By: Gerald Barekye
Worth Noting:
- About 70% of rural people own cattle and training them on biogas production would be a very good supportive structure to provide them with energy to use in day to day business.
- Last week when the president was launching parish development, he said that Ankole moved out of poverty long time and to me that was a lie as a person from Ankole region where we still have families which cannot afford two meals a day, and again if Ankole moved out of poverty long time ago then why do you again extend such services to the region that is already stabilized when other regions are still in bad shape?
- And again did the president mean that Ankole got out of poverty by throwing money to them I don’t think so and I can say the developments in Ankole have been through supportive infrastructures for examples roads that have helped farmers to transport their produce from production centers to market centers not giving them cash handouts.
In 2021, the cabinet approved the implementation of Parish Development Model as the delivery strategy for transitioning households out of the subsistence economy, with effect from 01 July 2021. This implementation was welcomed by parliament and was incorporated in the FY2021/2022 where it started operating in a phased approach with preliminary activities for the establishment of the necessary support structures and systems, 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.
To me this is a good strategy on paper but on ground it will be vice versa, and it won’t yield results basing on what I have gathered from ground comparing it with other previous government programs that includes NAADS, operation wealthy creation ,youth livelihood fund ,emyooga fund among others. For example, poverty is not generalized ,different regions have different approaches or investments on how they tackle poverty and what they need now is supportive infrastructure to help them carry out production throughout the year. Last week I was in my parish(Kiyoora) and I got chance to interact with many stakeholders in the area and the response was already negative towards parish development model giving an excuse that the program doesn’t tackle the issues affecting people and since they were not involved in initial planning of the program they have no knowledge about how it’s going to be run and also complaining that they were not consulted on issues affecting them and the help they want and this proven me that even if money is released to parishes it won’t serve the intended purpose.
Currently, the country is facing climate change crisis, the environment is destroyed at highest rates and this has resulted into climate changes that have resulted into destruction of crops some dry up and others get washed away by erosion agents making farmers lose their produce and making losses that have hindered them to come out of poverty, the government would have learnt from previous failed programs and tackle the problem through putting up supportive infrastructure developments that are environmental friendly to boost production, these include putting up solar-powered irrigation schemes and this is one of the best approaches that can boost production at parish levels because one scheme can supply the whole parish ,farmers will be in position to connect their pipes to the main scheme and irrigate their farms as this will support people carry out production through the year, again putting up postharvest handling structures for example drying machines where people can take their produce for drying, current a lot of postharvest losses happen at farm gates and farmers lose a lot of money ,these postharvest structures will help to dry the produce and stored for long time to keep the country food secure.
About 70% of rural people own cattle, and training them on biogas production would be a very good supportive structure to provide them with energy to use in day to day business. Last week when the president was launching parish development, he said that Ankole moved out of poverty long time and to me that was a lie as a person from Ankole region where we still have families which cannot afford two meals a day, and again if Ankole moved out of poverty long time ago then why do you again extend such services to the region that is already stabilized when other regions are still in bad shape? And again did the president mean that Ankole got out of poverty by throwing money to them I don’t think so, and I can say the developments in Ankole have been through supportive infrastructures for examples roads that have helped farmers to transport their produce from production centers to market centers not giving them cash handouts.
Therefore in my opinion the government should tackle poverty issues not through giving out cash handouts but through putting up supportive infrastructures that gives conducive environment for agriculture activities and accessed by all people in communities. It is oblivious that the majority of Ugandans who are involved in the agricultural sector don’t require handouts, but an environment that makes agriculture profitable. And while the agriculture sector needs quality inputs, extensive services, insurance, arable land and financing among others, it should be noted that its potential is suppressed to a greater extent by unstable and unpredictable prices which has been depreciating over the years.
Furthermore, the government should also embrace the bottom top approach instead of top bottom top approach that government usually uses. This will help government to just come up to supplement what people are doing already instead of telling them what to do which may be irrelevant to the issues affecting them .This model will also position parish chiefs as enforcers of the program not monitors and supervisors. The government is likely to lose billions of money in parish development model if proper policy legal frameworks are not put in place before implementation of the program. The absence of legal implementation framework has greatly affected all the previous poverty alleviating initiatives such as YLP, UWEP, OWC, Emyooga and others which affected the beneficiaries. A proper implementation framework should be a benchmark for the outside and inside the implementation strategy. It should be noted that the PDM and Emyooga have similar conceptual parameters and only defers of facet of beneficiaries. This means that amalgamating them into a single programme under a legal framework would create a more feasible, realistic and enriched programme.
The government of Uganda still have opportunity to redesign the model and target parishes that are already doing certain things that the model seeks to address.
Gerald Barekye
Director centre for environmental research and agriculture.
Similar Posts by Mt Kenya Times:
- Mt Kenya Times ePAPER June 17, 2025
- The Visionary Journey Of Ihuaku Patricia Nweke
- Safeguarding Heritage: Tharaka Nithi’s Bold Steps To Preserve Culture And Empower Communities
- PS Appeals To Kiambu Residents, The Disabled To Go For New Jobs
- When Big Brother Becomes Everyone’s Business: The Illusion Of Oversight In The Age Of Perpetual Surveillance.
