
Gender Minister Betty Amongi in Apac on Tuesday. Inset are stakeholders in Pakwach.
Last Updated on: 29th June 2022, 05:12 pm
Parish-based management information system, mindset change; governance and administration are some of the pillars of PDM.
By Milton Emmy Akwam
Oyam – June 29, 2022: The government of Uganda last year introduced another programme she believes will offer an enhanced livelihood to the population. The Parish Development Model (PDM) ‘joins Emyooga’ and some of the previously introduced initiatives to improve lives.
For PDM, the government expects to lift 39 percent of the population from a subsistence way of living to a money economy.
In achieving that, in May 2021, parliament approved shs200b. Of these, each of the 10,595 parishes (as of September 2020) will receive [some got it] shs17m to pilot the programme. Shs20b will be used for preparations and mobilizations.
In February this year, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni launched PDM in Eastern Uganda and asked parliament to put more money in the next financial year [2022/2023]. Museveni later said he would want each of the parishes to get shs100m per year from the 2022/2023 financial year.
It is founded on seven pillars of production, storage, processing and marketing; infrastructure, and economic services. Others are financial inclusion, social services, parish-based management information system; mindset change, and governance and administration.
During the launch early this year, Museveni said PDM is centered on eradicating poverty through agriculture, adding that the money will now be closer to the communities.
On that day President Museveni asked all stakeholders, among them religious and cultural leaders to join politicians to sensitize Ugandans on the new scheme.
On March 1, 2022, the speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among directed the line ministers to present before parliament guidelines and criteria the government wants to follow to implement the programme intended to drive poverty out of most households.
“I want the ministers in charge to lay guidelines on the Parish Development Model which will be sent to the committee for scrutiny. We need our people to get the money, but it must be got correctly,” Anita Among, a deputy speaker at that time, said.
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She also demanded that all Members of Parliament be given the responsibility to coordinate the implementation of PDM and play their oversight role to ensure there is no miscarriage or wastage of public resources.
After she made such a demand, MPs and ministers are moving across the country [some to their constituencies] to sensitize the population. On Tuesday, the State Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development also the Oyam South MP, Betty Amongi Akena was in Apac district for sensitization.
In Apac, Amongi told the people of Lango sub-region to embrace PDM and the NRM government’s strategies.
On Wednesday, State Minister of Sports and Ajuri County MP, Denis Hamson Obua was in Dokolo district with colleague MPs for the sensitization meeting.
In Pakwach district, on Wednesday, according to the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Paul Eseru Omedi, State Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Obiga Kania was there to officially launch pillar number five: Mindset Change and Community Mobilization.