Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament has approved the implementation of the Parish Development Model.
The model will start operation in a phased approach with preliminary activities for the establishment of the necessary support structures and systems.
Key among the activities is the recruitment of Parish Chiefs, establishment and training of Parish Development Committees, set up of the Community Information System (CIS) and mobilization of the masses at national and local government level.
Parliament directed that preliminary activities in the coming financial year 2021/2022 should also include gathering and using baseline information to establish parish institutions to support all the seven pillars of the Model and development of value chains of the 18 priority commodities including markets for commodities.
This follows the adoption of the Budget Committee report presented by Ntenjeru South MP Amos Lugoloobi in which the majority of committee members recommended that parliament adopts 253 Billion Shillings for implementation of the Parish Development Model in the coming financial year 2021/2022 taking into account the adjustments.
Parliament also approved the reinstatement of existing wealth funds in order not to disrupt the gains achieved under the existing wealth funds. Some of the existing wealth funds are the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda (PRDP) and Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program (UWEP) and others.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) is a strategy for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit. Uganda has 10,594 parishes.
Under the model, the government aims to graduate the 39 percent of households in the subsistence economy into agents of wealth creation in the monetized economy.
Lugoloobi says that the intended outcomes of the Parish Development Model are to increase commercial production of priority commodities at the parish level and to increase household incomes in the process.
But a minority report jointly authored by Butambala County MP Muwanga Kivumbi and Dokolo Woman MP Cecilia Ogwal recommended that the proposed 200 billion Shillings be allocated towards reviving cooperative movement across the country.
“These will promote capacity building, value addition, market access, self-regulation, compliance and occupational safety in pursuit of wealth creation,” said Kivumbi.
Ogwal said that the budget is constrained and funding should be appropriated in other key sectors.
However, Parliament adopted the main committee report hence approving the implementation of the Parish Development Model.
The government had earlier intended to spend over 490 billion Shillings on the model but it met resistance from legislators on account that the government was diverting funds that were meant for other affirmative action.
This forced the Finance Ministry to slash the model budget.
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