Ms Olive Moore:

I will respond to Senator Mulherin's second question and my colleague will then respond to her first question.

Trócaire works through a partnership model. What that means is that Trócaire does not directly implement policy on the ground. We work through partners such as PELUM Uganda or civil society organisations but also many different and diverse types of organisations, including the church. Part of that partnership is certainly working with government. In every country that we work in, we engage with the government. We are in dialogue with government, both at national level and increasingly at local level in the communities where we work. In some countries that may include working directly supporting government and delivering services but in many cases it means working alongside government, understanding the work it is doing and seeing where we can fit and how we can complement what it is doing. Our experience has been mixed from country to country and it can also be mixed within a country from local authority to local authority. Most recently I travelled to Tigre in northern Ethiopia, met government officials and saw some of the reforestation programmes.

I saw many of the projects that have been put in place, which were complementary to agroecology and embracing the approaches around it. Our role is working through our partners and complementing the work of governments in those countries. It can be mixed because in many of those countries, there are strong vested interests who may be working against some of these programmes and policies inside and outside government and trying to influence government. A core part of our approach is advocating for the government to influence the role it has and many of our partners, such as PELUM are active in that regard. I invite Mr. Joshua Aijuka to comment on engaging with the Ugandan government