ANKOLE– President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is criss-crossing the country to get hands experience on experience on the performance of the Parish Development Model implementation in various districts.
The Parish Development Model (PDM) is a government initiative aimed at improving the livelihoods and incomes of individuals at the household level.
According to the lead Ministry of Local Government, It’s a multi-sectoral strategy that focuses on bringing services and development interventions closer to the people, with the Parish being the lowest administrative and operational unit for planning and implementation.
The Parish Development Model goal is to transition Ugandans from a subsistence economy to a more productive, income-generating one.
Key aspects of the Parish Development Model include Decentralization where it emphasizes empowering local governments to plan and implement development projects at the Parish level, household-level focus where it prioritizes improving household incomes and welfare, targeting individuals and households in the most vulnerable communities.
It is Multi-sectoral approach where it involves various Government Ministries and agencies working together to address development needs across different sectors, such as agriculture, education, health and infrastructure, financial inclusion where it aims to promote financial literacy and access to financial services for households, enabling them to invest in their businesses and improve their livelihoods.
It also focuses on economic transformation where Parish Development Model seeks to transform the economy at the parish level by promoting small-scale businesses, entrepreneurship, and access to markets, service delivery which aims to ensure that government services reach the most remote areas and are accessible to all citizens, Community participation where community involvement is emphasized in planning, budgeting and implementing development projects, ensuring that these initiatives are responsive to the needs of the people.
It also has the “last mile” strategy where the Parish Development Model is seen as a crucial strategy for ensuring that development efforts reach the most vulnerable communities and individuals at the grassroots level.
The Parish Development Model operates at the Parish level across the country, which is the lowest administrative unit in Uganda and each parish has a Parish Development Committee (PDC) that is responsible for planning, budgeting and implementing development projects.
The Parish Development Model is composed of representatives from various stakeholders, including local government officials, community leaders, and representatives from various sectors and it also relies on the formation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) and other economic groups to facilitate access to finance, skills training and other services for households.
The Parish Development Model aims to empower households to become more productive, increase their incomes, and improve their livelihoods through these initiatives in essence, it is a comprehensive strategy for promoting development at the grassroots level in Uganda, focusing on empowering households, improving incomes and transforming the economy at the Parish level.
When President Museveni visited the Ankole Sub-region to assess the implementation of the Parish Development Model, he traversed the 12 districts, 4 Municipalities and 1 City where he met selected beneficiaries of Parish Development Model funds like he has done in all other Sub-regions across the country an indication that the President is more interested in the outcomes of the program which he has now promised to add more funding because of its practicality to transform people’s lives and welfare.
In Ankole Sub-region, by the of February 2025, a total cumulative capitalization amounts Ugx 181.5 billion of which Ugx 180.2 billion has been disbursed which makes a disbursement rate of 99.2% an indication that there is efficient fund utilisation across most Districts and Municipalities in the Sub-region.
Ankole Sub-region is composed of the Districts of Rubirizi, Kazo, Bushenyi, Rwampara, Mbarara, Isingiro, Ibanda, Buhweju, Kiruhura, Sheema, Ntungamo and Mitooma. It also has Ntungamo Municipality, Sheema Municipality, Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality and Ibanda Municipality and Mbarara City.
According to the status report that was given to President Museveni during his tour of Ankole Sub-region by the Parish Development Model Secretariat in the Ministry of Local Government, all the District Local Government have disbursed more than 90% of the funds received.
A breakdown of the funds received per District and Municipality and City were put in the status report as indicated here: Rubirizi Ugx 11 billion, Kazo Ugx 10.6 billion, Bushenyi Ugx 11.6 billion, Rwampara Ugx 6 billion, Mbarara Ugx 9.5 billion, Isingiro Ugx 27.4 billion, Ibanda Ugx 8.3 billion, Buhweju Ugx 14.1 billion, Sheema Ugx 9.3 billion, Kiruhura Ugx 11.7 billion, Ntungamo Ugx 26.7 billion and Mitooma 16 billion.
Mbarara City got Ugx 4.7 billion, Ntungamo Municipality received Ugx 1.2 billion, Sheema Municipality got Ugx 4.7 billion, Ibanda Municipality received Ugx 4.3 billion and Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality got Ugx 3.3 billion.
Ankole Sub-region has got 872 Parish Development Model SACCOs and each has so far received an additional Ugx 50 million for capitalisation for the year 2024/25 on top Ugx 250,000 each SACCO received as administrative operations support fund which has totalled Ugx 43.6 billion and this brings a total of Ugx 225.1 billion total capitalisation as of 12th February 2025.
It’s important to note that in some Districts the disbursement has gone beyond their allocated capitalisation because of their fast absorption and these include Rubirizi which is at 100.50%, Kazo which is at 100.24% and Bushenyi which is at 100.01%, while Mitooma District has the lowest absorption rate at 96.04% and Ntungamo which had 98.08% in the Ankole Sub-region.
Apparently a total of 182,313 people/families have benefited from the Parish Development Model in Ankole Sub Region with Isingiro having the highest number at 27,600, Ntungamo has 27,274, Mitooma has 15,826, Buhweju has 14,885 and Bushenyi has 11,729 beneficiaries which shows strong participation in these districts.
Other districts like Kiruhura has 11,575 beneficiaries, Rubirizi has got 11,161, Kazo has 11,076 and Mbarara District has a total of 9,793 being the lowest as a districts, but also there are other recipients in Mbarara City at 4,161, Sheema Municipality has 5,961, Ibanda Municipality has 5,197, Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality has 3,354 and Ntungamo Municipality has got 1,201 which shows a lower absorption rate in urban areas than the rural areas.
The distribution also shows that in Ankole Sub-region, more females at 55.6% have applied for the Parish Development Model funds than their male counterparts who stand at 44.4% and this reflects efforts towards gender sensitivity in the Parish Development Model highlighting the importance of ensuring that both men and women benefit from the development initiative.
The status report also shows strong focus on beneficiaries between the age of 18 and 59 which makes up 86% of the total number of beneficiaries in the Sub-region which reflects emphasis on working age beneficiaries are most still in their most productive age bracket.
In Ankole Sub-region Parish Development Model funds were invested in different sectors that include crops other than coffee which have taken 37% an indication that there is strong focus on agricultural production, and coffee alone has taken 29% reflecting its importance as a key cash crop and livestock has 18% showing significant investment in animal husbandry, with 10% in piggery and 4% in poultry, while about 5% is in value addition of diary, fruit and fish products.
According to the Parish Development Model Technical Adviser Julius Kapwepwe, the success of Parish Development Model both Ankole and Kigezi Regions is a manifestation of the demonstrable huge success from the infancy of the PDM across any kilometre radius in this country over the last 3 years.
“The next phase we have embarked on is to scale-up household food security ambition and in keeping inflation low plus PDM nexus to drive for entire economy through quantities and quality for the domestic foreign market in Nigeria or United Arab Emirates since Uganda Airlines now has direct flights to those countries.
Kapwepwe said that out of PDM the initial target of 3.5 million households Parish Development Model has presently reached 1.8 million households an indication of higher aggregate demand in the last 3 years.
“Parish Development Model is making a desirable contribution to digitalisation of the economy and expanded GDP of Uganda” Kapwepwe said.
He made it categorically clear that the next phase from 2026 onwards will have ushered every citizen into money economy, pushing inton the goal of socio-economic transformation under the able leadership of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the vision bearer.
Charles Asiimwe Bamuhata, a Consultant on PDM- Nutrition Handbook in the Ministry of Local Government said that following full capitalisation of all the Parish Development Model SACCOs under the financial inclusion pillar, it is now time to ensure that the pillar of Agricultural value chain development delivers the beneficiaries into the money economy.
” It is important that, for this to happen, physical and digital marketing is promoted. With the governance and administration pillar now fully functional, it is also important that the pillar of infrastructure and economic services, social services, community mobilization are also given more visibility” Asiimwe said.
Asiimwe is also poignant that the pillar of parish management information system should now be used to start tracking progress of service delivery across the Parish Development Model at all levels saying that through the PDM nutrition initiative all the Parish Development Committees should have their capacity built to implement all the 7 pillars as a system.
