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Government is set to release sh1 trillion Parish Development Model (PDM) to all parishes next month, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr Ramathan Ggoobi, has said.

“The first half of the shillings 1 trillion for all parishes is expected to be sent next month (March 2024) and the remaining half will be sent before the end of the financial year,” Ggoobi said on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

He said the use of Wendi application (mobile wallet) in the disbursement of the Parish Development Model funds has empowered beneficiaries and saved them from the hustle of accessing these funds by travelling long distances to banking halls and incurring unnecessary costs.

“This application was approved by Cabinet and is an easy and secure model used by other countries including India and Bangladesh,” he explained.

PDM is the last-mile strategy for service delivery by the Government to improve incomes and welfare of Ugandans.

It is an extension of the whole-of-government approach to development as envisioned in National Development Plan III, with the Parish as the lowest administrative and operational hub/epi-center (for planning, budgeting, reporting, and delivery of interventions) for bringing delivery services closer to the people and hence foster local economic development. 

The Government is investing heavily in this initiative with the hope that it will pull people out of poverty.

Goal of PDM

The goal of PDM is to increase household food security and incomes and improve the quality of life of Ugandans with specific focus on the total transformation of society (both on-farm and off-farm, rural and urban settings).

The overall objective of the PDM is to increase the effectiveness of infrastructure and service delivery, including agricultural extension and social services, in order to accelerate the realization of the long-term goal of socio-economic transformation.

The immediate target is to move 39% of the households out of subsistence production into the money economy in the next five years.