As the Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis at the Karamoja Anti-Corruption Coalition (KACC), we ground our argument in a statement made by a government official in Nabilatuk District during a District Integrity Promotion Forum. The official stated, “You partners, you need to reduce your software activities and invest in tangible activities.” He further wondered, “How can a partner come into a district and tell us that they are here for system strengthening?” (Nabilatuk District official, 29th October 2026). This statement forms the basis of our argument today.
A 2021 study on collaboration between governments and nongovernmental organizations by Rajabi, Ebrahimi, and Aryankhesal shows that development partners operate in different fields to achieve cultural, social, charitable, specialized, and industrial objectives. With their strong sense of responsibility for community issues, they are considered social capital to governments.
However, an examination of available field evidence by the Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis shows that the work of many development partners in Uganda is dominated by software activities, including endless capacity-building workshops, consultancies, awareness campaigns, baseline surveys, and policy dialogues.
The concern is that, on many occasions, participants attend these activities primarily to receive per diems, while little is implemented after the workshops or training sessions. In regions like Karamoja, repeated workshops, meetings, and sensitization activities have sometimes failed to translate into tangible improvements in people’s livelihoods.
This is why we argue that development partners must reduce spending on software activities and invest more in tangible interventions that directly improve the lives of vulnerable and poor communities.
For clarity, our argument does not suggest abandoning institutional capacity building. Rather, it demands that software activities be grounded in concrete, tangible results. For example, technical training must be directly linked to durable capital assets such as functional water infrastructure, modern veterinary facilities, processing equipment, and self-sustaining community funds. These investments should provide communities with practical opportunities to improve their livelihoods beyond project implementation periods.
If development partners do not change their current trends and project implementation models, they risk ending projects with only certified audit reports and impressive narrative reports to demonstrate their achievements, while leaving communities as vulnerable as they found them.
Ayub Mukisa, PhD, writes from the Department for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis at the Karamoja Anti-Corruption Coalition (KACC).
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