ARUA – The Parish Development Model [PDM] Secretariat has ranked Zombo and Arua districts as the best performing districts in implementing the poverty alleviation programme where government intends to move 3.5 million households in subsistence economy to the money economy.
The PDM secretariat says that the ranking is based on the beneficiary mobilisation and sensitisation, enterprise selection, teamwork and coordination among the key actors, and absorption of the funds where the two districts performed well.
While accompanying President Yoweri Museveni who was recently in the area on his regional tour where he preached the gospel of wealth creation, the national coordinator of PDM, Eng. Dennis Galabuzi Ssozi, asked other districts in West Nile to benchmark from Zombo and Arua districts.
“The programme [PDM] targets the rural poor that is why cities are not benefiting. I want to implore other districts to learn from Zombo and Arua. Ensure that the enterprises in the programme guideline is what beneficiaries implement and there should be team work among the district staff,” Galabuzi said.
Both Zombo and Arua attribute their success in PDM implementation to timely mobilisation, enterprise selection and teamwork.
The commercial officer of Zombo district, Olum Lamek, said that as a district, they made it compulsory for the beneficiaries to select and engage in the enterprises as stipulated in PDM guideline.
“We ensured that our beneficiaries engage in coffee, Irish potatoe growing, piggery, poultry keeping, banana growing, among others,” Olum said, while noting that mobilisation and sensitisation of the beneficiaries were timely and adequately done by the district and subcounty officials.
Meanwhile, commercial officer Arua district, John Ezuma, attributes their good performance to commitment from the staff and teamwork between the district and sub-county teams.
“Much as PDM has no facilitation for the district team, we have tirelessly given time to help the beneficiaries. We have been working even on weekends,” Ezuma noted.
In this financial year 2022/2023, Zombo has disbursed Shs 1.8 billion under PDM for 61 SACCOs and 1,860 beneficiaries. meanwhile, Arua district disbursed Shs 900 million to 32 SACCOs benefiting 1,642 vulnerable people.
https://thecooperator.news/pdm-bureaucracy-delays-funds-accessibility-in-lango-sub-region/
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