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Lango leaders raise concern over Parish Development Model
According to the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Betty Amongi, the President is expected to launch the Shs1.1 trillion programme on January 19. Photo | File
What you need to know:
- According to the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Betty Amongi, the President is expected to launch the Shs1.1 trillion programme on January 19,
Leaders in Lango Sub-region have expressed concern over the implementation of a new poverty reduction programme, the Parish Development Model (PDM).
According to the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Betty Amongi, the President is expected to launch the Shs1.1 trillion programme on January 19,
However, leaders from Lango are skeptical on whether the programme will have a positive impact on household poverty.
Each parish countrywide will be allotted Shs100 million under the intervention. Uganda has 10,594 parishes.
Mr Andrew Awany, the Kole District LC5 chairperson, said unless the government has unique implementation strategies for PDM, the programme may not be successful.
Mr Awany, who is also the vice President of Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) in the north, made the remarks on Tuesday in Lira City.
“There are now so many projects and programmes being implemented. Emyooga came and it is almost on the loose. If we really want the PDM to have good impact, we should be in position to look at programmes like the Emyooga, Operation Wealth Creation and then forge a way of having a bigger basket at the parish,” Mr Awany said.
“Segmenting the Shs100 million, with Shs30 million going to the youth, Shs30 million to the women, Shs10 million to People with Disability (PWDs) and another Shs10 million to the rest, makes the allocation meaningless and may not even be remitted by the government in time.”
Mr Geoffrey Ocen, the Amolatar District LC5 chairperson, noted that there are some parishes that were gazetted by the government but had not been included in the remittance for this financial year.
“In my case, we have 87 parishes but the remittance is covering only 54 parishes. What do we do with the rest that were not included in PDM?” Mr Ocen said.
Mr Alex Ogwal Adyebo, the Kwania LC5 chairman, asked the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party leaders to differentiate between government programmes from those of their party.
The NRM vice chairperson for northern Uganda and the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, recently urged NRM leaders to get involved in the implementation of all government projects, including the Parish Development Model.
“Not that they are going to do the implementation themselves but they should know because they are the ones who sold the manifesto to the people,” he said while meeting NRM leaders from Lango Sub-region at Gracious Palace Hotel, Lira City, on December 1, 2021.
Kwania LC5 chairman, however, urged caution. “I am not comfortable with the composition of the Parish Development Model structure at the parish level. Experience has shown that when politics is in most of these programmes, it collapses.”
“I know the President and everybody in the NRM party would want their image to be seen. Of course, they are definitely in government, but my fear is when it comes to selecting the beneficiaries at the parish level, it will be NRM supporters.”
The committee
Ms Amongi said the committee, which will be implementing the PDM ‘comprises seven categories of officials who will form the parish development committee (PDC).
“The entry point to the Parish Development Model is the Parish Development Committee, chaired by LC2 chairperson and it has seven members with the secretary being the parish chief,” Ms Amongi said.
She explained that other members of the committee are the chairperson women council of the parish, chairperson youth council of the parish, chairperson, person with disability of the parish, the representative of either community-based organisation, opinion leader or business community, and chairperson of the NRM party in the parish.
She said under the PDM, the Cabinet ring-fenced 70 per cent of the money for special interest groups and this includes; 30 per cent for youth, 30 per cent for women and 10 per cent for PWDs.
“The Ministry of Finance on Tuesday released Shs29 billion which was approved by the Cabinet and Parliament for operationalising the new sub-counties and town councils and this will now enable the government to code the new parishes,” Ms Amongi said.
“I have just been notified that they have released the money for community mobilisation and sensitisation and also money for operationalising parishes and town councils that were elected but were not coded.”
