Happy New Year and wishing you all success in your work!

Stephen Syrett

Thanks for your post on my blog. I looked up the website related to the Kamuli Mission in Uganda - the stories sound exactly like many hard-working, challenging health centres in rural Africa.

If you want to know more about DFID's work in Uganda then I suggest that you have a look at the website through this link http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Africa-Eastern--Southern/Uganda/

There is also a contact email address.

Martin

Have to start somewhere and enjoyed your blogs. Literally my first attempt to gain some knowledge on DFID and Uganda. Appreciate you may not be the right contact but may know who is?

My aim is to identify opportunities to build the effectiveness of the Kamuli mission through alliances with others in Uganda, develop a healthcare strategy in the Kamuli region and build support offices both in the UK and Uganda. Initially I would like to identify the influential organisations and the resources that exist already.

Thanks for anything you can steer me towards. Stephen Syrett

The government of Rwanda has a reasonable - if imperfect - record on investigating allegations of human rights violations. DFID is trying to consolidate and improve on this record through assistance to strengthen the Human Rights Commission, and through dialogue with government - both bilaterally and jointly with EU partners. Unusually, progress on Human Rights is also integrated into the key indicators that structure the dialogue between the Rwandan Government and partners on the provision of direct budget support (ie. underperformance can have consequences for aid flows).

As you may know, the gacaca courts system is a local way of dealing in a timely manner with the challenge of post-genocide justice. Considering the scale of the caseload, it is difficult to think of a formal, legal process that could have done the job. We should be concerned, but not surprised, that an improvised, innovative system like gacaca has its imperfections. DFID is not directly involved in the Justice Sector in Rwanda, but we actively support the work of other development partners who are involved. And we retain a close interest in the successes and challenges of gacaca - which are regularly raised in dialogue with government.

The picture in the blog post is of the DFID office - but my house is nice too - thanks.

Martin

What are you going to do about the government's refusal to admit or investigate the human rights violations that both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty say it has committed and continues to commit? How does combatting poverty address this issue? Do you think the Gacaca system is working and what is DFID doing to make sure it meets international standards for a fair trial?

As you say the hills look crazay for cycling, and so far I have not got my bike out of my house - but at least I have had a couple of runs round the local lake.

Martin