Govt gets US$100m to fight northern poverty

THE World Bank has given the Uganda Government US$100m for the implementation of the Northern Uganda Social Acting Fund (NUSAF) programme aimed at eradicating poverty in the region. Moses Odong and Patrick Oyee report that the state minister for the northern uganda Rehabilitation Programme, Agard Didi, said this last week at the opening of the northern Uganda exhibition in a speech read for him by the district LC5 chairman, James Obua Otoa. The workshop was organised by DENIVA at the Lira Mayor’s Garden. Didi said the Government has designed a programme to help the north ‘catch up’ with the rest of the country after 15 years of insurgency. He said they would address the socio-economic infrastructure development, support vulnerable groups and encourage community peace building. He said they would involve traditional and non-traditional approaches. Didi said NUSAF would be based on private sector organisations and communities which would give speedy service delivery to the people. He said while the government had developed substantial programmes to address poverty in the country through strategic approaches, the actual implementation remained the responsibility of the districts.