Partners
Public Partners
Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA)
Financial Intelligence Authority was established by the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013(AMLA) and has the mandate to combat money Laundering, countering Terrorism financing, and countering Proliferation. FIA is therefore charged with the responsibility of enlightening the public and relevant institutions on their mandate and how to combat and report money laundering. In 2021, SEMA was contracted to carry out impact tracking for FIA, following up on the individuals trained to track the effectiveness of the training FIA had carried out.
Ministry of ICT and National Guidance (MICT & NG)
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology and National Guidance was established with a mandate of providing strategic and technical leadership, overall coordination, support, and advocacy on all matters of policy, laws, regulations, and strategy for the ICT sector. It also ensures sustainable, efficient, and effective development, harnessing and utilization of ICT. In October 2019, the Ministry awarded SEMA a grant to enable us to improve our feedback devices to make them more user-friendly and accessible to communities.
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) is the legal entity, established by the Ugandan Parliament with the responsibility of managing operations of the capital city of Kampala in Uganda. SEMA’s partnership with KCCA began in June 2020 where SEMA measured client satisfaction levels for KCCA at 6 Health centres up until 2021. In 2021, SEMA was again procured to measure client satisfaction at 3 Division offices, the KCAA Headquarters and 7 health centres within Kampala.
Wakiso District Headquarters (DHO)
In collaboration with Wakiso District Headquarters, SEMA collects community feedback from various health centres and police stations, including wakiso police station, Kasagati police station, Kasagati Health Centre, and Nabweru Health Centre.
Mukono District Local Government
In collaboration with the local government of Mukono, SEMA was able to gather client feedback from the courts of law, police stations, and district headquarters offices to help improve service delivery within the district.
Private Partners
Kampala Hospital
Kampala Hospital is a private healthcare facility in Uganda. It is a specialist hospital and diagnostic center. Kampala Hospital was the first hospital in Uganda to install a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine and a CT Scanner. For almost five years it was the only hospital in the country, providing these services.
SEMA conducted a comprehensive three-month pilot program from September to November 2023 at Kampala Hospital, utilizing a range of feedback mechanisms, including in-person interviews, surveys, QR codes, and USSD codes. This initiative served as a valuable learning experience as we ventured into the private healthcare sector, shaping our approach to client engagement and service improvement.
St. Francis Hospital Nsambya
Nsambya Hospital is currently owned by the Kampala Archdiocese and is accredited by the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau. It operates as a large Private Not-For-Profit hospital which in the National Health System is ranked at the level of a Regional Referral Hospital. The Hospital is affiliated with Nsambya Hospital Training School which offers certificate and diploma courses for healthcare workers in nursing and laboratory techniques. Nsambya Hospital is the official training site for the postgraduate medical school of the Uganda Martyrs University and also a College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA) accredited training Hospital.
Nsambya Hospital represents a significant milestone in our engagement with the private healthcare sector. During a successful three-month pilot, SEMA collaborated closely with the client-care unit to enhance patient experiences through comprehensive feedback gathering at the facility.
Following the impactful and successful pilot program, SEMA looks forward to continued partnerships and collaboration with St. Francis Nsambya Hospital in the near future.
Sunbird AI
Sunbird AI is a company that specializes in artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions for various industries, including healthcare, finance, and retail. They offer advanced AI technologies to help businesses improve their operations, make data-driven decisions, and enhance customer experiences. In 2023, Sunbird AI collaborated with SEMA to develop a voice feedback device, marking a successful initiative. We continue to refine and enhance this innovative voice technology.
Busara Center for Behavioral Economics
Busara is a leading Behavioral Science organization based in Kenya that believes in a world where evidence-based and context-specific solutions are routinely implemented to address the world’s most pressing problems. Busara and SEMA have a long-standing collaboration aimed at enhancing SEMA’s work through the application of behavioral science. Through this partnership, Busara has helped refine SEMA’s Theory of Change, mapped impact pathways, built staff capacity, and developed a research strategy with a comprehensive impact measurement framework for SEMA’s work over time.
DefendDefenders
DefendDefenders in the East and Horn of Africa subregion carries out digital security audits and support assessments for Civil Society and human rights organisations in East and Horn of Africa. DefendDefenders carried out an IT security audit and continues to provide support assessment for SEMA. The IT security audit and support assessment looks at identifying any digital security weaknesses that the organisation is faced with and then provides recommendations that SEMA can implement to avert such digital security risks. It also offers Fixup support in line with the identified IT support needs / weaknesses. SEMA recently received IT equipment from DefendDefenders.
Development Transformations (Dev Transform)
Development Transformations partnered with SEMA to implement a citizen-generated data project in Kayunga District, particularly in Kangulumira Town Council. As a technical consultant, SEMA trained community members and local leaders in data collection, analysis, and storytelling, enabling them to turn citizen feedback into actionable insights for improved governance and service delivery.
The project culminated in the deployment of a SEMA digital feedback tool at Kangulumira Health Centre IV and the implementation of a KoBoCollect survey on health and education services in the sub-county.
Together, these interventions strengthened citizen participation and provided local government with reliable community-generated data to support evidence-based decision-making.
VNG International
VNG, partnered with SEMA under the Sustainable Development through Improved Local Governance (SDLG) Programme, to develop and implement a digital community feedback system that strengthens citizen participation, accountability, and service delivery. Through accessible digital tools, data dashboards, community surveys, and stakeholder engagement, the partnership enables local governments to listen to, learn from, and respond to community voices, ensuring that real citizen experiences inform governance and development interventions.
Frolic Studio
SEMA was contacted by Frolic Studio to conduct a research study for the development of equipment to sanitize Personal Protective Equipment in Uganda. Frolic Studio is a product design & development studio combining expertise in industrial design, electronic engineering, user-experience and design sprints and is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands). The purpose of the research was to interview health center staff to learn as much as possible about the health centers usage of PPE before customized devices can be made to fit the needs of health centers.
Donor and Award Partners
ACE AWARD
The Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani Anti-corruption Excellence Award is an annual event organized by the Rule of Law and Anti Corruption Center (ROLACC) and UNODC to award the best ideas that fight against corruption.
For the SEMA team, on 9th December 2019 in Kigali Rwanda, is a day that will always be cherished on the SEMA calendar as we received the prestigious anti corruption prize alongside other great activists from different countries, including South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, USA and Kyrgyzstan. The Award handed out by the Emir of Qatar and the President of Rwanda has the shape of an open hand symbolizing transparency, openness and the values that underpin the struggle against corruption.
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
One of our founders, Nathalie Dijkman was honoured to be awarded by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)as the Entrepreneur of the Year 2019.
D - Prize
D-Prize seeds new ventures scaling access to evidence-based poverty interventions. SEMA in 2017 was privileged to be one of the entrepreneurs awarded by D- Prize for the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption.
Transparency International (TI)
Transparency International is a global movement working in over 100 countries to end the injustice of corruption. It focuses on issues with the greatest impact on people’s lives and holds the powerful to account for the common good. Through advocacy, campaigning and research, TI works to expose the systems and networks that enable corruption to thrive, demanding greater transparency and integrity in all areas of public life.
Knowledge Platform Security and Rule of Law
The Knowledge Platform Security & Rule of Law is a vibrant network of experts working on generating, sharing, interrogating and applying evidence in the field of security & rule of law. The Platform’s main objective is to improve the learning capacity and knowledge base of its members, specifically decision makers for Security & Rule of Law (SRoL) policy and programs.
Civil Society Platform for Peace building and State building
CSPPS is a global network of civil society actors, experts and academics from the South and the North who work together to support peacebuilding and statebuilding projects in fragile situations.
African Union
SEMA emerged as one of the top 5 winners of the 2020 innovation challenge on governance and democracy. The Innovation Challenge was launched by the African Union through the African Governance Architecture (AGA) Secretariat, in a joint project with the Common market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The project targeted African innovators, innovation hubs/labs and organizations with a non-profit or for-profit background with initiatives and ideas that are contributing immensely to the culture of good governance, entrenching democratic values, creating social cohesion, bridging social religious, and tribal divides, building a common vision, creating platforms for dialogue, blowing the lid on widespread corruption, trafficking of persons and illegal arms and many more – ultimately contributing to creating a peaceful and prosperous Africa – Silencing the Guns.
Innovation for Change
The Innovation for Change (I4C) Africa Hub based in Kenya is a vital new physical and online space for regional ideas and social innovations, powered by our dynamic, growing community of civic space advocates from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), technologists and cross-sectoral partners.
USAID
As a valued funding partner, USAID provided SEMA with the resources and technical support needed to scale our work across Uganda. Strengthening community feedback mechanisms and empowering more communities to contribute to improved public service delivery.