Museveni to Officially Launch Parish Development Model on Saturday

President Yoweri Museveni will officially launch the Parish Development Model (PDM) this coming Saturday.

According to Vice President Jessica Alupo, the launch will be held at Kibuku Primary School in Kibuku district.

The PDM is aimed at increasing household incomes thereby facilitating sustainable transformation.

It is particularly targeting those households that are leaving in subsistence production.

It is anchored in the National Development Plan III and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Manifesto for 2021-2026.

Implementation of the PDM is through the ‘whole of Government approach’ whereby all ministries participate in providing infrastructure and social-economic services in their respective sectors through the local government structures, focusing at the parish level in a coordinated and mutually re-enforcing manner.

This is implemented under seven Pillars of the PDM:

i. Increasing production, productivity, value addition, processing, storage and marketing;

ii. Providing the necessary infrastructure and economic services such as community access roads, affordable and reliable energy, water, insurance and internet services;

iii. Enhancing social services such as education, health, environment protection, improved housing and sanitation;

iv. Financial inclusion for all through affordable parish-based financial services and a revolving fund managed at the parish;

v. Community mobilization, sensitisation and mindset change;

vi. Parish-based information management system; and

vii. Improved governance and administration.

Implementation of the PDM started in July 2021 with preliminary activities, including the following:

• Recruitment to fill vacancies of Parish Chiefs who will administer the PDM in all our 10,594 parishes.

• Operationalisation of the 716 newly created sub-counties and town Councils by obtaining the necessary funds approved by Parliament in a supplementary budget in November 2021.

• Setting up the National PDM Secretariat to ensure effective coordination.

• Activating the seven pillar working groups of the PDM.

• Development of Information Education Communication materials.

• Formation of the overall implementation guidelines and manuals.

Alupo says the Model will be launched under the theme: Transformation from Subsistence to Monetary Economy through increased production and Productivity for Improved Household Incomes and Livelihood.

Several pre-launch activities are already underway in Kibuku and the rest of the Bukedi subregion.

Our teams are on the ground carrying out training of district and lower local government political leaders and technical officers, community mobilization and sensitization, data collection, updating citizen registration, identifying the enterprise groups, formation of parish SACCOs, and engaging various stakeholders in government and non-governmental institutions," the vice president said in a Tuesday statement.