In its mandate to monitor and ensure effective service delivery to Ugandan citizens, the Manifesto Implementation Unit (MIU) of the office of the president will hold a validation and monitoring exercise to track the progress of government commitments in the NRM Manifesto 2021-26 for the Greater eastern Uganda.
This was revealed by Willis Bashaasha, the Director MIU, who is also the chief convener of the retreat which will take place at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi from April 23 to 28th, 2023.
According to Bashaasha, the retreat will be attended by manifesto implementation stakeholders from the greater eastern regions of Bugisu, Bukedi, Busoga, and Karamoja.
Bashaasha revealed that the 5-day retreat will be attended by technical and political local leaders from the greater eastern Uganda, who will be joined by NRM party leaders and RDCs resident in the region’s respective districts.
Bashaasha noted that the retreat will be opened by the Minister for Presidency, Milly Babirye Babalanda, who will be flanked by Presidency Secretary Hajji Yunus Kakande.
It is organized in line with the MIU’s mandate to track, report and publicize the performance, progress and challenges of implementation of the manifesto, which is the NRM government’s social contract with Ugandans.
He added that the retreat will help the manifesto stakeholders to strengthen and harmonize the coordination, planning and reporting on the manifesto commitments for the greater eastern Uganda, aware that the current manifesto implementation timelines were affected by the aftershocks of the covid-19 pandemic.
“Implementation of the current manifesto began this financial year (2022/23), given that 2021/22 was largely a planning year whose activities were greatly hindered by the pandemic and other global shocks. This is why we have to deeply engage all our stakeholders because the work at hand is twice as much,” Bashaasha explained.
According to Bashaasha, they invite different categories of stakeholders because manifesto implementation is a multi-sectoral process, with the work of one sector feeding into another sector or level. “This also explains why there should be consistency in monitoring and reporting such that everyone is on the same page,” he said.
The Kyankwanzi retreat will also be attended by Manifesto focal persons from key government service delivery ministries including Education, Health, Agriculture, Works & Transport, Water & Environment and Local Government; and assessments will be based on the 23 strategic guidelines and directives issued by the president. Also in attendance will be officials from poverty-alleviation programmes including PDM, Emyooga among others. These technocrats will make presentations to manifesto supervision and monitoring agencies including the Presidency, State House, and Ministry of Finance as well as NRM party leaders and presidential advisors from the Greater Eastern.
Officials from the PDM Secretariat will also present on the status of PDM, whose funds have been disbursed to centers from where beneficiaries can get them.
WHAT WILL BE ACHIEVED
Bashaasha explained that the main objective of the retreat is to take stock and account for the manifesto commitments and achievements to the Ugandans in the Greater eastern as well as explaining and sharing synergies required in the implementation of the manifesto commitments.
The retreat is part of the manifesto midterm review activities which precede the Manifesto Week slated for May 12-29th at the Office of the Presidency Conference Hall. The manifesto week will be officially opened by the prime minister on May 12 and the NRM secretary general while it will be closed by the presidency minister.
Starting May 15th, cabinet ministers heading the various ministries will begin presentations giving accountability and progress of projects that they have executed under their dockets in line with their service delivery obligations to the citizenry.
Bashaasha encouraged all Ugandans to participate in the exercise which will be widely covered and streamed on all media outlets across the country.
