Minister Omona unveils plan to transform North

He said his ministry and that of the Local Government have agreed to direct all parish chiefs in the region to conduct the barazas in their areas every three months.

“The Ministry of Local Government will issue a circular to all accounting officers of districts next week to ensure that they conduct barazas in their villages and, without requiring any additional funding from them, use free spaces in your areas such as churches, schools and tree shades,” he explained.

Dr Omona explained that the slow recovery of northern Uganda despite the various interventions by the government was due to a poor mindset and a lack of clear flow of information between the state and the people.

“I have directed the RDCs, RCCs, and their assistants to use the same (Girigiri) barazas and every other platform available to guide and sensitise the people; they should ensure that barazas awaken the locals and their leaders to wake up for action and fight against poverty,” he added.

Dr Omona also explained that he will engage the religious and cultural leaders across the region to ensure that they also preach wealth creation and prosperity.

Role of religious, cultural leaders
 “Poverty, culture, and religion are related; cultures and religions that preach prosperity have a society of wealthy people, and this is what I want these leaders to do: to preach the culture of wealth creation among the people, every home must be encouraged to plant both food and cash crops on land that largely lies redundant,” he said.

Mr Emmanuel Orach, the Nwoya District chairperson, said the government should consider establishing well-equipped value chain facilities at sub-county levels as well as building capacities of farmers to carry out postharvest handling.

“We struggle to actualise agricultural commercialisation within the sub-region because of the high cost of land opening, and our region has an average holding of 22 acres; we, therefore, ask for a deliberate government intervention to provide four-wheel tractors to each sub-county and a hand-working factor to the parish,” he said.

Mr Williams Anyama, the Moyo District chairperson, who is  also the chairperson of the West Nile Development Forum, said the government should help the communities that own huge chunks of idle land partner with investors to create wealth. 

Mr Richard Cox Okello, the Lira District chairperson, said there is also still a challenge in infrastructure development in the area.

 “The road network in this region is terrible, and their upgrade continues to take a slow pace, and this is affecting the economy of this region. The government should help this region create more roads,” Mr Okello said.

Mr Okello also emphasised the need for the government to make good on its promises of building seed secondary schools in all sub-counties across the region to revamp education standards in the region.

Mr Anthony Akol, the Kilak North MP and chairperson of the Acholi Parliamentary Group, said whereas the government has injected trillions of funds to rehabilitate the region after the insurgency, the initiatives lack the will to propel their successes.

Mr Akol said the Office of the Prime Minister’s (OPM) regional headquarters in Gulu lacks permanent staff and is only busy wherever there is a project.

He also said whereas the government previously okayed the NUSAF 4, the Ministry of Finance seemed to have shelved the programme.

Delay of NUSAF4
“NUSAF was supposed to benefit nine sub-regions and somebody is sitting on it at the Finance Ministry. I talked to the Minister of Finance; he has failed to deliver NUSAF 4; that is the only hope of the people of Northern Uganda,” he said.

Rwot David Onen Acana II, the Acholi Paramount chief, sid poor designs and corruption have continued to frustrate every government programme geared towards the post-war development of the north.

“The many programmes that come here, either they are not properly designed or they are not properly executed; that is why the effect of the results is not very clear on the ground and in the lives of the people,” he said.

“I know that many programmes through the OPM have been initiated and executed in the region, but the results are not seen apart from the physical infrastructure like classes and health facilities,” he added.

Speaking at the function, the Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, said the government is in the final stages of negotiating the NUSAF-4 programme with the World Bank.

“The government has provided comprehensive support through several programmes such as NUSAF 1, 2, and 3 and DINU, PRDP, and NUDIP, and all these programmes, I can say, are ending; however, we are in the process of introducing NUSAF 4,” she said.

“The Cabinet endorsed this project, and Parliament, the Ministry of Finance, is following up on the matter with the World Bank right now, and that is where we are. I had a meeting with the Ministry of Finance last Thursday, and we were focusing on this project and looking for a way to ensure that all the bottlenecks are addressed, and I believe we shall move.” 

Government plan
Ms Nabbanja, however, said NUSAF-4 has omitted the infrastructural component.

“We were guided by the President to focus on the livelihood of the people; this time we’re not going to construct schools; we are not going to build health centres. We are going to inject money into our people so that this time we can develop,” she said. 

She added that the President recently directed her office and other ministers to budget for cultural institutions so that they mobilise the people for development.

Appeal
“That budget is already there, and the President is promising to have a meeting with all cultural leaders in September. On the demands to have a commissioner for Northern Uganda created and stationed here in Gulu, this we shall have it effected,” Ms Nabbanja said.

Northern Uganda has persistently ranked as the poorest region in the country, with Acholi topping the list of sub-regions as the poorest where 67.7 percent of its people are below the poverty line, according to the Ubos National Household Survey of 2019/2020.
 On the list, Karamoja Sub-region followed at 65 percent, Bukedi at 34.7 percent, Lango at 23.4 percent, and West Nile at 16.4 percent.

Background 
Northern Uganda has persistently ranked as the poorest region in the country. A report released in May 2023 by the World Bank indicated that poverty rates were highest in Eastern and Northern regions at 42 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

The report showed that these rates substantially varied from those of the Western region (27 percent) and Central 15 percent), and were also above the national average rate of 30 percent.

Economists at World Bank attributed high levels of poverty in the eastern and northern regions to limited access to infrastructures such as electricity, erratic rainfall (drought), low levels of education and small markets.