As the Right2Grow Uganda Programme draws to a close after five remarkable years, Wilmat Development Foundation (WDF) stands proud among the network of civil society partners whose collective dedication has transformed how communities in Bugweri District — and across Uganda — understand, demand, and hold their leaders accountable for nutrition, food security, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH).

Launched in September 2021 at the Fairway Hotel in Kampala under the theme “Fostering a multisectoral involvement and investment in harnessing the growth of every child to reach their full potential,” Right2Grow Uganda was a strategic consortium of nine civil society organisations led by The Hunger Project Uganda and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Wilmat Development Foundation joined this consortium as a sub-grantee with a clear and specific mandate: to deepen grassroots engagement, build local institutional capacity, and amplify community voices in Bugweri District and the broader Busoga sub-region.

A Global Movement, A Local Heart

Right2Grow was a five-year Strategic Partnership programme operating simultaneously in six countries — Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, South Sudan, and Uganda — all funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The programme’s core belief was both bold and simple: sustainable progress against malnutrition and poor sanitation is only achievable when communities themselves are empowered to lead, advocate, and hold decision-makers accountable.

Globally, Right2Grow reached over 10 million people across its six countries of operation. It supported more than 47 civil society organisations in developing robust advocacy plans, adopting participatory budget monitoring tools, and mentoring over 1,000 community groups. In Uganda alone, the programme operated across 10 districts, drove the passage of Uganda’s landmark Food and Nutrition Bill, and catalysed measurable increases in district budget allocations for nutrition and WASH services.

Strategic Capacity Strengthening at the Grassroots

As a sub-grantee under the Right2Grow Uganda Consortium, Wilmat Development Foundation served as the community-facing pillar of programme implementation in Mayuge district and Bugweri District — a young district in the Busoga sub-region of Eastern Uganda carved from Iganga in 2018, home to over 211,000 residents whose livelihoods depend primarily on small-scale agriculture.

Bugweri’s communities had long faced the twin burden of food insecurity and limited access to clean water and sanitation. WDF’s entry through Right2Grow was therefore both timely and strategic. From the outset, WDF positioned itself not merely as a programme implementer, but as a genuine enabler — building the knowledge, skills and institutional frameworks that communities needed to sustain change long after the programme ended.

WDF’s work rested on several interconnected pillars of intervention that collectively created a strong foundation for community-led nutrition and WASH governance:

What Five Years of Willingness Built

In Bugweri District, the Right2Grow programme — driven at the grassroots by WDF’s dedicated teams — catalysed a profound shift in how communities related to nutrition governance. Household mapping surveys conducted during the programme’s early phase revealed alarming rates of under-five malnutrition in the Busoga region. Rather than treating this as a static data point, WDF used these findings as an organising tool — turning community awareness of the problem into collective, sustained advocacy for solutions.

The District Nutrition Coordination Committee in Bugweri became more functional and representative as a direct result of WDF’s capacity-strengthening work. Community members who once had no platform to engage their local government on nutrition issues were now presenting evidence-based demands, attending planning meetings, and tracking whether commitments were being honoured. This was perhaps the most profound transformation of all: a shift from passive recipients of services to active architects of the systems that governed their lives.

Community-based organisations in Bugweri were strengthened in planning, monitoring, reporting, and advocacy skills. Women’s savings and nutrition groups were linked to broader food security and WASH initiatives. School communities established sustainable gardens that became living classrooms for nutrition-sensitive agriculture. And above all, a generation of community leaders — women, men, and youth — emerged who understand that nutrition is not charity; it is a right they are empowered to demand.

From Launch to Legacy: A Timeline

Beyond Right2Grow: WDF’s Continuing Commitment

The conclusion of a funded programme is never the conclusion of a mission. At Wilmat Development Foundation, Right2Grow has been a chapter — a critically important and deeply formative one — in a longer story of community transformation. The structures built, the skills transferred, and the advocacy capacity embedded in Bugweri’s communities will continue to function long after the programme has formally closed.

WDF is committed to sustaining the gains made through Right2Grow by continuing to support community nutrition advocacy networks in Bugweri and the wider Busoga region; by maintaining engagement with the District Nutrition Coordination Committee; and by integrating the participatory monitoring approaches introduced under Right2Grow into our broader programming framework. The programme taught us — and proved to the world — that when grassroots organisations are trusted, resourced, and connected to wider advocacy ecosystems, communities can and do drive their own transformation.

We extend our profound gratitude to The Hunger Project Uganda, the Right2Grow Global Consortium, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and all consortium partners — Action Against Hunger, World Vision, Save the Children, CEGAA, and others — for their trust, collaboration, and unwavering commitment to a people-centred approach to development. We are equally grateful to the local government of Bugweri District, community leaders, Village Health Teams, women’s groups, and every individual who made the work real, meaningful, and lasting.

To the communities of Bugweri — your willingness to claim your rights, your voice, and your future is what made Right2Grow work. That is the most enduring legacy of all.