The Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) was initially established in July 2011 by eight Development Partners (DPs): Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the European Union, as a five-year governance programme aimed at providing harmonised, coherent and well-coordinated support to state and non-state entities to strengthen democratisation, protect human rights, improve access to justice and enhance accountability in Uganda. The Programme goal was to contribute to equitable growth, poverty eradication, rule of law and long term stability in Uganda. This programme marked the first phase of DGF that ended in June 2016. A transitional period of 18 months, supported by the same DPs, was implemented from July 2016 to December 2017.

Currently the DGF is implementing its second 5-year phase (January 2018 – December 2022) with support from seven DPs: Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the European Union, to build on the achievements of the first phase, address the continuing democratic deficits, and consolidate peace and stability in the country.

The vision statement for this phase is: “a Uganda where citizens are empowered to engage in democratic governance and the state upholds citizens’ rights”.