Last Monday, May 29, 2023, I was privileged to make a presentation to Government leaders including Ministers and Members of the NRM Parliamentary Caucus on their retreat at National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi. The retreat, which ended yesterday, was graced H.E President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady, Maama Janet, among other leaders.
The retreat came at the end of marking the annual Manifesto Week which started on 12th and ended on 26th May, 2023.
As the Minister for the Presidency, I supervise the Manifesto Implementation Unit, which is responsible for coordinating all issues to do with the Manifesto and ensure that it is a living document.
The retreat was timely, and I thank H.E the President for calling it. The timing is perfect because it puts a sense of orderliness in how Government operates. From the first day when His Excellency swore in on May 12, 2021, every subsequent day, hour and minute counts. As leaders, we must have this at the back of our minds-that we are time bound. At two years, we nolonger have a whole term as at 2021.
Government entered this year’s Manifesto week with 23% of the Manifesto commitments achieved while 77% of these are on track. This is a commendable performance and I thank the stakeholders for their roles, and the Ugandans for the support. There is reason to celebrate and take stock.
Reports from the respective dockets show an increase in the number of commitments achieved, meaning that the next assessment will indicate an improvement in the overall score. At the next assessment (next year), I wish for us to surpass the 50% mark by far, and I know that it is possible if we take note of the critical observations that require attention.
After celebrating the cumulative milestones, naturally, the next thing is to devise solutions to the implementation challenges encountered within the two years of implementing the Manifesto.
On Economic Growth, in the two years under review, our economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience. According to the Ministry of Finance, in FY 2021/22, the Economy grew by 4.6 percent. This was mainly driven by increased value addition in both the industry and service sectors which grew at 12.7 percent and 9 percent respectively.
In Infrastructure, we noted an increase in a number of Infrastructural developments particularly in regard to Education and Health sectors.
There was upgrading of Health Center IIs to Health Center IIIs and construction of New Health Center IIIs.
Ten (10) Health Center IIIs have been upgraded to Health Center IVs in various parts of the country. All the 381 (100%) Health Center IIs were funded for upgrade with World Bank funding, namely: Uganda Inter-governmental Fiscal Transfers Program for Results -Ugift (340); and Uganda Reproductive Maternal Child Health Services Improvement Project – URMCHIP (41).
Government equipped Regional Referral Hospitals with CT scans and MRIs. The Regional Referral Hospitals include; Arua, Entebbe, Fort Portal, Mbarara, Gulu, Hoima, Jinja, Soroti, Kabale, Lira, Mbale,Moroto and Mubende.
Unfortunately, however, some of the leaders in the areas where this equipment was installed have not taken keen interest to monitor their performance and or to popularise their existence. This is ironical because the initial pressure to have this state-of the art machines provided was notable.
In Education, Government has completed the construction of 102 new Seed Secondary Schools along with construction of 615 staff houses for teachers. Furthermore, Government has provided 234,138 copies of science books and SST for P5 pupils and 39,000 teacher guides. The pupil to textbook ratio is now at 1:1 for Mathematics and English while it is 5:1 for Science and SST.
Additionally, State House commissioned 24 Industrial Hubs for the youths where over 700 youths have been enrolled. The industrial hubs are stationed in all sub regions across the country and they will enable government to train 12,600 youths every year under the Presidential Initiative on skilling. It is in order to commend H.E the President for this initiative which is bringing hope to the vulnerable children who were headed to be lost in the world.
I have been excited when I watched some of the key opposition leaders embracing the industrial hubs in the greater North where they mobilised their communities to support the projects. This is a challenge to other leaders who have not visited these hubs and skilling centers in the respective regions. And this not about NRM leaders. It’s about all leaders with mandate to serve.
There have been achievements in all dockets and I hope that Ugandans both followed media updates during the Manifesto Week but are also experiencing the Manifesto under implementation in their areas, despite some challenges.
A major milestone in Manifesto Implementation is the Parish Development Model (PDM), the flagship socioeconomic transformation programme of Government in this term. PDM is a reality, much as negative people had told the public different things. PDM SACCOs have been established in 10,588 Parishes. In FY2021/22, Ushs67.208 billion was disbursed to 7,855 SACCOs. In FY 2022/23, Government provided Ushs1.059 trillion in the budget for PDM.
Ushs522.950 billion has been disbursed so far to 10,459 PDM SACCOs. Isn’t this worth celebrating, more so that the Ugandan who was hitherto left behind is now receiving this support directly at the parish?
Leaders, please, I call upon you to look at these programmes as your own-they are to benefit your people. Get involved on the ground in monitoring and supervising them and propose improvements, as opposed to decampaigning them. It was, therefore, very wise and timely for the President to invite us to Kyankwanzi so that we agree on how to move faster.
There are various challenges hampering service delivery and transformation at large but as leaders, let us agree that we should not be among the challenges keeping our country behind. For leaders who were not at Kyankwanzi, the message is the same; we are all servants of the people and expectations are the same on all of us. If we fail, we shall fail together or succeed together. Detached leaders are a danger to our society.
The author is the Minister for the Presidency
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