Inside Donald Rukare's Manifesto and Four Year Strategic Plan

On February 27th 2021, the Uganda Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games family will officially choose it’s leadership for the next four years running from 2021-24 where a decorated sports administrator Donald Rukare stood for the position of president.

Looking back over his sports administration experience and footprints, it’s easier for everybody to believe that Rukare posses the requisite resolve, integrity, experience, commitment and skills to take up the leadership mantle of the UOC/CGAU.

This is complemented by the vast networks and contacts at national, regional and international level which he will be able to leverage to strengthen sports made in Uganda, coupled with over his 27 years of experience that cuts across the public, private, development corporation, diplomatic and academia world.

During the launch of his manifesto, which also serves as his four year strategic work plan, Rukare pledged as below.
“As a leader of UOC/CGAU, I and my team pledge to uphold the provisions of the Olympic Charter and Commonwealth Games Constitution and thus pledge;
Putting athletes at the center of what we do.
Unwavering commitment to the mission.
Service with integrity and passion.
Inclusive, equitable, participatory and transparent leadership.
Enhancing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders.

What is the area of focus?
1. Support to the athletes, officials and federations.
Looking to the future, Rukare and his team intend focus on the following area.
• Supporting athletes to be able to realize their full potential in sports. This shall be the central pillar of the future.
• Putting athletes at the center of sports made in Uganda will be one of his key priorities since athletes are the reason why sports administrators exist and therefore, he should ensure they are supported through programs that facilitate their identification, development, preparation and eventually participate in games.
• Related to this is the need for qualified and capable coaches and officials. With this in mind, continued support for training and enrichment programs shall be rolled.
• We shall promote capacity building of sports administrators to ensure who are required to steer the sports eco-system. Support national federations/associations will be solicited and provided to ensure that the system is able to deliver sports made in Uganda.

2. Facilities
Without the requisite facilities in place, sports made in Uganda will remain a theoretical idea. We need to work with other stakeholders like Government of Uganda, the Ministry of Education and Sports, Schools, Institutions of higher learning, development partners and the private sector to explore together how we optimally utilize the available facilities and also progressively put in place and provide new facilities and equipment.
These facilities include both sports for sports and offices for federations/associations.
The UOC strategic plan 2015-20 has been the guiding beacon over the last five years. A view of implementation of the plan will be undertaken and will form the basis for developing a new plan going forward.
3. Funding
Resources are required to promote sports made in Uganda. We shall efficiently utilize funding from International Olympic Committee/Olympic Solidarity through the world programs over the next quadrennial and CGF support programs. In addition diversifying the resources base of the UOC/CGAU will be pursued. We would like to see the UOC/CGAU receive annual subvention from government, receive annual funding from the national budget as well as broaden it’s relationships with partners and sponsors associated with sports made in Uganda. Through this we should be able not only diversify our resource base but increase it as well.
4. Strategic Partnerships
Leveraging and fostering strategic partnerships will be another feature of our tenure. We intend to promote mutual and beneficial partnerships at national, regional and international level to enable us attain the envisaged target above.

Donald Rukare’s call to member associations and stakeholders.

“We should never forget as UOC/CGAU family where we have come from and our history. We need to maintain our family unity, cohesion, solidarity and the best of who we are as a sports family. We need a stable and unified sports sector with enhanced collaboration across federations as well as agencies such as National Council of Sports and Ministry of Education and Sports. We all need to pull in the same sports development direction. We should build on gains made so far, improve on our weak areas, scale greater heights and together commit to making sports made in Uganda a force to reckon with on this exciting journey over the next four years and let’s accomplish great things together”