Chronicle of political events and FES activities in Uganda.
The activities of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Uganda started as early as 1965. The partner at the time was the Milton Obote Foundation (MOF) which was founded in 1963 to support the politics of Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). UPC was the political party then in power, having won the first elections after independence. It was founded by Milton Obote in 1960 and ruled Uganda between 1962 to 1971 and 1980 to 1985.
The MOF was set up mainly to conduct civic education and serve as a propaganda machinery advocating for an independent and democratic Uganda. As early as 1964 the MOF established the Uganda Press Trust Ltd (UPT), a publishing house in which two foreign labour union based organisations - the American NGO Peace with Freedom and the German Worldwide Partnership (WWP) - were partners. The German NGO Worldwide Partnership got integrated into the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in 1965. Worldwide Partnership sponsored the machinery for the printing press and assigned two technical advisors for UPT. The Uganda Press Trust produced school materials which were distributed by the Uganda School Supply Ltd (USS), a subsidiary of UPT. In 1967 the UPT had more than 50 employees and was able to publish the first African owned weekly newspaper “The People”. When “The People” developed into a daily newspaper and in 1968, FES equipped the then People Newspaper LTD with the necessary advanced printing equipment.
The overall objectives and the orientation of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung changed in the mid-sixties. Starting from 1967 the FES was represented by a permanent representative from Germany. Civic education became the main emphasis of its cooperation with partner organisations. In the same year the MOF initiated the Adult Education Centre (AEC) which became the main partner organisation for FES in Uganda. Together with the AEC the FES organised a series of seminars in vital areas of national development like housing, land reform, nation building and adults’ education. In 1968 the AEC organised to support its civic education activities by radio programs. In this connection, in early 1970, the FES assigned a broadcasting expert to its office to support the establishment and operations of a privately owned radio station for the civic education programs of MOF.
One of the main fields of activities of the FES offices is the support of national labour movements. These activities are mandated by the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB). In Uganda, at this point in time, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), in co-operation with the American NGO Peace with Freedom maintained and operated a regional training centre for labour unions in Kampala. For this reason, the FES office in Kampala had no labour unions’ activities during those first years of operation in Uganda.
In 1970 the political situation in Uganda became very tense. In January 1971 a coup d’ état by Chief of Staff of the Ugandan Army, Idi Amin, ended the first Government of Milton Obote who went into exile in Tanzania. Consequently, in August 1971 the military government issued a decree that all commercial undertakings of the MOF had to be transferred into a National Trust. The civic education activities of the AEC were, however, not affected by this decree in these early days of the new Government, so the FES decided to continue its cooperation with the AEC and to give further support to the broadcasting production centre. Although, a continuation of FES support to the publishing house, newspaper and the press trust had been discussed with the new leadership of the National Trust, an agreement in this regard was never concluded.
Meanwhile, the security situation in Kampala worsened. Consequently, the project office was transferred to Nairobi and irregular visits to Kampala were conducted by the FES representative in charge of Uganda. When the international reputation of the Idi Amin Government finally deteriorated completely, the FES had to stop its project activities in Uganda. This was in 1974. A continuation would have led to compromising the organisation’s principals.
After a long period of dictatorship and civil war in Uganda, the FES reopened its office in Kampala in July 1987. In contrast to the first engagement in Uganda the new project concentrated on labour union activities by supporting the educational program of the National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) and its 15 affiliated industrial unions. Since then, the cooperation with NOTU has been a focal point of FES activities in Uganda. It has constantly been developing and still today it is of central importance for our project activities. However, as a political foundation, the FES is not supposed to cooperate exclusively with labour unions.
Generally FES activities include the strengthening of democratic institutions like Parliaments, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and political parties. The new Ugandan Government under Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement introduced its non-party and highly decentralized political system - called the movement system. The National Resistance Movement Secretariat, which provided an essential coordinating function in the movement system, was supported among others by the FES. Furthermore, the members of the local councils (LCs) were systematically trained in their judicial function in a decentralized state with support from the FES. In the formulation of the 1995 Constitution FES support to the women’s caucus was instrumental in the discussion of women rights.
Besides its cooperation with political actors, the FES established close contacts with academic institutions like the reputable Makerere University of Kampala. Here public debates on relevant economic, social and political developments have been supported by FES. This program still continues to attract big audiences today. Soon after the reopening of our office in Kampala the labour union and political activities were complemented by a program supporting socio-economic development. The main orientation, in this connection, was the promotion of rural based artisans and small scale industry by providing expertise, basic business training and connecting them with the financial sector. For these activities the FES went into a joint venture with UGADEV bank to form the Small Entrepreneurship Development Company (SEDCO) to promote small scale entrepreneurship schemes. In 1992 the UGADEV Bank was dissolved and its share was taken over by Uganda Small Scale Industry Association (USSIA). Towards the end of the 90s the FES slowly phased out of socio-economic support programs and USSIA was completely nationalized. Since 2000 the FES has concentrated on political and socio-political activities with different partner organisations including the Makerere University of Kampala, research institutions, NGOs, the labour union sector and the media.
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