Review of international assistance to political party and party system development
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Date
2010
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Overseas Development Institute
Abstract
Ugandan party politics remains heavily shaped by the country’s history of periods of enforced
party inactivity interspersed with shifts towards multi-party politics. Over the last five years,
there has been a move towards the re-establishment of multi-party politics, but political
parties in general remain weak, with poor internal organisation, few effective links to citizens
and, for opposition parties, a lack of access to funding. The ruling party has struggled to
transition from an all-encompassing movement to a functioning political party, and its fusion
with the state remains a key governance issue. Arguably for support to political parties to
effectively strengthen the party system (and support wider governance reforms), it needs to
engage with these core challenges.
In this context, external actors have engaged in a range of forms of party assistance; this has
increased since the 2005 shift towards multi-party politics. There is a wide variety in the types
of support provided, but they can be loosely categorised as involving party to party support,
technical assistance and newer forms of support involving direct grant-making and inter-party
dialogue.
Party to party support links parties in European countries with those in Uganda. These
programmes seek ideologically similar parties in the Ugandan context and use many of the
standard methods of support, including training, workshops and exchange visits.
Programmes focused on technical assistance to parties, in contrast, commonly work in a crossparty,
nonpartisan way, focused on specific areas such as internal procedures, or aspects of
communication and public relations. Common methods include the use of training, external
consultants and workshops.
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Citation
Wild, L., & Golooba-Mutebi, F. (2010). Review of international assistance to political party and party system development.