The 2nd Joint Review Meeting for the Sustainable Urbanization and Housing Programme has kicked off at Speke Resort Munyonyo, with a call to government policy implementers to utilize the available resources in order to deliver the required services to the people of Uganda.
Sustainable Urbanization and Housing is one of the programmes under NDP III, in line with the government’s programme – based budgeting approach that aims at streamlining and improving public service delivery by aligning budgets to the national planning frameworks in order to strengthen accountability and transparency.
Speaking at the opening of the review meeting under the theme “Leveraging Urbanization and Housing for Socio-economic Transformation” on Wednesday, 02 November 2022, Vice President Jessica Alupo said this programme is key in transforming the country through the implementation of interventions such as wealth and job creation programs and provision of essential public services.
“You will also appreciate that in order for the country to develop, there is need for proper physical planning; and there is also need to guide on proper land use, developments and human settlements which services are provided under this Programme. We cannot talk of industrialization and job creation in this country, if there is no supporting infrastructure in urban areas such as electricity, roads, railways and other service delivery infrastructure that lower the cost of doing business,” Ms Alupo said.
“Your Programme is key in fulfilling the pledges and particularly the issue of improving the state of Physical Planning in the entire country, providing low cost houses, as well as eradication of slums, among others. We want to come back for the next review only to hear from you how far you have gone in addressing the highlighted issues,” she added.
The Vice President said she is aware that the Programme is facing challenges in its implementation and pledged to address them.
“Through my office, I will work closely with the political leadership to address these challenges and focus on the many opportunities that our country can provide,” she said
“Amidst the challenges faced, I commend all Stakeholders for the commitment and efforts undertaken to date to improve the living conditions of our citizens particularly those living in rural and hard to reach areas. I want to urge all of you to pursue a more collaborative effort not only among yourselves but also to engage constructively with local and national leadership and where possible in direct consultation with the local citizens for whom the development is intended,” she added.
In her remarks, Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba said the meeting seeks to assess and evaluate the achievements of the Programme, as reflected in the Programme Implementation Action Plan (PIAP), over the second-year period FY 2021/22 and the Medium Term of the NDP from 2020 to 2022.
The others are to propose revision and identify priority focus areas based on available data/information and to plan for the end-term review of the Sustainable Urbanization and Housing Programme and outline tentatively its possible format and modalities.