The department consists of Senior Community Development Officer, Gender officer, Labour officer, Acting Probation and Welfare officer, Community Development Officer in charge Youth, Office Typist; Office Attendant and Driver. Community based services department aims at promoting social transformation of the communities by empowering them to harness their potential through skills development, labour productivity, and protection of rights and freedoms particularly of the vulnerable groups for equity and sustainable development.

National policies
The department works for policies on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and people with disabilities (PWDs); and the protection and promotion of the rights and responsibilities of children. Specifically, the following national policies guide the operations of the CBS Department.

• The Children’s Act 2003
• The National Gender Policy
• The National Youth Policy
• The National Policy on PWDs
• The National OVC Policy
• The Workers Compensation Act and other Labour Laws.
 
Situation 
Women, not being decision makers in our Local settings express gender imbalance and so they do not own/control resources. The implication is that strong people migrate leaving women and the weak at home in a helpless state. A Community Action Survey conducted in 2004 by NECDP did reveal that women have little control, ownership and access over most household resources. Common disasters here tend to affect women and children most. Harsh weather conditions make people prone to famine/starvation hence Low nutrition and poor immunity to disease.  Because of poor infrastructure, referral services to hospitals are slow.  Also early marriage practices in the district are prevalent especially in Tepeth, where even female genital mutilation (FGM) is increasing thereby posing reproductive health challenges. However, a study needs to be conducted to determine the extent and magnitude of the practice. For the moment TBAs have been trained to respond to emergencies related to childbirth incase of those with difficult access to heath facilities.
Gender concerns
1. Most men spend more time on leisure than on productive activities
2. Women are often unable to negotiate for equal opportunities because of Low self-esteem and educational levels.
3. Male youth have more opportunities to participate in youth activities/programmes.
4. High illiteracy rate in the population
5. High poverty levels among women & youth
6. Extension services and development interventions do not target gender specific  issues
7. Poor level of organization of women, youth and marginalized people in community
8. Low literacy rates among Adults and Elderly people
9. Poor Implementation, monitoring and support to CD activities.

S/N	Sub Sector	Responsible head
1	Administrative Office	Ag. DCDO
2	Probation and Social Welfare	Ag. Senior Probation and Social Welfare officer
3	Social Rehabilitation	Ag. Senior Probation Officer
4	Community Development	Senior CDO
5	Culture	CDO i/c Gender
6	Functional Adult Literacy	CDO i/c Gender
7	Gender	CDO i/c Gender
8	Children and Youth	CDO i/c Youth
9	Women Councils	DCO i/c Gender
10	Disability and Elderly	Ag. Senior Probation & Social Welfare
11	Labour	Labour Officer

Description	Male	Female	Total
Heads of Department	10	00	10
Heads of learning institutions
1.    Primary	29	17	45
2.    Secondary	03	01	4
3.    Tertiary	01	00	01
Political Leadership
1.  District Chairperson	01	00	01
2.  LC V Council	13	09	22
3.  LC III Chairperson	11	00	11
4.  LC I Chairperson	256	01	257
Total	324	28	352

Community development work is mainly implemented by CDOs/ CDAs placed at Sub-County level supervised by Sub-County chiefs and monitored by the district community development officer.

Among other duties there are a number of development programmes that are running on the different parts of the district and nearly all of them have community services aspects. In the area of social infrastructure development, community participation and involvement at all levels is crucial for sustainability of the investments. A lot of mobilization and sensitization is therefore required. Communities are also required in the maintenance and management of the investments. In that regard, creation and strengthening of community management structures is crucial.

The Community Development Sector does the following functions
• Community mobilization and sensitization to participate in all developmental related programmes
• Facilitates communities in participatory planning.
• Gender mainstreaming
• Provision of social protection to the vulnerable groups i.e. Children, Youth, Women, Orphans, PWDs and the Elderly.
• Networking and linkage of services provided by all district departments, and other service providers for example, NGOs, CBOs, and CBOs to the communities.

Illiteracy
According to UBOS report of 2002 Population and Housing Census, 12 % of the Moroto population aged 10 years and over was literate. 

The survey further indicates that more women are illiterate when compared to their male counter parts.  Whereas 14.8 % of males were literate only 8.6 % of females were literate.  The major causes of the low literacy level among the population include rampant household poverty, ignorance, and cultural biases towards girl Child education as well as early marriages.  Functional Literacy must therefore be a crucial aspect of the development process in the district. 
Probation and Social Welfare
This sector has the following functions:
1. Child rights Advocacy, Counseling and Guidance.
2. Recommends and makes referrals of orphans and street children to vocational training institutions and rehabilitation centres e.g. Kampiringisa
3. Settles Family disputes or makes referrals to courts of law
4. Works closely with family and children courts and child related NGOs/CBOs.
5. Supervises the performance of approved homes, paternity and succession to property.
6. Spearheads the community services programme with courts of law, local councils, communities and prisons.
7. Deals with the programme of promotion of children and youth in difficult circumstances and child advocacy programme (NCC)
8. Tracing families for lost and found children for resettlement.
Approved Homes
The District has no approved homes. Moroto has a large number of needy and vulnerable children especially orphan and street children who deserve institutional treatment.
Youth and Culture
This sector has the following functions:

1. To mobilize and sensitize the youth on life skills, health and HIV/AIDS related issues.
2. Organize the youth into association /groups for meaningful programmes, IGAs and vocational trainings.
3. Link their activities/programmes to NGOs, donors interested in supporting youth activities
4. Give carrier guidance and counseling to the youth.
5. Work together with the cultural programmes e.g. circumcision period and cultural festivals.
6. Organize seminars/workshops /trainings for circumcision surgeons, traditional healers for good practices.
7. Implement the national youth policy
8. Link the youth to all district departments and participate in both the decision-making and implementation of national and district programmes for job creation and poverty eradication.

The major functions under this sub sector as stated at the beginning are the mainstreaming of equal opportunities in the process of implementation of programs and projects as well as addressing issues of access, control and ownership inter alias
Poverty is a broad concept that needs to be deciphered to specific parts and dimensions. Gender dimension is one such issue that requires address.
Review is made here of the culturally and socially constructed roles, attributes and responsibilities which in turn influence the interactions and therefore the welfare of individuals and groups of individuals in the development planning cycles.

In a more broad perspective the following are the strategic concerns of the gender department:-

1. Advocacy for equal opportunities and responsibilities of both men and women
2. Advocacy for women’s rights as it is one of the marginalized/disadvantaged group’s linkmen and women programmes to donors/NGOs for financial; support.
3. Mobilize and sensitize both men and women to participate in decision-making, leadership and developmental activities for national development.
4. Raise awareness to communities to identify and analyze gender concerns.
5. Advocacy and lobbying for gender mainstreaming in all sectors.

Many cases of disability remain unattended to due to lack of awareness among the population about the rights of the disabled persons.

The Government, having given recognition of the disabled persons in the 1995 Constitution has put in place a framework to address the plight of the disabled persons.  However, the disables still face a number of problems and include the following:
The major functions in this sector include:

• Mobilization and sensitization of PWDs and the Elderly to participate in national programmes.
• Identify PWDs and the Elderly to form groups /associations in order to benefit from the national and district support.
• Organize seminars/workshops and trainings in life skills for PWDs and the Elderly.
• Identify viable projects for PWDs and the Elderly.