Kapelebyong district kicks off baseline data collection exercise

 KAPELEBYONG -Kapelebyong district has launched a two-week exercise of baseline data collection to inform government’s implementation of the Parish Development Model [PDM], with a call on locals to embrace it.

The exercise is being conducted by 55 Parish Chiefs, who are the major supervisors of PDM activities in their parishes, and 15 agricultural workers supported by the district communication officer and planners.

Emmanuel Opio, the district Communication officer told theCooperator that the baseline data collection exercise comes after the data clerks comprising 55 parish chiefs and 15 agricultural extension workers.

He explained that before the district rolled out data collection exercise, the data clerks were trained on a management formation system application that was developed by the ICT ministry to be used in data collection process across the country.

“The Parish Chiefs are using smartphones to collect all the data and submit it directly to the servers at the head office in Kampala,” Opio said.

According to Opio, the exercise will cover 375 villages in the 55 parishes that form Kapelebyong district, and so far 905 households have been mapped.

Lawrence Ebuu, the Kapelebyong district planner explained that during the data collection process, households members will respond to questions related to the name of the household head, marital status, nationality, religion, national identification number [NIN], telephone number, household member relationships, residential status of household members, age, date of birth, education, disability, work, economic activity.

“Households will also respond to a question related to government benefiting from programmes like; Operation Wealth Creation, Youth Livelihood Programme, Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme, NAADS, and Emyooga” said Ebuu.

He added that under the data collection process, government also wants to know whether household heads are registered with any SACCO or credit institution or owns a mobile phone, TV set, radio sets, solar panel, motorcycle, or vehicle.

Ebuu outlined internet usage, insurance policy, household agriculture business, home-based shop, bar or restaurant, source of water for drinking, a common source of energy for lighting, toilet facility, shoes, and crop growing as other questions the data clerks will also focus on during the exercise.

Meanwhile, LCI chairpersons will respond to questions related to the availability of services like; Money lenders, mobile money agents, banking agents, commercial banks, SACCOs, cooperatives, Village Savings and Loan Associations.

“The LCIs will respond to questions on agricultural produce, livestock, general merchandise, tourism, and type of roads. They will also tell if their localities have public health facilities, primary school, government secondary school, Business Technical Institution, Education training, and university,” said Ebuu.

On the agriculture sector the lower council leaders are required to tell the clerks whether they have machinery such as agro-processing, grain milling, leather tanning, milk coolers, threshing, shelling, rice hauling, fruit processing, animal feeds mixtures, tourist, cultural sites and post office.

According to Ebuu, the leaders will also tell data clerks whether the source of water for agricultural production exists in their communities, as well as any disasters that have happened in their areas in the last 12 months and the form of violence that has happened in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, Kapelebyong deputy Resident District Commissioner Emmanuel Ojirot, urged the members of the public to embrace the exercise by giving correct information.

“If they ask questions, it is to make sure that proper information is recorded. That information is needed to support the government in planning for better services without anyone being left behind,” he added.

He decried the tendencies of some of the members of the public who give wrong information to government officials, which he said leads to shortfalls in the allocation of items distributed by the government.

https://thecooperator.news/ubos-ict-ministry-undertake-pdm-baseline-data-collection/

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