Parish Development Model: Is it politics or poverty alleviation?

Schneider & Ingram, (1993) in the social construction framework put emphasis on the effects of politics and how power is constructed.

The framework describes how different groups of people are categorised and how policies are tailored towards them; the advantaged, contenders, dependents and deviants.

The contenders are a group of people competing with others to achieve something. The advantaged are the superior or the favoured while the dependants rely on friends or family members for financial support. Then the deviants are those whose actions are beyond comprehension.

Majority of youth in Uganda fall into the deviant and dependants category. Thirty percent of the women and youth are said to benefit from the Parish Development Model (PDM). But the question is by the end of the day how many youth will benefit from the project? Why was the Emyooga programme scrapped after a year of implementation?

Ruling governments always tend to look for programmes/projects to be used as an explanation for improving standards of living within the five-year term.

Universal Primary Education (UPE), then Universal Secondary Education  (USE) dominated the 1990s, then in 2000s came  Operation Wealth Creation, Youth Livelihood  Programme, and Emyooga.

Whether these programmes worked or not remains in the hands and pockets of every Ugandan. At the end of the five-year term the ruling party is expected to provide accountability to Ugandans.

The increasing labour export of youth to Middle East countries tells whether UPE, USE, impacted the majority of the youthful population or the failure of the projects explain the high fertility rates.

That aside, I would suggest that the presidential skilling project be integrated in government primary schools and for learners to start skills training as early as primary four.

Robert Mugabe, Demographer and  M&E student  at UTMU [email protected]