The Saemaul Undong movement was a community-driven development programme of South Korea in the 1970s.
The movement contributed to improved community wellbeing in rural communities through agricultural production, household income, village life, communal empowerment and regeneration.
Direct women participation in the programme was also vital for the South Korean development turn-around.
So, how did a country with a dearth of natural resources, a sprawling population congested in a limited arable land transform itself to a modern industrial state within a generation?
How could these have been achieved given the lingering geopolitical threats to its very survival as a state, as evidenced by the Korean War and the internecine aggressive posturing of its neighbor from the north?
The short answer is that very leader and citizen of South Korea rallied behind the full implementation of this Saemaul Undong project, and the country was fundamentally turned around.
In Uganda, our revolutionary leader, President Yoweri Museveni, launched the Parish Development Model (PDM) in 2022.
Emphasising the importance of the progamme, the President described it as a multi-sectoral strategy that will create socio-economic transformation by moving 39% households out of subsistence economy into the money bracket.
Building on the foundation for socio-economic transformation, which the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Government has laid by securing the entire country, building roads, hospitals, schools, water sources, dams to generate electricity and other public services, PDM Emyooga and other societal transformation projects should be fully implemented in order to transform our country.
Given the fact that PDM is the magic bullet that will extinguish poverty, every citizen must work tooth-and-nail to ensure that the programme is fully implemented, free of corruption and generally water-tight.
Like President Museveni said recently, his vision is to enable all Ugandans to play their part in wealth creation if Uganda is to achieve collective development and prosperity through among other means practicing modern commercial and calculated agriculture to fight poverty at household level.
Statistics indicated that the money economy has grown from 4% in 1969 to 68% currently. However, there is still a lot to be done to ensure that every homestead and every citizen joins the money economy.
President Museveni has also time and again said that in this economy, we don’t need spectators. We need all people to be players.
Under the PDM model, the Parish Chief is the coordinator of all Government efforts at each of the 10,594 parishes.
Each parish has been directed to form a cooperative society through which Government support will be channeled.
This model emphasises the approach of ensuring increased production, processing and marketing, infrastructure and service delivery at grass roots.
The model is designed under seven pillars which include production, storage, processing and marketing.
Infrastructure and economic services, financial Inclusion, social services, mindset change, Parish- based management information system, governance and administration are the other pillars.
So, with this elaborate model that empowers social-economic transformation at the parish level, why would some people remain spectators while others are making money?
It is time for every citizen above 18 years to join President Museveni’s wealth creation crusade.
All you need to do is to join a Parish SACCO, and tap into the funds that Government will send to your Parish.
The other thing that you need to do is report the corrupt people, who might mess the PDM programme.
The writer is the Deputy RDC for Manafwa District
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