0774043491
ABSTRACT
The report consists of
the main activities that I was involved in at Forum for Women in Democracy
under the Women and Leadership Program (WLP, lessons learnt from the various activities,
challenges faced in pursuing someactivities, conclusions and recommendations.
Some of the activities
I was involved in included,
·
Attended meetings and conferences on
behalf of the organization (FOWODE).
·
Co-ordinated meetings and conferences
that were organized by the organization.
·
Mobilized people and organizations to
attend conferences and meetings organized by FOWODE.
·
Assisted in the M&E work.
·
Attended Program meetings at FOWODE.
·
Took down minutes during meetings and
conferences that I attended.
I was able to gain
experience in communication skills,work professional skills, gender and women‘s
rights knowledge, got experience on data entry of documents.
The lessons were; that sometimes
things do not always go as expected especially in organizational setting .As a
human rights activist, I have to move down to the grass root level to create
awareness and sensitize people over there on their rights and do a lot of
reading as to make informed decisions. I also learnt to exercise a lot of
patience while at work.
The main challenges
that I faced during this training include; use of the Civil Society language
(short forms) ,some of the field officers(FOs) were not responding positively
in regards to the tracking networking
forms, lack of an intercom phone in our (interns) office.
This field attachment
portrayed to me FOWODE’S main
interests some of which are ;to advocate
for gender equality in government laws ,policies and programs, to provide forum
for women and other marginalized groups to influence public policy through dialogue and negotiation, to cooperate with
other women’s organizations in working towards the goal of gender equality.
In conclusion the field
attachment also revealed to me that women and children are still the
unprivileged group of people in Uganda and Africa at large there is need to
address all these inequalities through promotion and protection of Human
Rights.
This field attachment
revealed to me that FOWODE is a suitable place for gathering information and
facts that will help me carryout my research .Recommendations are; need to
educate the women at the grass root levels to ensure equal footing for all women,
also train the leaders at all levels in order to create awareness in terms of
leadership and human rights issues.
THE
MAIN REPORT
1.1Introduction
A field internship
report is a comprehensive document about the student’s experience while in the
field. Every student who goes on field attachment is therefore supposed to
present this document to both to the University and organization /company of
attachment at the end of his /her field attachment.
Field attachment is
done as part and parcel of the student’s education career and it is expected
that by the end of this attachment, a student will have;
·
Acquired new knowledge and practical
experience.
·
Improved his/her confidence in problem
solving.
·
Gained exposure to the demands and
challenges of the work place.
·
Improved appreciation of their
profession of study and therefore, better work ethics.
To the organization of
attachment, it is expected that this attachment will enable it;
·
Get exposed to the pool of potential
future employees from which to select, hence reducing on the cost of induction
/orientation of new employees.
·
Get opportunity to get involved in
training and review of programs at the University where the student is coming
from.
To the university, it
is expected that field attachment will enable the university;
·
Get opportunities to access training
facilities and resources that are not available at the university.
·
Enhance its potential for research and
develop cooperation with partners in various fields.
This report is
therefore about the activities that I was engaged in as part of my internship training in as
the Women and Leadership Program(WLP) at FOWODE from 10th June to 31st
July 2014.The report also covers a number of objectives of WLP at FOWODE
,challenges encountered ,the lessons learnt and benefits while carrying out my
training with the organization .It represents the background of FOWODE ,the
nature of business it conducts ,itsoperations,mission,vision,gaol and
objectives, plus the organizational culture of FOWODE and its values.
1.2Background
of the Field Attachment
Field attachment is
defined as the field based practical work carried out by students from
university and other higher institutions of the learning for the purpose of
helping the student get exposure to work based practices outside for the
university, it’sresponsible for the security of its students.
The purpose of the
field attachment is to give students an opportunity to be involved in practical
work and enable them to apply and put into practice the principles and theories
learnt in class into real life of study and to get prepared for the outside
world .It is for this reason that I had to go for this field practice in order
to get exposed to the work setting environment.
FOWODE has two core programs areas which
have shaped her brand over years and one sub program
Women
and leadership Program (WLP)
Goal:
Women participating effectively in governance
The program focuses on:
·
Building a critical mass of young
leaders for transformative leadership.
·
Enhancing capacities of women for
effective campaign management, legislative engagement and gender responsive
policy influence.
·
Increasing civic competence on
constitutionalism, women’s rights, obligations, and entitlements.
·
Building bipartisan coalition to
effectively champion gender equality and women’s rights.
·
Creating a women’s space of incubation,
learning, innovation and engagement.
·
Advocacy for gender agenda in
legislative and political processes and engendered political systems and
structures.
Gender
and Economic Policy Program (GEPP)
Goal:
Women and men benefit from government economic policies and programs equitably.
The program focuses on:
·
Advocacy for engendered fiscal policies
and budgeting processes.
·
Enhancing capacities of legislators,
government technocrats and CSOs for gender responsive macroeconomic policies.
·
Building a critical mass of empowered
women and men for improved budget transparency and service delivery.
·
Establishment of knowledge center on
gender and macroeconomics.
·
Building synergies for collection voice
on gender equity and women’s empowerment.
Management
and Administration Program (MAP)(Sub-Program)
Goal:
An efficient, effective and sustainable organization.
The program focuses:
·
Maintain robust monitoring and
evaluation and financial systems.
·
Strengthen institutional technical
capacity.
·
Enhance knowledge and information
management.
·
Diversify the financial resource base.
·
Attract and maintain high caliber
professional staff.
I was involved in the
WLP ,it is for this reason that I had to go for this kind of field work in
order to enable me understand the main challenges faced by women in regards to
human rights ,empowerment, emancipation and
understand my role as a human rights activist in helping the women.
1.3Objectives of the field
attachment
v Develop
the student’s understanding of work ethics, employment demands, responsibilities
and opportunities.
v As
a student it provides me an opportunity to apply the principles and techniques
theoretically learnt into real-life problem solving situations.
v It provides me an opportunity to interact with
the stake holders and potential employers.
v As
a student it improves my confidence in problem solving and to appreciate field
situations.
1.4Background
of the organization of field attachment
Forum for Women in
Democracy (FOWODE) is a women’s rights
national non-partisan organization established in 1995 .FOWODE grew out of
women’s caucus of the 1994-1995 Constituent Assembly (CA) which debated and
passed the 1995 constitution .FOWODE was established to offer a platform for
Ugandan women’s learning ,networking ,sharing ,experiences and advocating for
gender equity and equality in decision making processes.
FOWODE has continued to
be a pacesetter in promoting gender equality and women’s leadership in the
country .Whereas it primarily focuses on women’s issues, FOWODE also seeks
gender and thus involves men in all aspects of its work .FOWODE has
strategically positioned itself as a champion for women’s rights protection,
participation in political decision making and engaging in issues of
macroeconomic governance such as Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB).
1.4.0The
nature of advocacy work
FOWODE works around, capacity building,
community empowerment, Policy engagement, strategic partnerships and alliances
and institutional development for women and girls.
1.4.1Vision
of the Organization
FOWODE’s vision a just
and fair society where women and men equally participate in and benefit from
decision making processes.
To promote gender
equality in all areas of decision making through Capacity Development,
Community Empowerment, Policy Engagement and Strategic Partnerships.
1.4.3Values
of the Organizations
Respect of women’s
rights as human rights, Respect of diversity, Gender equality and equity,
Accountability and transparency, Integrity, Excellence.
1.4.4Goals
and Objectives
·
To promote and educate women on their
constitutional rights especially on human rights.
·
To engage in the identification of women
leaders at the National, District and equip women for political participation
at all levels.
·
To train and equip women for political
participation at all levels.
·
Furthermore, to train women in political
strategies, lobbying and generally in political participation.
·
To act as a research, information and
training center to enable women and other marginalized groups to become
effective decision makers.
·
To establish a center which will bring
women more fully into the political process at all levels to create an
effective network by elucidating on the benefits of their involvement
·
To build coalitions with other
marginalized groups like the youth and the disabled and with gender sensitive
men.
·
To establish to support a database,
collect desegregated data and relevant statistics to support the process of
bringing women into decision making positions.
1.5Organizational
Culture
FOWODE culture is
shared by members of the organization and it’s based on the mission, statement,
long term, vision and the organizational goals.
1.6Gender
in the Organization
Talking about gender in
the organization, there are more women than men in the top most administrative
positions. We have the Executive Director (E.D) who is a female, the Manager
who is in charge of Women and leadership Program (WLP) and she is a female, the
Senior Program Director (SPD), a male. However, there is still some gender
discrimination in the organization; of which in the women ‘s movement, we need
to include men for better empowerment. Under the WLP in particular there are
only females; this is because this program deals with women issues alone. There
is afemale in the GEPP, threefemales in the accounts and finance section, a
male in the IT section, four support staff members one female, three males.
1.7The
structure of the Organization
Every three years the
General Assembly elects the five members Board of Directors which plays an
oversight role and provides strategic direction to FOWODE.
GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
|
BOARD
OF TRUSTEES
1.Chairperson
2.Deputy Chairperson
3.Secretary
4.2 other members
5. Board Chair (ex officio)
|
BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
|
FINANCE
SECRETARY CHAIR VICE CHAIR 2 MEMBERS
SECRETARY
(EX
OFFICIO)
As per the 2009 constitution of FOWODE, the main
activities include;
·
To mobilize resources for candidates by
creation of financialand technical are venues; to prepare women to become
effective and successful candidates and equip women candidates with techniques
and skills to mobilize resources.
·
To devise strategies for overcoming
impediments and barriers that face women politically, to advise them
politically and equip them so as to have influence in decision making.
·
To develop a support mechanism for women
who aspire for elective office or elected official levels.
·
To ensure that leaders in Uganda or
elsewhere work together with the women to identify the speediest most effective
tangible means of integrating the women cause in al spheres and also sensitize
leaders towards gender issues.
2.0
Introduction
This chapter covers the position I held as an intern
in the organization, duties and responsibilities, supervision levels and
relationship with the supervisor, the work team and its composition as well as
authority levels to the student and interests, challenges and what can be
changed.
2.1 Title /position in
the Organization
I was an assistant in the Monitoring and Evaluation
section.
I had the responsibility of tracking and collecting
networking forms from staff members of FOWODE.I was incharge of capturing data
about various meetings that had been attended by the FOWODE staff both at the
main office and region offices in the external spaces or meetings that had been
organized by their partners and other CSOs.
I assisted the program officers in organizing
program activities. Here it was my duty to ensure that the necessary materials
were gathered , looking out for venues and hotels where these meetings,
conferences and trainings would take place by requesting for quotations from
the hotels, carry out mobilization through contacting the invited participants,
sending out emails and calling.
I attended
meetings on behalf of the organization. When an invitation was sent out to
FOWODE through my supervisor I would attend meetings, took down minutes which
would be used in the reports.
I participated in field and national activities. As
part of FOWODE work I was supposed to attend all activities that were organized
by FOWODE.
I prepared project /activity narrative report with
support from program officers. For instance if there were specific stories of
change got from the participants inform of writing it was therefore my duty to
ensure that this was included in the report.
2.3 Supervision Levels
and Relationship with the Supervisors
I was under
the supervision of the field supervisor and the university supervisor, my
relationship with both supervisors was very good and constructive.
2.4 Work Team and its Composition
The work team at my field attachment place was
composed of students from universities within Uganda and outside Uganda. Like
Makerere University Business School (MUBs), a student from Canada in one of the
university there. My working relationship with team members and other staff was
very good and normal for the most of the time we worked as a team; for example
if some group was working on requisitions for finances to cater for any
activity then others work on mobilizing people and collecting the necessary
materials for the activity.
2.5 Working
relationship among team members and other staff
The working relationship was coherent in nature. The
team members shared common aims and beliefs that is respect of women’s rights
as human rights among others, respect of diversity, gender equality and equity,
accountability and transparency, integrity and excellence. The working
experience was generally professional and parental in nature as the staff
members took it upon themselves to be supportive in any way possible.
2.6 Authority Levels to
the Student
As an intern student my authority levels were
seriously limited. For example I had the powers to call various hotels and ask
them for quotations but had powers to confirm with any of them. (Hotels), as I
had to wait for a feedback from the program officers after consultation.
2.7 Interests,
Challenges and what can be changed
2.7.1 Interests
I was so much interested in attending conferences
that were focusing on gender and feminism, mentoring, alternative youth camps.
2.7.2
Challenges faced
Generally there were no many challenges I faced however,
the main problems were;
1.
Use of the Civil Society language
basically the short forms which made it hard for me to connect to the reports
that would sometimes be presented in meetings and conferences and included the
following;VBCS,GBV,UFF,GEPP,WLP,M&E,FOs ,CR,CSOs,FY among others this also
inconvenienced me while taking down notes and minutes.
2.
Secondly lack of an intercom phone
in my office. This somehow slowed down my work as I had to move from one office
to another thus spending a lot of time, at times I incurred expenses using my
personal phone.
3.
Finally, the issue of some field
officers not responding to me when I needed information from them yet I thought
it was their responsibility to help me during my practicum/training.
2.7.3What can be
changed
1.
Try orienting the new interns on some of the basic civil society language thus
this will ease their work throughout
their training. I suggest that maybe provide the interns with special time to
highlight some of the common short forms used in organizations, such that this makes
it easy in terms of the reading reports and other documents.
2.
Am proposing for provision of an intercom phone for the office of interns. The
administrators should consider providing a land line phone in the office of the
interns.
3.
The in charge should brief field officers about the interns’ presence such that
this makes it easier for the work we
do with them. Officers in the region offices of FOWODE should be informed about
the interns at main office in Kampala in order to speed up the work of interns
and for the organization as well.
3.0 CHAPTER
THREE: EVALUATION ON FIELD ATTACHMENT:
This chapter covers the level of accomplishment of
duties and responsibilities assigned, knowledge and skills gained, most
interesting experiences, relatedness of the university’s taught program to the
field attached, challenges faced and how they were managed, benefits derived
from the field attachment and adequacy in the university‘s preparing the
student for field attachment finally preparedness of the agency to receive and
manage students for field attachment.
3.1 Level of
accomplishment of duties and responsibilities assigned.
The responsibilities and duties were general and
required to do any work that was assigned to me as long as it was in my
jurisdiction for example;
I assisted
the program officers in organizing program activities. I had to ensure that all
the materials were in place prior to the activity for instance publications of
the organizations, bannersetc.
I attended meetings on behalf of the organization.
Under the WLP I was to attend meetings that were organized by different
organizations together with one from the staff members from the WLP of FOWODE
thus sharing knowledge and opinions with other organization.
I participated in the field and national activities
as requested by my supervisor. I took part in different activities some of
which were national that had been organized by different organizations thus
this led to increased visibility for FOWODE.
I prepared
project/activity narrative reports with support from program officers. I
combined information with other intern students in the same program and later
handed it over to the supervisor to come up with final reports.
3.2New knowledge and
skills gained in each of the duties and responsibilities.
ü I
learnt that as a human rights activist it is very important to move to the
field to exactly know what the state is not doing in terms of its obligation
and human rights.
ü I
learnt that it is vital that professionals should be able to demonstrate that
they are adaptable, able to manage difficult situations and capable of
effective conflict resolution. This is in reference to the “black Monday
movement” It was a mandate for all staff member wear black on Monday.
ü I
learnt the ability to interact with levels of staff utilizing excellent
interpersonal skills.
ü I
gained more knowledge on issues of gender and women in terms of political
power.
ü As
an activist, this platform provides me with an opportunity to make a
difference, support others in need and create positive change in communities
the world over.
ü Skills gained;
1.
Listening skills,
Due to being assigned duties like capturing
information from staff members, taking down notes /minutes in meetings one has
to be a good listener to be in position to put down all the information .In the
best way for example in the Gender Review meeting, a public dialogue that was
organized by UWONET and partners “Women towards 2016: overcoming gender barriers.”
Etc.
2.
Communication Skills,
I learnt how to create a good atmosphere and pass
over information and communication rightly with fellow workers. As I
co-ordinated the orientation meeting of the leadership program, the district
Gender Policy Review meeting.
3.
Sensitization skills.
I talked to a number of people about women’s rights,
empowerment, and black Monday movement while at the CSO fair which was held at
Hotel Africana as they visited the FOWODE stall .I got to interact with very
many people who shared different opinions and I was able to impart some of what
I knew and also to learn from them.
3.3 Most interesting
experiences
I had various interesting experiences, most which
were so exciting and overwhelming to me in terms of engagement, issues that
were being discussed in regard to women’s rights and decision making.
v The
first one was the Women in Politics National Conference. I got to meet most of
the influential people in the political field, private sector, activistists and
had their view on issues of women in terms of power and decision making .This
event attracted a big audience from Uganda and other parts of the world at
large, it also created an opportunity for me in terms of networking among people.
v The
second occasion was theCSO fair held at Hotel Africana. Where different Civil
Society Organizations were exhibiting their materials and provided information
about their organizations at the peoples space had lots of entertainment from
cultural groups and other groups .Furthermore there were dialogues held in
different halls of Africana I attended onesession which focused on Gender
Equality this was very interactive to me as well
v The
last event was the slum tour to kikubamutwe
in Kabalagala.Where FOWODE and its
partners visited the slum and donated scholastic materials to one school for
orphans and vulnerable children. At the end of the visit we had a great
performance from the children of the slum. This made me happy knowing that even
such children could have good moments to share with other people.
3.4
Relatedness to the university ‘s taught program s to the field work
The University taught programs are related to the
field work in a way that most of the course units at the university are in line
with the field work for example gender, ethics and human rights. This was so
much related to the work I was doing at FOWODE because issues of feminism and
womens’movement were raised at different times.
3.5 Challenges Faced
and how they were managed
3.5.1 At the
organizational level
·
Inadequate space for offices of the
intern students where some are forced to share an office.
·
There is need to ensure that required
books in the library are in place because there books that were not found when
i asked to look for them from the library.
3.5.2 By the workers
·
Collection of details for the meetings
that had been attended by staff members was a bit complex that challenged me
that is to say there was a problem of acquiring information from staff members
at times they forgot to fill in the forms on time.
3.6 Benefits derived
from field attachment
·
It builds one’s confidence.
·
It provides a deeper understanding of
the course.
·
It exposes students to real life
situation.
·
It also boosts the student’s morals
towards the course.
3.7 Adequacy of the
university in preparing the students for field attachment
The university is fairly adequate in preparing the
student for internship for it provides the student with letters requesting for
internship placement in various agencies and it also goes to brief students on
internship exercise, it provides students with log books to record their weekly
tasks to be signed by field supervisor which made work easier for students
since it involved gathering information weekly, which information was to be
used in report writing.
3.8 FOWODE ‘S
Preparedness to Receive Students on Field Attachment
FOWODE gets prepared to receive and manage students
for field attachment by receiving the students application for internship prior,
screens them and after that providing the qualified students with acceptance
letters indicating when the agency also distributes the students to various
departments accordingly .Finally it provides the student with an orientation
program about what they are going to do and what the agency is all about. It
went ahead to offer free lunch which enabled me to work without having to worry
about going out to look for lunch.
4.0CHAPTER
FOUR:CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
1. Conclusion.
Conclusively the hands on experience and challenges
I encountered were of great importance to me and the aims of the attachment university
were met to the best of my knowledge.
2. Recommendation for
the identified problem.
According to the experience and observations made I
would like to make the following recommendations to both the agency (FOWODE)
and the institution (Makerere University) as well.
4.2.1 To the
University.
·
The University should start a policy of
providing internship places since students get difficulties in securing
agencies to carryout field work.
4.2.2 To the Agency
·
I recommend that FOWODE avoids gender
discrimination to men by starting to promote its staff basing on gender
equality and meritocracy.
·
FOWODE is a great learning organization
for interns, I would therefore recommend that FOWODE keeps hiring student
interns with different education background to help build and bring in new
ideas to the organization.
·
Entrust a position to be held by intern
where he/she is fully responsible for all under that department which will
enable the intern have a job specification but also allow movement in different
departments where they can attain experience in different fields.
4.2.3 To the Students
·
Once in the field, students should
create ways of having a sense of belonging to the organization they are working
with and not behave like they are visitors to these organizations. They should
study the operations of the organization and contribute to ways of ensuring
organizational development.
REFERENCES
Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) 2013 Annual
Report
Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) Quarterly
Progress Report
Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) Constitution
(as amended 9th September 2009)
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