The Manifesto Implementation Unit (MIU) of the Office of the President has commenced the process to undertake the mid-term review of the NRM Manifesto 2021-26 for 2024.
According to Willis Bashaasha, the Director MIU, the mid-term review will be conducted in line with the National Monitoring and Evaluation Policy (2013) with the major aim of updating Ugandans on how far the government through its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has fulfilled the commitments it made to Ugandans in this political term.
“As a unit mandated to track the progress of implementation of the manifesto, we have the cardinal duty to inform Ugandans about what has been done for them by the government in terms of service delivery. It is however important to stress that this service delivery is anchored on the dictates of the manifesto which is the social contract between the masses and the government which Ugandans gave the mandate to lead them this political term,” Bashaasha said.
He added that the manifesto mid-term review will focus on evaluating the development commitments of the manifesto, tracking the progress made towards attainment of anticipated targets, identifying the lessons learned along the implementation trail as well as devising the structural and institutional reforms required to fast track the implementation of pending commitments within the remaining time of this political mandate.
Committees Constituted
To facilitate the mid-term review exercise, the MIU will depend on a mid-term technical review committee composed of a multi-sectoral team of technical officers drawn from the various manifesto implementing MDAs. Bashaasha explained that this team was carefully selected to help the MIU in undertaking the technical activities including data collection, analysis and documentation of the manifesto review process.
“Government through the Monitoring and Evaluation Policy 2013 emphasizes the need for sectors to undertake regular reviews and periodic assessment of performance with the aim of satisfying accountability and learning needs for the sectors/programmes and government as a whole. Through this, the various MDAs and sectors have over the years built capacity in terms of structures and personnel; it is part of this structure and personnel that we are tapping to form the teams for the mid-term review,” Bashaasha said.
Specifically, the teams — which were formed last Thursday during the MIU’s planning meeting — are drawn from: the Office of the President’s Planning Unit, Directorate of Social and Economic Monitoring as well as Policy Development and Analysis Department. Others are from the office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Finance, National Planning Authority (NPA) and Uganda Bureau of statistics (UBoS). Meanwhile, the staff of the manifesto implementation unit will form the secretariat which will offer overall support to the above constituted teams.
Bashaasha revealed that the teams have been distributed along the five (5) thematic areas of the NRM Manifesto 2021-26 for proper coordination.
He added that on top of other duties, the constituted manifesto mid-term review committee will: develop the appropriate M&E tools to conduct data collection and analysis for the review exercise; undertake desk review of the MDA submissions on implementation of the manifesto; conduct structured field visits to collect data and verify progress provided on the implementation of the manifesto by the various MDAs. Other roles include: conducting interviews with key stakeholders on implementation of the manifesto and compiling and generating a mid-term review report from the discussions and validation done at both local government and national levels.
According to Bashaasha, the midterm review exercise will be crowned by the Manifesto Week at which, on an annual basis, leaders of the various MDAs converge at the invitation of the MIU to present to Ugandans the extent of manifesto implementation within their respective dockets.
