By Christopher Kiiza
The Minister for Presidency, Milly Babalanda, has today launched the midterm review for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) manifesto 2021/2026 to assess the fulfillment of commitments the NRM government and President Yoweri Museveni made to the people of Uganda while campaigning for the 2021/2026 elective term of office.
In her remarks, Babalanda reported that all parishes across the country have received funds under the Parish Development Model (PDM).
“All the planned 10,506 parishes have received over 100 million shillings under the Parish Development Model (PDM), and over 390 billion shillings had been disbursed under the Emyooga Programme. As of today, 205,710 parish based associations, and 6,748 Emyooga saccos have been mobilized,” she said.
PDM has been identified as a special purpose vehicle and the key flagship project for the NRM manifesto.
Launched by President Museveni in February 2022, PDM is a government initiative aimed at elevating household incomes and fostering the growth of micro-enterprises. It operates at the grassroots level, focusing on transitioning communities from subsistence living to active participation in the monetary economy.
Aligned with the National Development Plan III, PDM positions the Parish as a key operational unit for delivering services and driving economic progress.
PDM is structured around seven pillars, including Production, Storage, Processing, and Marketing; Infrastructure and Economic Services; Financial Inclusion; Social Services; Mindset Change; Parish-Based Management Information System; and Governance and Administration.
In its inaugural year, the government allocated 17 million shillings to each parish as a revolving fund under PDM. These funds were disbursed to organized groups within the parish, which then provided loans to members at favorable interest rates.
Subsequently, in the 2022/23 fiscal year, the government increased the allocation to 100 million shillings per parish. This funding is directly deposited into Sacco accounts at the parish level, empowering households to borrow and invest in income-generating ventures.
In the remaining period of manifesto implementation, the Chairman of the manifesto Committee and senior presidential advisor on manifesto, Prof Ephraim Kamuntu decried a huge percentage of Uganda’s households still trapped in subsistence production.
Kamuntu advocated for PDM as the remedy to pull Uganda from subsistence to the money economy.
“We must move out of subsistence production to the money economy, and the way to do it is [through] Parish Development Model. The focus should be put on how Parish Development Model is performing,” he said.
He added: “Unemployment for the youth. Every time I am in office or at home, the biggest number of people who come to see me are young people looking for jobs. When you go to the airport, and see those young people under the externalization of labor, it is not commendable. We must provide jobs for our young people.”
Kamuntu also called for reduction of electricity tariffs and access to cheap capital to transform the economy.
“We cannot transform this economy if the cost of power is expensive. You cannot address the issue of import substitution, export promotion, because everything hinges on how cheap your power is.”
By the end of the second year of manifesto implementation, the Government had achieved over 20% the commitments.”
Minister Babalanda said the government has undertaken deliberate measures to revive the economy.
In the financial year 2022/23, the economy grew by 5.5% which was an improvement from the 4.6% and 3 5% registered in the financial year 2021/22 and 2020/21 respectively.”
This, according to Babalanda, has seen formal jobs increase by 3% from 1.38 million employees in 2020/21 to 1.42 million employees in 2021/22 financial year.
Under the presidential initiative for skilling the youth, 12 of the 19 industrial hubs in Mubende, Kyenjojo, Mbarara, Mbale, Kween, Napak, Kayunga, Masindi, Gulu, Zombo, Kasese and Lira were launched, from which 2,650 learners graduated.
Government has completed the construction of 102 new secondary schools.
“Access to safe and clean water has also increased in various parts of the country up to 70% of the current population of Uganda. For example 33 million have access to safe and clean water. The data shows that 68% of Ugandans in the rural areas and 71.6% in the urban areas have access to safe and clean water. A total of 49,102 villages out of 70,504 (70%) have access to at least one safe water source,” said Babalanda.
A total of Shs 1.918 billion has been disbursed, and 6,063 youth enterprises have been supported in the last two years under Youth Venture Capital Fund which is worth Shs 22.8 billion.
“The program has provided employment to an estimated 12,126 youths.”
Additionally, a total of Shs 25.15 billion has been disbursed to 3,544 women groups covering 5,142 beneficiaries, supported by the Women Enterprise Fund under the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Program (UWEP).
Despite the above achievements, some challenges have been encountered. For instance, North Eastern Uganda, particularly Karamoja subregion, has continued to suffer insecurity, where incidents of cattle rustling skyrocketed.
ONLINE MANIFESTO REPORTING SYSTEM
Minister Babalanda also launched the online manifesto reporting system, which will be used to enable accurate and timely collection of information related to the manifesto commitments.
This, according to the Director, Manifesto Implementation Unit in the Office of the President, Willis Bashasha, will help to identify the progress that the government has made in delivering the manifesto commitments.
“This is another innovation that was developed by the [Manifesto Implementation] Unit as an online reporting tool to enable the MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) to continually update their performance on the manifesto commitments. We are saying we want to have timely reports, and we are easing the process of reporting,” said Bashasha.
Through this system, the manifesto implementation unit will be able to assess the performance of different programs and commitments, as promised by the government.
Additionally, the tool will also be able to measure the performance and fulfilment of presidential directives.
Prof Kamuntu called on all MDAs to subject themselves to the tool to easily assess their performance.
