The Civil Society Coalition on Transport in Uganda (CISCOT) is a coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) at both National and District level that was formed to build a collective, strong and coherent civil society and citizens’ voice to positively influence the development of the transport sector in Uganda. The initial processes for its formation commenced in January 2013, and the formalization was in June 2013. The identity of CISCOT at inception was to operate as a loose coalition of…
The Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Uganda have played a key role in the development process of various sectors in the country, but with minimal focus on the transport sector. The CSOs have participated widely and deeply in: monitoring government programmes and projects; advocating for better alternatives; acting as a voice to the wider community; promoting transparency and accountability; undertaking programmes geared at solving community problems and challenges as well as supplementing government efforts in service delivery, national transformation and…
The CSOs working on issues of road transport have for a long time been working and implementing programmes, largely independent of one another. This has often resulted in duplication of activities and limited impact due to inadequacy of interventions as well as human and financial resources. The individualistic and scattered interventions have usually depicted the “quick fix working mode” which is short term, limited in reach and impact, and therefore unsustainable.
As a result of the above challenges, CSOs working in transport sector have generally been viewed and regarded as less effective in designing and implementing programmes that can create positive long term impact. Additionally, the organizations focused on the sector remain very few and with limited capacity to influence its development. There is now growing desire and readiness among the CSOs to coalesce to positively influence the governance of the transport sector. The core focus and contribution is marked around…
The road transport sub-sector plays a dominant role in facilitating service delivery and movement of people, goods and services thereby supporting socio-economic development. In the recent years, the Government of Uganda has refocused the national planning and development framework to direct the greatest effort and resources to infrastructural development, including especially the road transport and energy infrastructure for socio-economic transformation. Both the National Development Plan (NDP) and Uganda Vision 2040 have prioritized road transport as an important element in the…
Membership to CISCOT is open to NGOs and CSOs which are focused on the transport sector and those with interest in working on the transport sector issues. These also include transport operator associations whose primary drive is not profit, but to organize and ensure orderly transport systems in their respective operational domains. At present, the coalition has 27 members , with the Uganda Road Accidents Reduction Network (URRENO) hosting the Secretariat.