REPORT OF INTERNSHIP

At

CIVIL SOCIETY BUDGET ADVOCACY GROUP

Presented To

THE COORDINATOR,

CIVIL SOCIETY BUDGET ADVOCACY GROUP

By

ERIC JIMMY BUSIISA

UGANDA MARTYRS UNIVERSITY, NKOZI

BSC. In ECONOMICS & STATISTICS

REG NO: 2013-B141-10017

July/30th/2015.

1.0 Introduction.

The University requires that students in second year are to undertake internship and as such I

applied at Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) where i was accepted for a period of

eight weeks between 8th June 2015 to 31st July 2015 and was placed in the programs department

with three other interns. CSBAG is a coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that was

formed in 2004 to bring together CSOs at district and national level to influence government

decisions on resource mobilization and utilization of equitable sustainable development.

During the internship period, we received orientation from the different staff of the organization,

who introduced us to the background of CSBAG, works and activities and their expectations of

us as interns at the organization, we were assigned to creating databases on the physical and

financial performance indicators of the national budget, updating registration databases and

making analytic summary extracts from the different auditor general’s reports. More to that, I

was exposed to events and activities that were based on budget advocacy such as the 2015 Post

Budget Dialogue which added more knowledge to my field of study.

2.0 Activities carried out during internship

Some of the activities that were undertook during the internship period include the

following;

Entering data to update the registration data base of the organization’s activities such;

Field monitoring meetings

Community dialogue meetings

Community trainings

Feedback meetings

Creating a database for the physical and financial performance indicators of the

Agricultural sector National budget for the past 20 years

Administrative work such as making requisitions along with the necessary accompanying

documents such as bids analysis, memo.

Summarizing issues from the Auditor General’s Report of various institutions

Updating the economic data base showing monthly, quarterly and financial year data for

the monetary, real and foreign sectors

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Making summary extracts of the general issues of from the annual Auditor General’s

report 2014.

Made summary extracts of issues of the Education sector from the Central government

Auditor general report volume 2A & the summary findings of Public Debt management

from the Special Audit reports from OAG.

Running organization errands i.e.

o Receiving cheques from donors such as Pelum Uganda and ACCU

o Offering Administrative support.

Participated in arrangements of organization events aimed at budget advocacy such as;

The 2015 Budget Listening dialogue,

the 2015 Post Budget dialogue and

The 2015 CSO’s Fair Parallel session.

3.0 Skills acquired while at CSBAG

Technical Skills

I was engaged in report writing process where I made a contribution to the Budget

listening in Dialogue report, and also took the minutes of a CSBAG weekly staff

meetings.

Data management and Data analysis skills.

This was made possible with the use of Microsoft word and Microsoft excel where I

managed to update databases and also analysis of several qualitative data such as the

Auditor general’s reports and the citizens budget.

Planning and Management skills.

During the organization events I was engaged in setting up the arrangements, welcoming

and signing in of participants and was also involved in decision making during the

arrangements which improved on my management skills,

Socio-Communication skills.

I managed to improve my social skills while doing collective assignments with other

colleagues and also while carrying out the organization errands, where I interacted with

other stake holders of the partner organizations which helped me build professional

networks with them

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4.0 Challenges faced.

Lack of enough computers to work with at the beginning of the internship, which was a

delay in accomplishing our assignments.

Inaccessibility to some of the information from Ministry of Finance resource center

which delayed completion of assignments

There was limited office space at the CSBAG offices which led to the transfer of interns

to FOWODE offices which was an inconvenience moving to and fro when working on

assignments.

High transport costs from area of residence (Entebbe) to office location (Ntinda)

5.0 Recommendations.

There should be a designed chart of activities to follow by interns in accordance to their

respective academic fields to make the internship a more gaining and learning

experience.

Avail more computers for the interns to enable them handle various tasks efficiently,

easily and within a short period of time.

Interns should take part in more field work operations of the organization inorder to

develop their skills in the field and exposure to real life situations.

Provide an evaluation form which can be filled in weekly, this will help to determine the

performance of the interns and if they are gaining from the internship, I have managed to

draft an example of an evaluation form which can be further revised and edited and could

be relevant for the next set of interns.

Example of Internship Evaluation Form

Instructions: Please rate the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in terms of meeting

your

needs as an intern. Use the following scale

3

Excellent More than

adequate

Adequate Less than

adequate

Poor Not

applicable

5 4 3 2 1 NA

ITEM SCORE

1. Accepted you as a functional member of the agency staff _____2. Willingness to discuss the full range of activities at the agency. _____3. Provided you with professional growth experiences (e.g. _____

training programs, seminars, other developmental activities).

4. Provided you with professional growth experiences (e.g. _____training programs, seminars, other developmental activities).

5. Allowed you the opportunity to test classroom theory _____in applied situations.

6. Sensitivity to your needs in accomplishing your objectives. _____7. Expression of encouragement and sincerity. _____8. Willing to listen to your suggestions or recommendations and discussed _____

rationale for acceptance or rejection).

9. Additional Comments (use other side of this sheet if necessary):

............................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................

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6.0 Conclusion.

Despite the challenges faced, the internship programme has been fruitful both professionally and

socially, my way of analyzing economic policies and situations has greatly improved, during the

times I was carrying out organization errands, I have been able to interact with other stake

holders and partners and thus building networks with them this has improved on my social

communication skills.

I can with confidence now say that the training has helped me put Macro-Economictheory and

Statistics which are my main area of study into practice, and I would also like to appreciate the

staff at CSBAG for being very supportive and creating a very conducive working environment, I

am honoured by the opportunity that was granted to me by CSBAG to be taken up as an intern, I

believe that I now have the potential and capacity to perform better in my field of Profession,

Thank you Management.

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