogue with the communities, and restore the lands to the people that have been displaced.

We also call on the World Bank and the governments of the United States of America and the Netherlands, as key financial backers of Agilis, to support an independent investigation into the human rights abuses committed by the
company. They must act swiftly to end these abuses, support the affected communities in the struggle for land rights, and hold Agilis Partners Limited accountable for all human rights abuses.

We call on the Ugandan government to protect the rights of its citizens, including their right to land, right to defend rights, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom from torture and inhumane and
degrading treatment.

The safety and rights of land and environmental rights defenders must be ensured by the government. The PAPs have been forcibly evicted, arrested, and subjected to violence. This is failure of the duty of the Ugandan government to protect their rights and the responsibility of Agilis Partners to respect rights.

We call on the United Nations bodies and regional human rights bodies to take action to ensure Agilis Partners fulfills its responsibility to respect human rights, aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Witness Radio Uganda and its partners stand in solidarity with the people of Kiryandongo and will continue to advocate for their rights and justice.
i

Signatories below;

AbibiNsroma Foundation | Ghana
Accountability Counsel | USA
Agency for Turkana Development Initiatives (ATUDIS) | Kenya
Asegis Community Network | Kenya
Asia Indigenous Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy (AIPNEE) | Philippines
Asociación para la defensa de los derechos naturales | Ireland
Benet Mosop Indigenous Community Association
Buliisa Initiative for Rural Development Organisation (BIRUDO) | Uganda
Chairperson of Oil Workers Rights Protection Organization | Azerbaijan
Environmental Defender Law Center | United Kingdom
Friends of Lake Turkana | Kenya
Global Rights | Global
Green Development Advocates | Cameroon
Indigenous Peoples Rights International | Philippines
International Accountability Project | Global
Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre | Nigeria
League of Volunteers for Human Rights and Environment (LISVDHE) | Democratic Republic of Congo
Menafem | Egypt
Oyu Tolgoi Watch | Mongolia
PIDP | DRC
Policy Action Initiative | Kenya
Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER) | Mexico
Protection International | Kenya
Sengwer Indigenous Peoples Programme | Kenya
The Awakening | Pakistan
Women for Green Economy Movement Uganda | Uganda
Green Advocates International | Liberia
Jamaa Resource Initiatives Kenya | Kenya
LSD | Senegal
Narasha Community Development Group | Kenya
Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) | Sierra Leone
Observatoire de la Société Civile Congolaise pour les Minerais de Paix ( OSCMP ) | DRCongo
Propurus | Peru
Turkana Extractive Consortium | Kenya
Asociación ProPurus
Witness Radio / Uganda

[1] https://www.common-
fund.org/sites/default/files/Publications/CFC_Annual_Report_2019.pdf
https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=36653
https://www.dobequity.nl/dob-equity-news/dob-equity-sells-shares-in-joseph-initiative
https://common-fund.org/kupanua-project-asili-farms-ltd-uganda
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00X6RC.pdf
[2] https://www.foodbusinessafrica.com/rwandan-food-distribution-company-get-it-clinches-
investment-from-us-investor-vestedworld/
https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/AS/605676/uganda-grain-development-project-agilis
https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00ZTK7.pdf
https://ug.usembassy.gov/agilis-partners-wins-2019-secretary-of-states-award-for-corporate-
excellence-november-1-2019/

STATEMENTS

One Year Later, Justice is Delayed: A joint statement on the implementation of the KIIDP-2 Kawaala Community Agreement

Published

2 months ago

June 4, 2024

witnessradio.org

Date: June 4, 2024

Last week, 31st May 2024 marked a year since the signing of the dispute resolution agreement between the Kawaala community and the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), facilitated by the World Bank Dispute Resolution Service (DRS), concerning the Second Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP-2). The process that led to this signing was hurried and confusing, but also hopeful. Hopeful that the agreement would mitigate the significant impacts of the drainage channel project on the Kawaala community’s livelihoods; hopeful for a way forward.

There is a more objective way of investigating the impact of the DRS process on the KIIDP-2 on the lives of the Kawaala community. The most obvious would be to look at the dispute resolution agreement and evaluate if what was agreed has been implemented. However, this agreement was declared confidential, and the DRS, unlike many of its peer accountability mechanisms, provided no summary or insight as to the content of the agreement. The alternative is to remind ourselves of the issues raised by the community in the complaint – the harm or anticipated harm by KCCA in undertaking this project – and assessing whether those issues have since been resolved. It is the findings of this method that has led us, Witness Radio and Accountability Counsel, as advisors to the community, to express our profound disappointment in the DRS’s management of the post-agreement phase and KCCA’s obligations in compensation, resettlement, and livelihoods restoration of the community.

At the time of the Complaint, the Kawaala community worried that their land would be taken away without adequate compensation. A year later, we are disappointed that there are still affected people who have not been paid the agreed compensation. Women, identified among the vulnerable groups in this project are yet to benefit from targeted initiatives to elevate their socioeconomic status and reduce their vulnerability to risk of abuse including sexual abuse.

Furthermore, some members of the community worried that the remains of their departed family members would be lost. Some of these affected community members are yet to be compensated for this loss and have not been able to restore their loved ones’ grave sites.

The community was anxious about food shortages as they were not farming their lands due to uncertainties caused by threats of eviction and disruptions by the project. A year on, the community is not yet fully resettled and restored in a way that empowers them to sustain their families through farming. There is still sewer seepage into farms, KCCA is yet to finalize the infrastructure necessary to ensure the flow of water in the drainage, so it still floods when it rains, and crops are carried away and contaminated.

The community had concerns over the safety and welfare of their children, fearing their children would fall into the drainage and get hurt. Unfortunately, this is still a concern as the project area is yet to be fenced off. Pathways including bridges to enable children to cross the drainage safely when going to school are yet to be constructed. There are no signages indicating restricted areas where it would be dangerous for children to play.

To add salt to injury, the rushed conditions under which the agreement was signed led to mistrust and division within the community, significantly affecting the cohesion and collective action needed for follow-up advocacy. Besides, the strict confidentiality of the agreement – in contravention of the norms of similar dispute resolution processes – limits the transparency and access to information necessary to ensure full implementation.

Through it all, we wish to recognize and applaud the Kawaala Community for their unwavering commitment and resilience in pursuing the fulfilment of the agreement. Despite facing significant challenges and setbacks, their dedication to seeing the agreement implemented and their lives improved remains unshaken. This steadfast commitment inspires our continued advocacy and support.

On this first anniversary, we call for immediate action from both the KCCA and the DRS:

To the KCCA:

Pay everyone: We demand that KCCA, without any further delay, pay the agreed compensation to all affected people whose land they took in connection with this project.
Address Livelihood Concerns: We demand that the KCCA work diligently on the livelihood concerns of the community living around the project area to ensure they are not left in a worse state due to the project’s impacts.

To the DRS:

Provide a Comprehensive Update: We demand a detailed report on the steps taken since the signing of the agreement, specifically regarding the promised livelihood restoration efforts.

Commit to Effective and Inclusive Monitoring: We urge the DRS to commit to an effective, inclusive, and transparent monitoring mechanism that genuinely addresses the community’s ongoing challenges and ensures the fulfilment of the agreement’s terms. We urge DRS to continue its monitoring role until the full implementation of the agreement.

Put pressure on KCCA: We urge the DRS to put pressure on KCCA where implementation has stagnated; to demand accountability for what remains outstanding; and to require KCCA to perform its obligations as agreed under the agreement.

To the World Bank Group (WBG):

Exert Influence for Implementation: We call on the World Bank Group to step in and exert influence to ensure the implementation of the agreement. The WBG has suffered reputational damage due to the harm financed under this project, which remains unaddressed. The WBG’s active involvement is crucial to mitigate(remedy?) the harm done and ensure justice for the Kawaala community.

The Kawaala Community deserves justice and a steadfast commitment to improving their lives as initially promised. We, as advisors, stand ready to assist in this process but require a renewed sense of duty from the DRS, KCCA, and WBG.

Sincerely,

Witness Radio

Accountability Counsel

Luganda Version

Oluvannyuma lw’Omwaka, Obwenkanya Bujjukirwa

Ekitegeeza Ekimu okuva ewa Witness Radio ne Accountability Counsel ku Kuteeka Mu Nkola Endagaano ya KIIDP-2 mu kyaalo kya Kawaala

Olunaku: 3 June 2024

Wiiki ewedde, nga 31 May 2024, omwaka guweera okuva ekyaalo kya Kawaala lwe kyateeka omukono ku ndagaano eye tesaganya ne Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), ekitongole kya World Bank Dispute Resolution Service (DRS), ku nsonga ya Second Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP-2). Okusaininga endagano kwayakuyizibwa ate era tekwali kulamulukufu wadde nga kwaali kuuwa essuubi. Essuubi nti endagaano eno yandiyambye okukendeeza ku bizibu ebingi ebyali bituuse ku bantu be Kawaala; essuubi ly’okufuna enkulakulana.

Waliwo engeri ey’omugaso ey’okwekebejja engeri DRS gyeyatambuzaamu endagaano ku KIIDP-2 mu bulamu bw’ekyaalo kya Kawaala. Engeri eyangu yandibadde okulaba ku ndagaano eyateekebwako omukono okulaba oba ebyakkirizibwa byatuukirizibwa. Naye, endagaano eno yategeerekebwa nga ya kyama, era DRS, okwawukaana kumikutu Emilala ejja Accountability mechanism, teyasobora kutegeza kubyakirizibwako mundagano. Engeri yooka jetusobola okutebereza ebyakanyizibwako, tuliina okugobelela ebizibu abantu byebaawa mukiwandiko kyogwemulugunya. Enkola nga ezo zezaretedde Accountability Counsel ne Witness Radio nga abaawabuzi ba bemulugunya okuvaayo netulaga obwenyamivu bwaffe eri enkola za DRS ne KCCA mukutukiriza kubyakanyizibwako nga; okusasula abantu, okusengula abantu no kubadeza obulamu bwabwe nga webwali.

Okongerezako, abantu abamu abekyaalo kya Kawaala baali betide nti ettaka lyabwe lyanditwaliddwa awatali kuliyirirwa mu ngeri eyituufu. Oluvanyuma olwomwaka gumu, turibenyamivu nti abantu abawerako batwaliddwako ettaka kyokka nga tebaanasasulwa nsimbi z’obuliyirizi ezakkirizibwa. Abakyala, abategeerekebwa nga bantu abali mu kibinja ekitali kya bulijjo mu projekiti eno, tebannafuna kyamagero ebyabateekebwa okubayamba mu by’enfuna n’okuweddemu obuzibu bw’okwonoona omubiri omuli n’okuvumbibwa.

N’ekirala, abamu ku kubemulukunya baalina okutya nti ebyo ebiva ku b’emikwano gyabwe abafa byandibula. Abamu ku memba z’ekibinja abali ku by’ekibanja kino tebannasasulwa ku nfuufu y’abalime ne banyizibwa okuzza mu nsi ebifo ebyo.

Ekyaalo kyali kyeraliikirivu ku by’okulya kubanga tebakyalima mu byalo lw’okusoberwa okwava mu kutya okw’okugobwa n’okubotobolwa kwa projekiti. Olw’omwaka gumu, ekibinja tekannakutulawo era ntegeka ey’ekitiibwa mu ngeri ey’okubayamba okufuna ebyetaago byabwe ebikozesebwa okuyamba amaka gaabwe mu bulimi. Waliwo okufuna okutuula mu byalo mu nfufu, KCCA tekannamaliriza kuzimba ebisenge ebisobola okuba n’emigga, era bwekikya.

Abazzade baali beeraliikirivu ku by’okutebenkeza n’obulungi bw’abaana baabwe, okutya nti abaana baabwe bayinza okugwa mu migga ne bakosebwa. Wabula kino tekinakolebwako. Enzirukanya omuli ebifo by’okutambulira ebisobola okuyambako abaana okweyongerayo ne basomero biri bituukirizibwa. Nti waaliwo obulabe obuli ku baana okukola ku nsi etali nsibuko.

Okwongera omunyu Munbwaa, enyanguyaa yokusininga endagano, Yyaleeta enjawukaana nobutesingangana ku kyalo ekitukosezamu kugeri yokugobeelela ebintu nga webitabula ne nsonga kii zitwetaga otekako ensira. Nga ojjeko ekola ekakali eye kyama, nga enkola ezo kwemulugumya endaala ezifananako nga eno, enkola eye kyama, tewaa beetu ya bintu kubera bilamulukufu, na bantu okufuna emiwandiko ebyamakulu okusobora ogobelela Yokosuka ebyakiriziganyako mukoola.

Mubyona, twebaaza abemulugunya okukola obutawera okulaaba nti ebyakanyizebwako betukirizibwa wadde nga bayita mubeera eyo kunyigirizibwa. Kino kituzamu amanyi nga abawabuzi bamwe akusigala nga tutambulila wamu namwe nokusigala nga tulwanirila enkyoka.

N’olwekyo, tusaaba KCCA ne DRS ekole kusonga ze kawaala mubunambilo.

Eri KCCA:

Sasula Buli Omu: Tusaba KCCA, awatali kulwawo, esasule ensimbi ezakkiriziddwa eri abantu bonna abaatwaliddwako ettaka ku nteekateeka eno.
Ggolokamu Eby’enfuna By’Obulamu: Tusaba KCCA ekole nnyo ku by’enfuna by’e kyaalo ekiri okumpi n’enteekateeka y’enteekateeka eno okulaba nti tebalekebwawo mu mbeera embi olw’enteekateeka eno.

Eri DRS:

Waayo Lipoota Enkomeredde: Tusaba lipoota enkomeredde ku bikolebwa okuva lwe baateeka omukono ku ndagaano, nga bulijjo ku by’enkulaakulana mu by’obulamu.
Kikole Ku Kulondoola Okuyisa Obulungi N’okugattibwa: Tusaba DRS ekole ku kulondoola okw’obulungi, okutunuulirwa n’okutegerekeka okukuuma okulaba nti enteekateeka eyatuukiriza amagezi.
Teekawo Ekirwadde KCCA: Tusaba DRS ekome KCCA ekisigaza okw’okukola; era ekkirize KCCA okukola ku buvunanyizibwa bwe nga bwakolebwa mu ndagaano.

Eri World Bank Group:

Teekawo Obusobozi Okulaba Ng’Ekirwadde Kiyindiddwa: Tusaba World Bank Group eyingire okulaba ng’endagaano eno eraba ekituukiriza. WBG tetekeddwa kuleka obuvunaanyizibwa kubanga omusango gwasindikibwa mu kugattika okw’enkomerero. Kibakakatako okukola ku ky’amagero kyabwe ekitali kyatuukirizibwa.

Ekibinja kya Kawaala kirina okufuna obwenkanya n’obukwatibwa obutuukirivu okulaba nga bulamu bwabwe buterede ng’ekisoka kye kyateebwa. Ffe nga abakubiriza, tuteekeddwa okukkiriza okukwatibwa okuva mu DRS, KCCA, ne WBG.

Mu bwesimbu,

Witness Radio
Accountability Counsel

STATEMENTS

EU stands behind the empowerment of Human Rights Defenders

Published

2 months ago

May 13, 2024

witnessradio.org

Ensuring Responsible Business Conduct by Private Sector in Uganda

DanChurchAid Uganda joins the European Union to commemorate the European Union Day, as we strive for justice, accountability, and human rights, not only within Europe but across the globe.

DanChurchAid Uganda in partnership with the National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders Uganda (NCHRD-U), and Witness Radio (WR), would like to appreciate the European Union for the financial support towards the ‘Monitoring, documentation, and advocacy for human rights’ project in Uganda (MDA-HRU).

The 36-month project (2023 to 2026) aims to hold the private sector and government accountable for environmental human rights abuses and violations, through improved documentation, and evidence-based advocacy.

A beacon of hope

At its core, this project is a beacon of hope for communities in the Mid-Western sub-region (Bulisa, Hoima, Masindi, Kiryandongo, Kikuube, Kagadi, Kibale and Mubende) and Karamoja sub-region (Moroto, Napak, Nakapiripirit, Amudat, Nabilatuk, Abim, Kaabong, Kotido and Karenga) of Uganda, where the private sector’s involvement in land-based investments (LBIs) has led to a myriad of environmental human rights abuses and violations.

The challenges faced by these communities are diverse which include limited capacity among Land and Environmental Defenders (LEDs) to monitor, document, and report violations which has perpetuated a cycle of human rights violations such as land grabbing, and lack of adequate and untimely compensation, among others.

Moreover, the lack of credible information about the impacts of Land Based Investment (LBIs) on violations has hindered efforts to demand accountability and access to justice for affected persons.

Empowered communities

In order to address these challenges, it is important to have, an empowered community comprised of human rights defenders. This project is geared toward building the capacity of land and environmental defenders to monitor, document, and report violations through the utilization of technology which is a key innovation in this project.

Through this collaborative action, 590 Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) and LEDs will receive enhanced training and support to effectively monitor, document, and report violations. Additionally, mechanisms will be established to provide timely response and support to HRDs and marginalized communities facing threats and attacks.

Engagin the private sector in responsible business conduct

One of the critical outcomes of this action plan is the engagement of the private sector in dialogue on Responsible Business Conduct (RBC). The Project will build on the gains from the Business and Human Rights annual symposiums to promote Responsible Business conduct through the creation of a platform to dialogue effectively with the private sector. The project will raise awareness, advocate for the development of policies, and enforce regulations to ensure the protection of land and environmental rights through multistakeholder engagements.

As we celebrate European Union Day, let us remember that the pursuit of justice knows no borders.

By supporting initiatives like this collaborative action in Uganda, we uphold the values of responsible business conduct, human rights, accountability, and environmental justice for all.

Source: danchurchaid.org