With a determination to systematically contribute to effective national policy action, AFLI since its founding in 2003 as a policy think tank started addressing national policy research gaps through her bold and cutting-edge flagship programs of the “Uganda parliamentary performance scorecard, Civil-military cooperation project, Ateker cross border leadership initiative in East Africa, and Improving pastoral communities’ engagement in decision-making processes in mineral resource governance”. These impacted on the behavior of parliament by opening it up to public scrutiny, providing evidence-based civil engagement and dialogues on topical policy concerns, shaping the post-graduates public policy research courses on governance at Uganda Management Institute (UMI)-school of civil service, public policy, and administration, thereby contributing to the changing practices of citizens, and media practitioners, nurturing a culture of citizens as rights-holders, holding duty bearers accountable.

Over the years, AFLI expanded its mandate to include the facilitation of cross-border peacebuilding and conflict transformation processes; complementary livelihoods, and innovative socio-economic empowerment initiatives for improved human well-being, particularly among the poverty-stricken peripheral and cross border-Ateker (Itunga-speaking group of plains Nilotes) communities and their immediate neighbors in East and Horn of Africa. Imagine a region highly endowed with arable land, huge livestock numbers and different species, diversified mineral ores, and vast tourism potential, yet the people experience high levels of poverty, hunger, recurrent insecurity, and persistent socio-economic exclusion for so many years.! The Indigenous people need a chance to meaningfully participate shape policy development agenda and actively engage in development processes that positively impact their lives. Thus, by supporting this cause, the disconnect in leadership and policy and development intervention glitches will be bridged hence enabling over 4 million indigenous people straddling the Uganda-Kenya, South Sudan, and Ethiopian borders, to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty, hunger and insecurity. The need for policy and development interventions that can enable these peripheral communities to move from ‘crisis to growth’.