Mission and Objectives

CSCO MISSION
To promote maximal benefits to the people of Uganda from oil and gas discoveries by promoting social, economic and environmental sustainability in exploration and exploitation activities.

The coalition upholds the goal of the Oil and Gas Policy for Uganda (February 2008), which seeks to ensure that the use of Uganda’s country’s oil and gas resources contributes to early achievement of poverty eradication and creates lasting value to society. Section 7.3 of Uganda’s Oil and Gas policy recognizes the important role civil society organizations play in ensuring responsible petroleum development particularly through their contribution in ensuring accountability and enabling the ‘voices of the poor’ to be heard.

NATURE OF THE COALITION
The coalition is a non-registered loose network of member organizations who seek to collaborate in order to achieve the objectives of the coalition which read as below.


OBJECTIVES
(i)     To create a forum in which members can share information, plan and strategize together.
(ii)   To maximize individual organizations’ potential to sensitize and inform an ever-widening constituency of stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities presented by oil and gas.
(iii) To strengthen capacity building networks which disseminate and build-up expertise across different relevant advocacy areas.
(iv)  To create a platform through which members can conduct joint advocacy and engage with government agencies, companies and the media.
(v)    To facilitate two way access and exchange of information and other resources between members working at different levels.

PRINCIPLES
The coalition is premised on a set of values and principles that enhance participatory development processes; good governance; transparency and accountability in decision making processes, namely:
     (i)            people and communities lie at the center of all development processes;
   (ii)            development initiatives must promote cultural integrity, social cohesiveness, environmental consciousness and economic prosperity of the people;
 (iii)            access to information and participation of the local communities in decision making processes is integral to all development processes; and
  (iv)            the state must observe free space for civil society to engage in development processes.