PARISH | DEVT | MODEL

A consortium of Ugandan and Swedish researchers have teamed up to find out the impact of the Parish Development Model (PDM).

President Yoweri Museveni launched the model in February 2022 in Kibuku district.

Under the programme, each parish is expected to receive sh100m to benefit various categories of people to eradicate poverty through the execution of development activities.

The sh490b initiative is an extension of the approach to development as envisaged under the National Development Plan III, with the parish as the lowest administrative and operational hub for delivering services closer to the people and hence fostering local economic development.

Now, a team of researchers from Makerere University (MAK and MUBS), agriculture ministry and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have joined forces to study PDM.

The objective of the research is to evaluate the impact of the PDM on the vulnerable poor in Kampala city and understand the pathways through which change happens or fails to happen," said Dr. Mary Gorret Nantongo, the principal investigator at MUBS, on Wednesday.

The research will be carried out in the five divisions of Kampala: Central, Makindye, Nakawa, Kawempe and Lubaga.

Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) and the PDM secretariat are research partners.

The project is titled: 'Reducing poverty among the urban poor in Uganda: Evaluating the effectiveness and inclusiveness of the Parish Development Model'.

The research grant is from the Network for Impact Evaluation Researchers in Africa (NIERA), with support from the Hewlett Foundation.

NIERA is an independent network of East African scholars that conducts rigorous evaluations of social and economic development programmes to improve people’s well-being.

PDM is one of the three demand-driven research projects that NIERA is implementing across East Africa.

The researchers hope that the outcome of the study will provide policymakers with rigorous evidence on the performance of the PDM to support decision-making about how the programme can be improved to deliver on its goals and to inform future implementation of similar initiatives.