President Yoweri Museveni on Friday started a performance assessment zonal tour for the Parish Development Model (PDM) in the Bukedi sub-region in eastern Uganda. The PDM is a multi-sectoral strategy to improve the incomes and welfare of Ugandans by bringing services closer to the people.
It aims to increase household income and improve the quality of life of Ugandans with a specific focus on the total economic transformation of the households through getting Ugandans out of the subsistence economy into the money economy within the next five years. Those positioned in this parish model will access grants, training, and investment capital from the government to achieve their goals.
The PDM’s seven pillars are; production, storage, processing and marketing, infrastructure and economic services, financial inclusion, social services, mindset change, parish-based management information system, and governance and administration.
President Museveni during the official launch of the PDM at Kibuk Primary School in February 2022 said: “During the recently concluded elections (in 2021), we promised you that the 2021-2026 term is going to be a kisanja (term) for creating wealth, jobs and incomes for all Ugandans.”
He said the main focus is the transformation of the population from the culture of working for the stomach only to working for both the stomach and money. Against that background, the President embarked on a sustained PDM performance assessment zonal tour in Bukedi last Friday.
It was a bright day but the first day of the tour indicated that the PDM is on course and positively impacting the people’s lives, who are embracing anti-poverty teachings.
An example is Ms Florence Nabutono of Bukodo cell, Kassira town council in Kibuku district. Having received Sh1m from the PDM SACCOs a few years back, she wisely invested the money in keeping with the set PDM guidelines. With time, she diversified by adding poultry to her farm.
Now, she is self-reliant. Her remarkable performance through hard work and judiciousness motivated the President to give her Sh10m to purchase dairy cows, a lactating cow, and one that is expecting.
The tale of Nabutono should motivate more Ugandans to embrace the PDM. Our people should disregard those opposed to the program. We should be encouraged by the President’s potential for transforming his own life. The President also encourages us to use the potential to transform one’s own life. The President also encourages us to use our own resources, which are as country as resource-rich as Uganda.
Nabutono’s success story is one of the several such tales in the country. During our PDM monitoring tours as the Office of the National Chairman of NRM, our coordinators have encountered such success stories. Such tales have informed our assurances to Ugandans that PDM is transformative.
Our national coordinators and I have also related with the ghetto youth, who have since embraced the programme and are now doing very well. They can no longer be misled by self-seeking politicians who used to lure them into riots and other acts of criminality.
Ugandans should ignore the critics of PDM and embrace it in order to achieve economic independence. The onus is now on us leaders to mobilize Ugandans to embrace this programme.
We should also religiously monitor its progress in our respective areas.
The writer is a Senior Presidential Adviser, Political Affairs, Office of the National Chairman – NRM