BACKGROUND
Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) is a consortium of 48 NGOs and 20 individuals formed in 1995 to advocate and lobby for fair land laws and policies. Since its inception in 1995, the Alliance has worked towards enhancing access, control and ownership of land by the poor through promotion of fair land laws and policies.
Priority issues addressed by ULA are;
- Customary land tenure security
- Land rights awareness
- Advocacy
- Land legal and policy reforms
- Organizational development
Over the years, ULA has learnt that while working with laws and legal systems is critical, it is important that we start where people are and then go beyong the provisions of the law to discuss livelihood options, which then makes law relevant to the lives of the people. We have come to realise that asserting rights, redressing injustice and accessing political and economic resources requires using the system that exists where possible and challenging and seeking its expansion where necessary. This ensures that our proposals are often acceptable by the state as we are not viewed as enemies, but pro-people. To enable us achieve this:
- ULA includes marginalized groups as decision makers on issues that affect them and fosters their critical consciousness and ability to influence and transform power dynamics as well as norms, systems and institutions that affect their lives at the local level.
- ULA furthermore links rights efforts to devising concrete solutions to problems identified. This is done by weaving expert knowledge into community designed strategies and analysis so that groups can effectively deal with a range of policies, and institutions shaping their livelihood choices.
ULA seeks to make public decision making processes and structures more responsive and inclusive of the ordinary citizenry as well as promote individual and group awareness of rights. |
