The Parish Development Model (PDM) is a development strategy approach conceived under National Development Plan (NDP III) and NRM Manifesto of 2021 - 2026.
The Parish Development Model is premised on the model that the Parish Development Committee(PDC) together with common citizens as the end user of social services are better placed to identify and respond to their own needs, priorities, and direct use of resources.
Purpose
To deepen the decentralization process; improve household incomes; enable inclusive, sustainable, balanced and equitable socio-economic transformation; and increase accountability at local levels.
The Model positions the PARISH as the epicenter of multi-sectoral community development, planning, implementation, supervision and accountability. Parish as the lowest reference unit for planning, budgeting and delivery of interventions to drive socio-economic transformation.
The PDM will create Wealth, Employment and increase Household Incomes.
Pillars
The PDM has seven Pillars i.e.
- Production, Storage, Processing and Marketing;
- Infrastructure and Economic Services;
- Financial Inclusion;
- Social Services;
- Mindset change;
- Parish Based Management Information System
- Governance and Administration.
The PDM is therefore a Government approach that delivers a package of services and entails;
- The Model proposes building infrastructure and systems that support processing and marketing of Uganda’s agricultural products.
- Generating data on house-holds country-wide to inform Government interventions.
- Farmers at Parish level will be coordinated through area-based commodity clusters in order to increase production and productivity that will create sustainable agricultural production.
- Farmers will get access to Agricultural extension services, finance business Management training.
- Build infrastructure and systems that support processing and marketing of Uganda’s agricultural products.
- Strengthen participatory planning by local communities to collectively identify and address systemic bottlenecks that affect local economic development.
- Addressing vulnerability among youth, women, PWDs at the grassroots by developing and Implementing Action Plans for inclusion of disadvantaged interest groups
Priority Commodities
Priority Commodities for the Parish Model include
- Coffee,
- Cotton,
- Cocoa,
- Cassava,
- Tea,
- Vegetable Oils (Inc. Oil Palm),
- Maize,
- Rice,
- Sugar Cane,
- Fish,
- Diary,
- Beef,
- Bananas,
- Beans,
- Avocado,
- Shea Nut,
- Cashew Nuts,
- Macadamia
PDM vs NDP III
The PDM is aligned to the following 5 strategic objectives of the NDPIII;
- Enhance value addition in Key Growth Opportunities.
- Strengthen private sector capacity to drive growth and create jobs
- Consolidate & increase stock and quality of Productive Infrastructure.
- Enhance productivity and well-being of Population.
- Strengthen the role of the State in guiding and facilitating development.
Principles that underpin the Parish Development Model
- Organization: Organizing Ugandans that are currently operating in the subsistence economy to access quality inputs, tailored technical assistance, guaranteed markets, subsidized credit etc., through Associations, aimed at mitigating the diseconomies of scale (in savings, production, marketing and extension services), poor quality inputs/output, lack of reliable production advice, information (on) and connectivity to commodity and financial markets and post-harvest losses.
- Market orientation: The PDM shall encourage market-based approaches that strengthen the value chains,incentivise competition, efficiency, and innovation that will drive down the requirement for Government support over time.