THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The Parish Model

Implementation Strategy

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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
The Parish Model Implementation Strategy is a vehicle through which household
incomes and the quality of life of Ugandans will be improved, where the Parish is
developed as a wealth creating unit responsible for taking services closer to the
people. The Parish will play a key role in the coordination, monitoring,
supervision, reporting and oversight for Production, Marketing, Social Services and
Financial and other services in their localities. The Parish Model will lay emphasis
on agro industrialization initiatives.

1.2 Objectives
a) To provide incentives and support to smallholder farmers to use their
land more productively to boost household incomes.
b) To strengthen coordination, monitoring and reporting of
Government programmes
c) To promote Local Economic Development by guiding and
supporting beneficiaries at village level on economic activities
to undertake through extension services
d) To increase community/citizen participation in development
(planning, monitoring & implementation) and socio-economic
activities
e) To promote mindset, change in the community
f) To establish common user equipment and infrastructure for
production and value addition.
g) Sustainably manage the environment and natural resources
and enforce compliance by local leadership.
h) Scale-up innovative extension models such as nucleus farmers.

1.3 Rationale

The Parish Model was identified in the National Development Plan (NDP III)
as a means to deepen decentralization and citizen participation in local
economic development.

The Parish is considered to be the optimum level for Government to reach

every household and ultimately every individual. A stronger Parish service
delivery mechanism increases Government presence in the communities.
The NDP III identifies the need to bring services closer to the people by
strengthening the sub-county as the lowest planning unit and the parish as
the administrative and operational hub for all government services.

The Parish is the closest unit of Government to Citizens where there is a Public
Officer to coordinate efforts to support service delivery. At Parish level, there are
community structures that can be re-invigorated at the least cost like the Parish
Development Committees (PDCs) which has representatives from all constituent
villages. The model will promote and increase the participation of families,
communities and citizens in development initiatives, as well as consolidate and
provide common user production and marketing facilities to the population
among others.
The NDP III, identifies the Parish Model as a socio- economic development
strategy for Community mobilisation and mindset change for service delivery with
both technical and political grassroot structures. This amplifies the parish as the
unit of implementation and monitoring of all development programmes at the
lowest level in Local Governments (LGs). A stronger Parish unit will transform a
parish/ward from subsistence production to productive and prosperous
communities through empowerment and harnessing economic opportunities for
sustainable wealth creation and improved well-being.

1.4 Proposed Interventions

(i) Construct and equip common user facilities and infrastructure (stores, multi-
purpose office to host Financial Service Centres, training hall) and fertilizer
distribution at parish level.
(ii) Scale-up innovative extension models such as nucleus farmers.
(iii) Strengthen the coordination of development efforts at the Parish as the
Centre of economic transformation.
(iv)Provide technical support to households and individuals to participate in socio-
economic activities as well as mind-set change training.
(v) Strengthen outreach and extension services
(vi)Improve monitoring and supervision of government programmes and
projects in the Parish
(vii) Support at least one strategic enterprise and develop its value chain to
market level for job creation, incomes and exports
(viii) Review structure at the Parish level and recruit Assistant Community
Development Officers (ACDOs)
(ix) Form organic Financial Service Institutions such as cooperative
societies at parish level.
(x) Revitalize Parish Development Committees.
(xi) Develop a Parish Based Management Information System (PBMIS)
 2.1 Situation Analysis

Government Ministries Agencies and Departments have been

implementing various interventions for service delivery and economic
development for Ugandans. However, all these efforts are not harmonized
leading to mixed outcomes.

The Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) developed and issued out

Guidelines for operationalization of the Parish Development Committees
(PDCs) and the Discretionary Development Equalization Grant (DDEG) with
the former guidelines on strengthening planning and oversight function of
the parish model, and the latter guidelines for resourcing and financing
basic functions of the Parish Chief and PDCs. Functionality of PDCs will
trigger to all other proposed community structures such as; Project
Management Committees (PMC); Farmers’ Organizations; SACCOs. The
Parish Model will be re-invigorating the functions of Community
mobilization; consolidation of village data and information; collection of
local revenue, identification of local development needs and priorities;
preparation of Parish Action Plans; Service/project monitoring and
reporting.

These Parish structures are weak and therefore require strengthening for
parishes to be at the forefront of service delivery and income generating
activities.

Other MDAs such as MAAIF have quite good intentions for transforming
subsistence agriculture to commercial farming. However, they lack the
grassroots extension staff to deliver the much-needed information and
technologies to the farmers. The Parish model will build this into the
routine of the parish chiefs and the PDCs. The same applies to primary
health services and community mobilization. The parish chief and
community structures will provide a platform and institutions to effectively
target the community, mobilise them along value chains and establish
common user facilities hitherto a challenge to provide.

2.2 Challenges to be addressed by the Parish Model

 i) The largely smallholder farmers who engage in peasant farming for
home consumption Producing for subsistence and limited/lack of
commercialized Agriculture.
ii) Human Resource gaps. While the existing sub-county staff structure
provides for one technical staff for a Parish (parish chief), this is
inadequate and even lacking in some parishes. This weakens the
coordination and mobilization capacity for decision making;
iii) Weak bottom-up participatory and evidenced planning, monitoring
and reporting due to lack of required tools and systems;
iv) Inadequate financing for local economic development; and
v) Weak cooperative culture/Mindset.
vi) Challenges in monitoring of service delivery in LGs by both central
and LG officials including a reporting system.
vii) Sustainable environment management especially restoration of
degraded ecosystems (Wetlands, Forests) and enforcement by Sub-
county chiefs and Parish chiefs.

3.1 Proposed Financing

3.2 Source of Financing

The source of funding will be the Government of Uganda, Development

Partners, Faith Based Organizations, and Civil Society Organizations etc.

The cost centres for operationalization of the parish model will involve;
No Intervention 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26 Total

1 Salary for Assistant Community Development Officers (ACDOs) 32 32 32 32 32 160

2 Salary for Parish Chiefs to fill the existing gaps 15 15 15 15 15 75

Support at least one strategic enterprise and develop its value
3 chain to market level for job creation, incomes and exports 300 300 300 300 300 1,500
(Provide development funds/grants to parishes Grants)

4 Provide transport (one motorcycle per parish) 40 40 40 0 0 120

5 Establish administrative offices in every parish 100 100 100 100 51 451

6 Form and capitalize cooperative societies at parish level 30 30 30 30 30 150

7 Establish post-harvest handling infrastructure and common 200 200 250 250 100 1,000
user facilities at parish level

8 Train PDCs on their roles and responsibilities 10 10 0 0 0 20

9 Develop the Parish Based Management Information System 2 100 18 0 0 120

(PBMIS)

10 Strengthen the coordination, monitoring and supervision of 5 5 5 5 5 25

development efforts at the Parish at the centre of economic
transformation
Provide outreach and extension services to households and
11 individuals to participate in socio-economic activities as well as 5 5 5 5 5 25
mind-set change training.

Total 739 837 795 737 538 3,646

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The Parish Model will require approximately UGX 729 billion annually to
operationalize. Priority should be given to first strengthening human
resource capacity and functionality (filling all vacant positions, recruiting
Assistant Community Development Officers, Parish grants, and purchase of
transport equipment).

4.1 IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS

4.2 Parish Model Grant to LLGs

The Parish Model (PM) will be funded by both Government of Uganda and other
but to the LGs it will form one fund called the Parish Model Grant out of which
each Parish will be entitled to the equivalent of a minimum of UGX 30m (US
$7,500) as an annual grant and can be adjusted in accordance with the
available resource envelope.
The Grant will be disbursed as PM grant to the Lower Local Governments (LLGs)
and will be based on submission of a consolidated PM Grant work plan to the
MoLG and the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
(MoFPED). The PM Grant release will be made in quarterly instalments against
quarterly reporting for the previous quarter but one. Specific reports will be
contained in the PBS of the LG, but further details will be required using the
formats to be issued by MoLG or from the PBMIS when it is operationalized.
 Quarterly Plans shall be submitted to MoFPED and MoLG
 Open account for PM Grants
 Grant should finance Community/ Group projects
The LLG must submit annual quarterly Work Plans to the Higher Local
Governments (HLGs) at the beginning of a Financial Year for analysis to ensure
that they are in line with this manual. The HLG will then submit to the MoLG
annual and quarterly details of Local Governments’ requirements and to MoFPED.
Subsequently, MoLG will advise MoFPED to transfer the funds directly to the LLGs.
Further releases of funds to Local Governments are made upon submission of
satisfactory accountability for the previous releases to MoLG.

The LLGs shall also open a Parish Model account onto which the Parish Model
funds (IPF and Grant) will be transferred. In addition, communities whose project
proposals will be approved for funding will have to open their own bank accounts
to which approved funds will be transferred. (Communities will be encouraged to
open accounts with banks or micro deposit-taking institutions nearest to
their localities to minimise the costs of operating the accounts).

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The PM Grant should strictly be used to finance community projects stipulated in
the work plans submitted by the communities to the LLGs.

4.3 Flow and Administration of Funds

The flow and administration of funds for the PM grants will follow the stipulated
LG financial and accounting regulations but allowing sufficient flexibility and
emphasis for community project financing. Below is a description of the
highlights in the funds flow:

(a) There will be a Parish Indicative Planning Figure for each Parish
which will flow to the LLG PM account.
(b) For the LLG PM, Funds will flow automatically from Bank of Uganda
to the General fund account of the LLG. LLG will be required to open a PM
bank Account to which funds will flow, from the general fund account.
c) The PM fund of the LLG will hold funds for community Social-Economic
infrastructure only.
NB: Higher LG DDEG will be used the LG to monitor and supervise PM
implementation

4.4 Accountability and Reporting Requirements

Accountability to the MoLG shall be done quarterly and the Higher Local
Governments (HLG) will submit the progress reports to MoLG, and copy to
MoFPED.
The Lower Local Governments will account to the Chief Administrative
Officer/Town Clerk of their Higher Local Government. The accountability shall
consist of Quarterly Work Plan, Budget and Progress Report
4.5 Audit and Independent Financial Assessments

Audit will be conducted as part of the Audit Strategy of Government by the Office
of the Auditor General in addition to the regular audit visits by the District/ City
Internal Audit unit.

5.0 Procurement

All procurements shall be guided by the Local Government (Procurement and

Disposal of Public Assets) Regulations, 2006.

6.1Monitoring and Evaluation Arrangements

6.2 Stakeholders in Monitoring

The M&E framework will be the major tracking instrument for monitoring
and evaluating the progress of implementation of the Parish Model on a
quarterly, semi-annual and annual basis.
Monitoring and Evaluation of PM implementation is designed to be carried out
as a shared responsibility between communities, Local Government Technical
Staff, MDAs, and Independent evaluators. To facilitate the implementation of the
M&E arrangements a number of Committees and stakeholders will play different
roles.

No Stakeholder Responsibility
1 Beneficiary The community members will use participatory
Community assessment methods to regularly assess how the
community has benefited from the project
2 Local They collect information from the completed projects
Government and submit it to the respective local government TPCs
Technical Staff and Executive Committees to assess the project impact
at the community and Local Government level.

3 MoLG  commission qualitative enquiries and studies like

annual beneficiary assessments, impact
assessments and technical audits of community
procurement to inform refinement of PM design
and implementation. The PM will be
mainstreamed in the national assessment process
  undertake Mid-term Review of PM
implementation.
 Supervision and oversight
4 The Parish Chief monitor and report on physical outputs in his or her areas
of jurisdiction. This will be done against previously
set targets for every parish.
5 MDAs An oversight role to monitor implementation of activities
specific to their mandates
6 Independent To provide an independent and impartial report on the
evaluators implementation of the Parish Model
7 City/ District Commissioning and handover
Leadership
8 PMC Carryout day to day monitoring of the projects during
execution and after completion

6.5 Sustainability of Projects/ Investments

The PMC/ LGs will ensure that households invest in projects that will continuously
generate income and the PMC and Local Governments will provide information
and necessary support to the communities
The PMC will continue to oversee the project/ Investment even after
completion, and will take over the management and ensure sustainability of the
projects/investments. The committee will be composed of 11 members, at least
30% should be women.

7.1 PARISH MODEL INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

Institutional Arrangement

Sub Committee of Cabinet

Steering Committee

Technical Committees

Secretariat - MoLG

The model will be implemented through the existing government policy

implementation channels.

7.2 National level

At national level, the Parish Model Secretariat will be based in the MoLG. The
Secretariat will provide advice on release of funds, monitoring and evaluation
and overall accountability for the programme. It will also coordinate other CSO
and MDAs involved in this Programme.

7.3 District/ Municipal level

At the HLG level, the project will be implemented through the existing structures
of District/City and Municipal Council. The CAO/ Town Clerk will be the
Accounting Officer and the District Commercial Officer will be Focal Point Person
(FPP).

7.4 Sub County/ Division/ Town Council level

The management of the programme at LLG level will be the Division,
Subcounty/Town Council structure. The Sub County Chief/Town Clerk will be the
Accounting Officer and the CDO the focal point person.

7.5 Parish level

At the parish level, the Parish Chief will be the focal point person assisted by the
Assistant Community Development Officer. The PDC will be the technical arm of
the Parish Council and will be responsible for data collection and
analysis, planning and prioritization of investments for investments. The PMC will be
responsible for the day to day running of a project at each site. Each project
will have a PMC. The CPC will handle procurements. The Local Councils and
communities will provide overall oversight of the project.
 ANNEXES
Annex 1: Key Roles of Stakeholders
Level Stakeholder Key Roles

National Ministry of  Coordinate the LGs and MDAs in

Local Parish Model Implementation
Government  Coordinate development, production and
translation of a Parish Model information pack
 Coordinate training, supervision and
oversight for Parish Model approach
implementation
OPM  Overall coordination of PM

Ministry of  Transfer of funds to LLGs for Parish

Finance Model Implementation
Planning and
Economic
Development
(MoFPED)

MoLGSD  Construct Common User Community Parish

structures
MoPS  Review parish Model staffing structures

MAAIF  Scale-up innovative extension models such

as nucleus farmers under the Parish Model.
NPA  Review implementation of the PM

National  Participate in the development of the

Resource simplified version of Parish Model
Team information pack
 Train District//City Municipal level Parish
Model focal point persons and Parish level
facilitators
District/Municip Council  Oversight of Parish Model implementation in
al Level the District/City/Municipality
TPC (CAO as  Backstopping, hands-on and
chairperson supervisory support of LLGs
and District  Submit to MoLG annual and quarterly Parish
Commercial Model workplans
Officer as  Reviewing LLG workplans
Focal Point  Submitting quarterly Reports
Person) /accountabilities to MoFPED, copy to MoLG,
NPA and OPM
Contracts  Selection of Intermediary Agencies
Committees  Provide market prices for common
goods, services and works to CPCs
Level Stakeholder Key Roles

 Train and backstop CPC in the

procurement processes
Lower Local Council  Approval of community projects
Governments  Approve opening of a Parish Model bank
account
TPC (Sub-  Support the community planning process
county  Verification of community projects
Chief/Town applications from PMCs
Clerk  Desk and field appraisal of projects
Chairperson  Assessment of the community eligibility
and CDO PM to access PM funds
Focal Point  Submit project work plans, budget and
Person) progress reports to HLGs
 Maintaining different ledgers for community
projects
 Payment of contractors for community
projects on recommendations of the PMC
 Submit accountabilities to HLG
 Vetting and recommending IAs to Contracts
Committee
Intermediary  Contracted to facilitate, propagate and
Agency (CBO, backstop the PM approach at the community
NGO, FBO or level
private sector)

Parish/Communi Parish Chief  Ensure timely preparation of development

ty Level plans
 Ensure timely planning, and submission of
project proposals, profiles and work plans to the
sub county.
 Ensure the timely disbursement of the grants
and accountability.
 Create linkages with Intermediary
Agencies and other development actors.
 Supervise community projects/investments
 Assess works and services
 Cause payment for completed
works, supplies and services
 Community project monitoring
 Make monthly reports to Sub-County
Chief/Town Clerk.
 Provide feedback to Parish/ Ward
and Division/ Sub County.
 Chairperson to Parish Development
Committee (PDC).
Level Stakeholder Key Roles

 Arbitrate whenever conflict arises in

the project life cycle together with the
PDC
 Receive, scrutinize and forward
accountabilities and reports to the Sub County
for onward transmission
Parish  Collecting, compiling and
Development maintaining baseline data about the parish using
Committee the provided guidelines under the CBMIS.
(PDC)  Ensuring timely preparation of the Parish
Development Plan (PDP)
 Integration of all parish investments in the PDP
 Compiling CAP’s and prepare work plan
 Mobilizing communities for participation in
development and continuity of
projects/investments.
 Compiling and maintaining community
checklist on grant access conditions
 Planning for and conducting regular
community meetings1.
 Giving feedback about development
activities to communities
 Monitoring and evaluation
 Back up support to PMC
 Facilitating the formation of
Parish/Ward procurement committee
 Supervising the CPC
 Monitoring all PMCs under their area of
jurisdiction

PMC  Prepare and submit the community

proposal and profile to CDO
 Submission of detailed work plan after the
community project has been approved
 Participate in procurement planning with the
CPC
 Award contract to bidders selected by
the CPC
 Supervise contractors and
make recommendations for
payment
 Compile monitoring reports
1 Monthly and special meetings.
Level Stakeholder Key Roles

CPC  Participate in procurement planning with the

CPC
 Responsible for community procurement –
soliciting, receiving and evaluating bids,
Community  Community mobilization
members  Resource mobilization
(Beneficiaries)  Fulfilling the access criteria
 Record keeping
 Operation and maintenance of community
projects
 To participate in election of PMC.
 Co-fund community projects in cash,
labour or kind
 Participate in planning meetings – identify
community projects
 Selection of the PMC
Village Village  Agreeing on the modalities of community
Council project benefits
 Collect, compile and maintain baseline data
about the village
 Identify village needs and priorities while
indicating what the village can do and what
they cannot do, in relation to available
resources (human, physical and technical).
 Develop and periodically update the
Community Action Plan (CAP) and submit CAP
to the Parish Council.
 Mobilize resources for co-funding and
contribution.
 Compile and maintain community checklist
on grant access conditions.
 Initiate the formation of PMCs for all
investments and projects.
 Develop mechanisms for operation and
maintenance of projects.
 Agree on feedback mechanisms e.g.,
regular meetings, public notices, drama shows,
public events, labeling projects.
 Monitoring of community projects
Annex 2: Framework for Parish Model
Annex 3: Structure of Local Governments in Uganda

RURAL URBAN

District City

Municipal
Sub County
Town

Parish

Ward Division
Village

Cell/Zone
Phasing Annually
No. Requirements Status FY2020/21 FY2021/22 FY2022/23 FY2023/24 FY2024/25
1 Filling all vacant
positions for parish 55 75 94 100
chiefs by end of
2020 (%)
3 Parish Grant 315bn 315bn 315bn 315bn 315bn
-
4 Transport
Equipment - 2,005 2,005 2,005 2,005 2,005
(Motorcycles)-
5 Revitalize Parish
Development -
Committees
6 Capitalizing Parish
SACCOs- No. - 5,045 2,005 2,005
7 Construction of
Multi-Purpose - 5,045 2,005 2,005
Common User
Parish Offices- No.
8 Post-harvest 5045 2005 2005
handling Stores -
9 Establishment of 20 40 60 80 100
Parish Based -
Information
System