Let us support Parish Development Model
Macxzzon Muhwezi
The Parish Development Model (PDM) represents the government’s new strategy to attain socioeconomic transformation through wealth creation and employment generation starting at a parish level.
While the programme has been widely publicized, as expected, it has drawn both praise and criticism from the public.
However, it’s important to look at the NRM government’s track record on transforming the country in all sectors to understand why the adoption of the PDM is a smart strategy.
President Museveni has always been an advocate of “prosperity for all” and has worked to ensure that his government implements programs that can benefit people at the grassroots.
The PDM focuses on households in the subsistence economy. Many Ugandans are engaged in subsistence farming, earn a wage or salary, operate a business or are completely unemployed.
President Museveni, as a popular revolutionary leader who championed the local council system, has always been an advocate of participatory development. From the organisation of the struggle for freedom, people at the grassroots and grassroot structures have been integral to the attainment of fundamental change.
It is this belief in people’s power as change agents that has inspired the NRM to design a program that invites Ugandans at the lowest economic planning unit (parish) to take centre stage in lifting themselves out of poverty. Key figures are important to consider in understanding the motivation of the PDM.
Previously, the 2014 National Population and Housing Census put 68 percent of Ugandan households to be reliant on subsistence agriculture.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics recent data estimated that 39 percent of households (3.3 million) were in the subsistence economy as of the 2016/2017 survey.
With the impact of Covi-19 and recent economic tremors worldwide, the situation may have gotten worse. PDM aims to cut the number of Ugandans in the subsistence economy by 31 percent. The programme has been designed with seven key pillars such as production, processing and marketing which target development of value chains..
Other pillars of the PDM include infrastructure and economic services, financial inclusion, social services, community data, governance, and administration as well as mindset change.
These represent a 360-degree approach to development which should involve all Ugandans. Mindset change as the seventh pillar will include efforts by leaders at all levels coming together to debunk the misrepresentations of the development plan, as well as support the government to ensure that the PDM succeeds.
The PDM has been compared by many commentators to previous development programmes arguing that it is a continuation of past initiatives. Whereas there are synergies between the PDM and these past programmes, it is not entirely correct to characterize it in this light.
The PDM is universal; covering all the 10,594 parishes of the country, hence offering a fair and equitable access to resources. It caters for all interest groups in a parish and is implemented through established government structures which significantly reduce administration costs.
The cost of credit through the parish revolving fund is also lower than that of existing initiatives. Funds allocated belong to residents and are managed through their Parish SACCOs. Importantly, it has a commodity focus which strengthens food security and industrialisation agenda.
The PDM is not just about public sector interventions as many wrongly believe. Its strategy is to organize and deliver public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level. The PDM thereby accelerates the implementation of the area-based commodity development planning that is key for the agriculture sector.
It further localizes Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan which will allow tracking and monitoring development key performance indicators.
I urge Ugandans to give the PDM a chance. Rather than falling prey to misrepresentations of the program championed by often uninformed people, it would be a great benefit if we paid attention to the programme.
Mr Macxzzon Muhwezi is a political scientist, and former NRM chairperson for Makerere.
