By Juliet Nalwooga & Moses Ndhaye
The minister for local government Raphael Magyezi has expressed government’s commitment to engaging civil society and other private entities as it implements the new Parish Development Model (PDM) Program across the country.
The program is the latest poverty alleviation scheme in which the government targets to directly support the income-generating enterprises at parish levels, as the lowest unit for planning and development.
Speaking during a round table high-level meeting for the support of the efficient implementation of the program, Action Against Hunger USA-Uganda Mission country director Albert Siminyu expressed concern that the government has not yet made room for representation of non-state actors in this initiative.
In his response, Magyezi committed to ensuring a Consortium of civil society is involved with services like technical expertise on ground and in sensitization among others
Meanwhile, the minister for local government Magyezi warned Ugandans against diverting funds injected into the implementation of the Parish Development Model program.
In the 2022/2023 FY government has provided over one trillion shillings for full implementation of the Model with each of the 10,594 Parishes across the country to receive shs100 million as a revolving fund whose beneficiaries will be village SACCO members.
Magyezi says each single SACCO beneficiary will be given a shs 1m at a 6% interest rate for a loan repayment period of 3 years (36 months).
He clarifies that this will be monitored and tracked using the biometric data entered into the government system and that there will be no room for anyone to default.
