5) Description of initiative: The Uganda Conflict Action Network (Uganda-CAN) is a peace advocacy campaign working to end the war in northern Uganda through more responsible national and global policy initiatives. The 20-year war in northern Uganda has been aptly described as “the world’s worst neglected humanitarian crisis.” Given the massive donor influence in the region and especially Uganda, it is clear that this international neglect has perpetuated the status quo of violence. International actors, especially the U.S. government, have missed opportunities to promote a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

We work to change that through grassroots mobilization, political lobbying and strategic transnational networking: all directed toward pressing the international community to advance peacebuilding in their policy. Using new models for organizing political action, our target group is U.S. and Western citizens and their political leaders. We strongly believe in the important and often overlooked role that external actors can have on the dynamics of conflict. By empowering citizens to raise the political costs of government neglect, we are helping to build more responsible international engagement and crisis response.

To mobilize a grassroots constituency of citizens, we organize awareness campaigns, media events, college networks and public demonstrations. The last two Octobers, we have helped organize the global GuluWalk Day in which tens of thousands of citizens walked in cities for northern Uganda. To keep that constituency informed, we run a daily news and commentary blog. Connecting the grassroots to high-level lobbying, we coordinate political action campaigns, involving petitions, letter-writing and citizen lobbying. On 9-10 October, we organized the Northern Uganda Lobby Day for which 700 people came to Washington D.C. and met with their political representatives. This then empowers our work with political offices on hearings, legislation and resolutions for more responsible policy.

6) Description of innovation: Our model differs from other groups in three important ways. First, while many groups have developed creative campaigns for either awareness-building or political action, very few have connected the two. We believe very strongly that effective political lobbying must be buttressed by active grassroots citizen-moments. At the same time, grassroots citizen-movements without political action lack the substance to really impact and improve conflict situations. Working closely with strategic partners that do either well, we have been able to connect ordinary citizens with the necessary advocacy tools and political lens to lobby effectively for more responsible policy.

Second, from our founding, we have spent time in northern Uganda and maintained a close connection with local peacebuilders and peace activists. Many peace advocacy campaigns in the United States lack this local connection either because access is difficult or it is not a priority. We believe very strongly in relationship building and holding ourselves accountable to our colleagues that are risking their lives everyday for peace. We have a Ugandan country director and team of local volunteers. We also maintain communication with a broad network of actors on the ground, and make periodic visits to northern Uganda to review our work and priorities.

Third, too many campaigns have relied on simplistic and ‘savior-victim’ frames when rallying the West to care about and act in response to humanitarian crisis. While this may be necessary to mobilize large numbers, we believe in the importance of a historical and sophisticated understanding of conflict dynamics. We also believe that citizens are much better advocates when they are informed about the nuances of a situation. Therefore, we maintain our daily news and commentary blog as a resource for advocates. In all of our work, we insist on speaking of the conflict with sensitivity to its history and complexity.

7) Delivery model: Peace advocacy is primarily based on the model of the ‘boomerang effect’: that when local channels for change are insufficient, local activists link with international networks whom can impel their own governments to exert positive influence over the situation. Using that model, our work primarily seeks to increase international political attention and generate policy that will then impact dynamics on the ground. We know from peacebuilders in northern Uganda that increased international financial and diplomatic resources can break the impasse of violence and add momentum to efforts for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. We maintain close communication with northern Uganda peace activists so that they set the agenda for our advocacy. In our work, we seek to first reach policymakers, who will then reach the war-weary population by the delivery of goods, political support and peacebuilding initiatives.

Our second target population is citizens in the United States and other Western countries, whom we believe can be great peace advocates for northern Uganda and elsewhere. We reach out to citizens to inform them about the situation, invite them to join and inspire them to act. Through creative forms of mobilization, media events and grassroots community organizing, we have helped build a movement of tens of thousands of ordinary citizens who are willing to act and lobby for peace. Through our daily news blog, weekly email updates, periodic action alerts and timely meetings, we build and sustain relationships with these advocates, empowering them with the tools they need to be successful. Though our short-term goal is contributing to peace in northern Uganda, our long-term vision is to contribute to an empowered citizenry that can be a voice for more responsible international engagement and crisis response.

8) Key operational partnerships: The Uganda Conflict Action Network seeks to be truly that: a network. First, working with creative awareness-building campaigns (i.e. GuluWalk, Invisible Children), we have helped build a network of tens of thousands of citizen-advocates for peace in northern Uganda. We link this activist community with more formal non-governmental organizations, such as International Rescue Committee, Oxfam and World Vision. With the support of the Omidyar Foundation, A.J. Muste Memorial Fund and others, we have been able to bring together these communities for collaborative campaigns and events, such as the Northern Uganda Lobby Day this October.

We also place great value on building and sustaining relationships with peacebuilders and actors working in northern Uganda. Through many trips and meetings, we have gained the trust and partnered with the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, the chief elder Rwot Acana II, chief peace negotiator Betty Bigombe, government MPs and more. These partnerships drive our work as we seek to give international platform to the peace work and message of these courageous men and women.

9) Financial model: From our beginning, Uganda-CAN has been a small-budget campaign. However, we do raise funds to support our daily advocacy and reporting work, along with strategic campaigns and events as they arise. Citizens access these resources, information and campaigns through our web site, at events and by joining ongoing advocacy initiatives. Our largest fundraising effort came most recently with the Northern Uganda Lobby Day, for which over 700 citizens came to Washington D.C. Peace advocates accessed funds and services through their travel, stay and participation in the events. Our financial vision is that while the direct transfer of humanitarian goods to crisis zones is always needed, long-term investment in civic engagement and advocacy for better policy can help cultivate sustainable peace.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 10

          • Financing: Uganda-CAN is financed mostly by private donors who believe in our mission and vision of peace advocacy. We have been fortunate to have a wide diversity of such private donors: from school groups holding fundraisers to churches collecting donations to philanthropists who are inspired by our youthful pragmatic idealism. We have also been fortunate to receive generous grants from the Omidyar Foundation, the A.J. Muste Memorial Fund and others. Finally, non-governmental organizations, such as International Rescue Committee and Oxfam, have contributed to our campaigns and events as they arise. We continue to maintain and build relationships with all these donors in the hopes of securing sustainable sources of funding over the long-term.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: Our network, working with strategic partners, has successfully brought the crisis in northern Uganda into the world’s spotlight and built momentum for the current historic peace talks underway in Juba, southern Sudan. As a result of our campaigns, the U.S. Government has held briefings and hearings, leading to Congressional legislation and UN resolutions for peace. In Uganda, the warring parties have felt growing international pressure to seek an end to the war. This summer, the parties agreed to enter peace talks, mediated by the Government of South Sudan. These talks are the best opportunity in over a decade to end the war. As a result of increased grassroots pressure, the 15 members of the UN Security Council voted last Thursday to support this historic opportunity.

          • Number of clients in past year: Most importantly, the continuation of peace talks in northern Uganda has resulted in virtually no abductions or attacks on civilians in the last five months. Nearly 300,000 internally displaced peoples have begun returning home, and UNHCR estimates 500,000 can do so by the end of the year if peace talks continue. Directly in our campaign, we have involved thousands of citizens in acting and lobbying for more responsible international policy. Our current e-mail listserv includes about 3,000 advocates: 700 of whom traveled on October 9 to Washington D.C. for the Northern Uganda Lobby Day (see: www.ugandalobbyday.com). On October 21, global GuluWalk Day, over 30,000 people in 82 cities in 15 different countries walked for the children of northern Uganda.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: Though international attention has grown, there is still much work to be done to support peaceful transformation of the war. First, if the international community, especially the U.S. Government, does not provide more support and accountability to the current peace process, the talks may collapse. If an agreement is reached, international assistance will be critical to help with the many post-conflict challenges. In the coming months, we must strengthen our network by tripling our numbers and reaching out to new communities. We will invest in a more sustained advocacy presence on Capitol Hill, while coordinating fresh campaigns for political and media attention. Over the next years, we want to build an unprecedented model for how peace advocacy can shape a real politics of hope for people caught amidst war.

12) Origin of the initiative: Uganda-CAN was founded by Peter Quaranto and Michael Poffenberger, then-undergraduate students of peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, after we both experienced first-hand the horrors of war in northern Uganda. We were deeply moved by the human suffering of this 20-year-old war, which had resulted in 1.7 million people displaced, 30,000 children abducted and tens of thousands killed. We were outraged at the neglect of the Ugandan government and world community to protect these children and their families. Yet, we met religious and traditional leaders building a peace movement to demand an end to this war. From earlier activist experiences, we saw an opportunity to build an international network for these heroic peace leaders. With the support of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, we launched Uganda-CAN to press for more responsible international policy in the region.

Contact Information:
Peter  Quaranto
Founder/Coordinator
Uganda Conflict Action Network
(NGO campaign; peace advocacy)
United States
Website: www.ugandacan.org