PSST RAMMATHAN GGOOBI: Understanding the Parish Development Model: What, Why and How?

This is a summary of the presentation of Hon Ramathan Ggoobi Secretary to the Treasury and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development at the Capacity Building Workshop for Chairs, Vice Chairs of Committees & NRM Regional Whips of Parliament of Uganda on August 4, 2021.

Legitimacy of a Government Lies in its Ability to Provide Decent Jobs & Services to its Citizens-Mr Ramathan Stated.

SCOPE
-What PMD is
-Why PDM
-How it is going to work
-Next steps
-The role of Parliament

WHAT’S PARISH DEV’T MODEL?

• A strategy/vehicle for accelerating wealth & job creation, and improving service delivery at parish level.
• Its intent is to take government to the people in a more effective way through: via data gathering, community mobilization and mindset change, area-based enterprise selection & development, provision of financial services, coordination of government programmes, and feedback by the people on government services and wealth programmes (local accountability).
• The objective is to increase the effectiveness of interaction between GoU and citizens to accelerate the realization of socio-economic transformation – getting Ugandans out of subsistence economy into the monetary economy.

PILLARS OF THE PARISH DEVELOPMENT MODEL (PDM)

• Production, storage, processing and marketing
• Infrastructure and economic services
• Financial inclusion
• Social services
• Community mobilization & mindset change
• Data collection (Parish-based management information system)
• Governance and administration (one-gov’t approach)

WHY PARISH DEVELOPMENT MODEL

• There’re a number of initiatives that have been delivered at regional level (PRDP, NURP, NUSAF, Rwenzori, Luwero, etc.) or at national level (Entandikwa, YVCF, YLP, UWEP, OWC etc.)
• Common among these interventions is the control of the design, implementation, M&E and accountability by the Central Government.
• More so none of these interventions comprehensively addressed the different aspects of development –production, infrastructure, social services, financing, security, public administration, and governance and accountability.
• In addition, much of the development agenda is currently being implemented through projects; an approach that has distorted policy, implementation & measurement of results.
• Projects have also undermined the goal of decentralization and created undesirable outcomes –persistence of poverty and subsistence, unemployment, inequality and regional imbalance despite budget growth.
• Projects have also failed the LED policy implementation, intended to create wealth, increase household incomes and socio-economic transformation at lower LGs (where people are).

HOW IS IT GOING TO WORK?

• The conceptual guide, governance structure, and implementation framework are under design and will be formally communicated.
• The Parish Chief is going to be the coordinator of all Government efforts at the parish and report to the sub-county chief (as provided for in Sec 69 in LGA).
• A Parish Development Committee (PDC) is going to be formed comprising both state and non-state actors.
• A Parish Co-operative Association (PCA), through which government support will be channeled, is also going to be formed.
• A targeted results framework has been developed to track progress in the medium-term.
• National
  • Policy Committee (NPC) chaired by H.E the VP to coordinate different players [members: Ministers of MoLG,MoFPED, MAAIF, MoTIC, MoWT, MoGLSD, MoICT&NG, MoES, MoH,MoKCCA, MoWE, of General Duties, SG-NRM, NPA Chair, CC OWC,Private Sector & CSOs Reps]
  • OPM to provide overall M&E – detailed M&E framework is being developed by OPM & NPA
  • Ministry of Local Government to host the PDM Implementation Unit (whose head will be appointed by H.E) will report to the NPC on a quarterly basis.
  • Each of the 7 pillars will have a PDM Working Group composed of relevant MDAs, private sector, development partner, CSO Reps.
  • Outstanding activities include:Filling of vacant Parish Chief positions (4,600 out of 10,594) by end of Sept 2021.
  • Strengthening of Parish Development Committees (PDCs) –chaired by LC II Chair [membership:LCII exco, Parish Chief, Chairs of special interest groups, NRM Parish Chair, CSO/Business Rep,opinion leader, LCI Chairs in the Parish]. Orientation and training of PDCs, LGs and Parish Chiefs will be carried out.
  • Operationalization of 716 newly created lower LGs (Sub-counties &Town Councils) to supervise the Parishes. UGX 29bn required.
  • Finalization of guidelines and manuals – drafts are ready; they need validation and consultation before getting published.
  • Popularization of the PDM
  • Alignment of programme (formally sector) plans and budgets.
  • Alignment of programme (formally sector) plans and budgets.
  • Production of the tools for the Parish-based management information system – questionnaire, software etc. for data collection (by MoLG, UBOS, MoICT&NG)

  ROLE OF PARLIAMENT

  • Provide effective leadership in your constituencies to ensure effective implementation of the model.
  • Strengthen the legal frameworks and define clear responsibilities of each actor to ensure roles in implementation of our development agenda do not depend on personal interpretation.
  • When the M&E framework is finalized take full charge of it and ensure the OPM does its job. The days of paper accountability are over. We want “Accountability with Results” (and by results we mean households self-reporting better services and/or incomes).

– buyinza.com