By Our Reporter
WallnetNews/Bukedea|— Beecham Okwere David, the Chief Executive Director of SIMI Mobile, on Sunday evening met with over 51 Local Council leaders of Malera in Bukedea District at his village in Bukedea.
During the meeting, he tipped them on how to benefit from the Parish Development Model program (PDM) and assured them of government’s commitment on the parish Model drive.
He further said that it’s a bottom to up approach to budgeting, aimed at moving national development planning to the grassroots.
Article 176 of Uganda’s constitution provides for decentralisation “to ensure people’s participation and democratic control in decision making”. Uganda’s Local Government Act recognises two types of administrative units at sub-county level: Parishes and villages. Uganda has a total of 10,694 parishes, each with a population size ranging from 450 to 30,000 people.
Under the parish development model, the government has set up structures and frameworks for planning, budgeting and delivery of public services. People at the parish level are to decide development priorities under the policies formulated at the national level.
He encouraged the local council leaders to get all the people on board starting from the lowest administrative levels and identify and assign resources for their own social needs, development can tilt in favour of the poor.
The overall aim of government’s initiative is to deepen the decentralisation process, improve household incomes, and increase accountability at local levels.
The local council leaders thanked Beecham for the initiative, and promised to support government on this drive so that it becomes successful.
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