KAMPALA — Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah has urged the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to ensure its findings and recommendations work in favor of the development of the ordinary Ugandan.
The main thematic areas of APRM in Uganda include democracy and political governance, economic governance and management, corporate governance and sustainable socio-economic development.
Oulanyah said President Yoweri Museveni has made formidable commitments in increasing good governance in Uganda, which has steadied the course of leadership in the country.
He said this while officiating at the National Validation for the 2nd Assessment Report on implementation of Uganda African Peer Review Mechanism National Program of Action for the financial years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.
The meeting was held at the Kampala Serena on Thursday, 21 October 2021.
“As the 11th Parliament, we have decided to focus on the people. The things you bring to us must have that angle. If they don’t, we will send you back until you show us how the policy, law and budget you are proposing will impact on the life of the Ugandan in the village,” said Oulanyah.
The Speaker tasked the APRM to interrogate whether measurable impact is delivered to the people, and whether the mechanisms evaluate the impact of Government’s actions.
He added that the mechanisms ought to assess whether Government policies and laws facilitate private sector led growth, as well provide for an inclusive consultative process.
“Interest rates are the basis of the general concern about affordable credit. If our private sector had developed, we would have lesser issues to do with unemployment because there would be enterprises to close this gap,” Oulanyah added.
Hon. Amos Lugoloobi, the Finance State Minister for Planning and the focal person for APRM in Uganda, told the meeting that the country has spent UGX. 28 trillion in implementing the various interventions presented in the National Program of Action.
He added that a National Development Plan has been formulated, comprising programs that will address issues within the plan of action, and that budgeting is going done according to the program approach.
“We are doing very well as per the assessment by APRM. A number of achievements and all the parameters have indicated an excellent performance. I congratulate us all especially the commitment demonstrated by the National Governing Council to ensure that they follow the course of these programs,” said Lugoloobi.
He said that the Finance Ministry is also doing a review on bottlenecks of under-development of agriculture, unresponsiveness of public service and under-developed infrastructure and will study the findings.
The APRM is Africa’s most innovative and ambitious initiative on governance, launched in 2003 by Member States of the African Union.
The Member States agreed voluntarily, for self and peer-assessment of their national governance policies and practices.
Discussion about this post