By Teso Vibez Reporter

Parish Development Model is a bottom-up approach to budgeting aimed at moving national development planning to the grassroots acting as a delivery strategy for services.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni launched the development parish model in Kibuku district on the 26th of February 2022.

During the youth dialogue on the concept of the Parish Development model organized by Sugur Development Agency, many youths questioned the success of the program with many saying it’s a duplication of other government programs like Emyooga where beneficiaries were guided to establish groups, citing an enterprise and register for as SACCOs for funding.

Peter Odero is one of the youths who said that he is anticipating the failure of the program since many of them as young people do not understand the concept even after its launch.

“We were not consulted in the beginning and all we are getting to know is similar concepts of Emyooga, You form groups, cite enterprise then register as a SACCO. The same like Emyoga” he said.

One of the youth asked whether the government will provide them with money for registration of sacco’s adding that they found a challenge with Emyooga that came with unclear guidelines.

“We were told it’s a donation later it became a revolving fund, before you know it’s a seed capital but you’re asked to make a deposit of like 300,000shs in the Sacco account to borrow 1million. Where do you expect a person looking for seed capital to raise that money from?” he asked.

Moses Otekat said that in the organogram of the program, there is no aspect of monitoring, an oversight that can easily see the money at the Parish level misused by the beneficiaries.

Hailing from urban and peri-urban settings, other youths say that they don’t have land.

The youth jointly say their views were not gathered at the inception of the program and also asked unanswered questions about whether the program is enrolled since the president launched or not.

“We hear that it was launched and some people in other areas like Kibbuku received funding, when are we receiving it in Soroti?” asked Isaac Opejo, One of the youths in Soroti city east.

The production officer of Soroti city Dr. Isaiah Odokorach however told the youth that PDM is not a project but a delivery strategy after the government assessed the previous programs that failed to deliver as expected.

Hellen Alajo the Community Development Officer Soroti East Division emphasized that the program has not yet been rolled out and therefore youths should be patient as they wait for government guidelines from the various committees.

“We have not enrolled for training, we are waiting for the government to first put it on paper. We are really not in position to debate this now. What we know is that it's a revolving fund to all categories of people” She said.

Vincent Ocen, the executive Director Sugur development Agency said that the dialogue was proposed to provide the youth with a platform to engage with the decision-makers and increase their interest in participating in PDM meaningfully.