KCCA PARISH DEVELOPMENT MODEL TEAMS RESOLVE EMERGING IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

The National Development Model (PDM) coordination Team has held a fruitful consultative meeting with the KCCA PDM leaders to share the achievements, challenges and find solutions to emerging issues recently raised by the Resident City Commissioners.

Among the issues raised were, the issues of poor information flow, lack of clarity on roles, and political interference among others.

The meeting which took place at the Mayor's Parlor on Wednesday December 7, was attended by the Minister of State for Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs Hon Kabuye Kyofatogabye who is also a member of the National Policy Committee on PDM.

“We are here to ensure that we successfully implement PDM in the city. A lot of progress has been made and I want to thank everyone for this journey but there is still more to be done. As leaders we need to move together and deliver as a team,” Kyofatogabye said.

The meeting was convened by the Hon Galabuzi Ssozi the National PDM coordinator who said that PDM is a government multi-sectoral strategy for socio-economic transformation, aimed at moving 39% of Ugandan households in the subsistence economy to the money economy. PDM was launched by President Museveni in February 2022 and is taking off all over the country

Dorothy Kisaka the KCCA Executive Director who was the host attended the meeting with the full City Technical Planning Committee (CTPC), comprising Directors, Town Clerks, managers, Community Development Officers and Commercial Officers.

She welcomed the team from the PDM national secretariat and said KCCA has put in place the necessary structures to fully implement PDM in the five divisions and achieve the aspirations of this government program

“Kampala has 99 Parishes each supervised by a KCCA Parish chief aka Assistant Ward Administrator. These Parish Chiefs are the secretaries to the Parish Development Committees chaired by the LCII,” Kisaka said.

PDM has seven pillars: Agricultural (production, Storage, Processing and marketing); Infrastructure and Economic Services; Financial Inclusion; Social services; Mindset Change and community mobilisation; Parish Based Management Information System PBMIS; and Governance and administration.

"At KCCA the seven pillars are aligned to the KCCA directorates and we are constantly strengthening the ability of the KCCA PDM secretariat to deliver effectively. We need more training for the key actors as we continue to unpack the strategy,” Kisaka said.

Kisaka narrated the steps taken so far including the stakeholder meetings held in all divisions which were championed by the Prime Minister and the Kampala Ministers and attended by a wide spectrum of stakeholders.

The process of enterprise selection and Sacco formation, the Annual General Meetings and the recent verification exercises have been done. She also highlighted the training done for the Parish Chiefs known in Kampala as Assistant Ward Administrators jointly with the Parish Development Committees (PDCs). However, she called for continuous mobilization and training for each individual Parish

“We shall work together with the Resident City Commissioners in all divisions, share the data collected and all enterprise information received as we mobilise the communities" Kisaka said.

The PDM National Coordinator, Hon Dennis Galabuzi Ssozi said PDM was initiated and adopted, with a parish as the key administrative unit for implementation of government programs and as the best suited delivery mechanism for the attainment of NDPIII development goals at the grassroot level.

“I want to thank the leadership of Kampala for the progress made. We are very confident that the work ethic of your leaders and the exhibited hard work of maneuvering through the various challenges, will deliver the desirable result,” Ssozi said. However, he noted that there has to be more information sharing so that all government leaders monitoring service delivery are well informed,” Ssozi said.

Maj Gen Sam Kavuma, the deputy chief coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) encouraged the RCCs to work closely with KCCA technical staff when delivering government programs.

He said the teams must be clear on the mission, the task at hand and the desirable goals and avoid unnecessary conflict.

“The roles must be clarified so that each performs their task fully,” Kavuma said.

The meeting was also attended by the Deputy RCCs from Rubaga, Makindye, Nakawa, and Kawempe.

Anderson Burora, the Rubaga Division Deputy RCC called for involvement of all leaders and timely sharing of the information for teams to move in one direction. He expressed concern that there were irregularities in the processes that needed to be corrected.

“No one should put their own interest in this program but involve everyone. This program will fail if we personalize it and don’t share information,” Burora said.

But Kisaka said if there were irregularities they were not intentional and will be corrected in the verification exercises in the identified Parishes.

Todate, KCCA has not yet received any money from the revolving fund for the SACCOs. Therefore, in this preparatory stage, constant feedback and open methods of work will ensure the program is successful, she said.

At the end the Minister guided that regular meetings be held between the Technical team and the monitors of the government manifesto to ensure that there is proper information sharing.