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Thursday 16 March, 2023
By Kasline Gladys Lakareber-Pader
The Aruu North Member of Parliament Pader district Hon Santa Okot reported that she has evidence
which indicates the sign of failure in this project that keep beneficiaries heart pumping every time.
While addressing the public on the international women’s day celebration in her district, the legislator
reported that she sent some group leaders of two parish SACCO’s to go and check if the money had
been deposited into their account but the were denied access to the accounts in which they are rightful signatories.
When KaramojaNew conducted an interview with Pader district Community Development Officer Mr. Festo Okidi, he confirmed that all 95 parish Accounts received money totaling to 33 million Uganda shillings.
Okidi appealed to public to be patient and wait for final processes before they can start accessing the funds in their bank accounts. He reported that they have started organizing farmer’s groups so that they should not misuse PDM money.
However Mr. Robert Adebuason the Chief Administrative Officer replied to the accusation from MP that reiterating that the second release of Money was sent straight to SACCO Accounts which he does not have any authority other than the signatories themselves.
Pader district registered 97 Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies [ SACCOs] for parish Development Model but only 95 SACCOs received money in the first release due to some irregularities among the SACCOs.
The Parish Development Model is premised on the model that the Parish Development Committee(PDC) together with common citizens as the end user of social services are better placed to identify and respond to their own needs, priorities, and direct use of resources.
The Model positions the PARISH as the epicenter of multi-sectoral community development, planning, implementation, supervision and accountability. Parish as the lowest reference unit for planning, budgeting and delivery of interventions to drive socio-economic transformation.
The PDM has seven Pillars i.e.
(1) Production, Storage, Processing and Marketing;
(2) Infrastructure and Economic Services;
(3) Financial Inclusion;
(4) Social Services;
(5) Mindset change;
(6) Parish Based Management Information System
(7) Governance and Administration.
The PDM is a Government approach that delivers a package of services and entails;
- The Model proposes building infrastructure and systems that support processing and marketing of Uganda’s agricultural products.
- Generating data on house-holds country-wide to inform Government interventions.
- Farmers at Parish level will be coordinated through area-based commodity clusters in order to increase production and productivity that will create sustainable agricultural production.
- Farmers will get access to Agricultural extension services, finance business Management training.
- Build infrastructure and systems that support processing and marketing of Uganda’s agricultural products.
- Strengthen participatory planning by local communities to collectively identify and address systemic bottlenecks that affect local economic development.
- Addressing vulnerability among youth, women, PWDs at the grassroots by developing and Implementing Action Plans for inclusion of disadvantaged interest groups
Priority Commodities for the Parish Model include
Coffee, Cotton, Cocoa, Cassava, Tea, Vegetable Oils (Inc. Oil Palm), Maize, Rice, Sugar Cane, Fish, Diary, Beef, Bananas, Beans, Avocado, Shea Nut, Cashew Nuts, Macadamia
i) Enhance value addition in Key Growth Opportunities.
ii) Strengthen private sector capacity to drive growth and create jobs.
iii) Consolidate & increase stock and quality of Productive Infrastructure.
iv) Enhance productivity and well-being of Population.
v) Strengthen the role of the State in guiding and facilitating development.
Principles that underpin the Parish Development Model
i). Organization: Organising Ugandans that are currently operating in the subsistence economy to access quality inputs, tailored technical assistance, guaranteed markets, subsidized credit etc, through Associations, aimed at mitigating the diseconomies of scale (in savings, production, marketing and extension services), poor quality inputs/output, lack of reliable production advice, information (on) and connectivity to commodity and financial markets and post-harvest losses.
Market orientation: The PDM shall encourage market-based approaches that strengthen the value chains,incentivise competition, efficiency, and innovation that will drive down the requirement for Government support over time.
