PHYSICAL PLANNING
Land has not being planned fully in Arua district. Zoning of the land according to use and type of development has not taken root firmly in the district. As a result of lack of attention on the planning of the rural growth centres, there is disorderly development taking place uncontrollably especially in the rural areas. People tend to emphasize on the economic development at the expense of physical planning and yet all developments have a physical dimension.
ORGANISATIONAL ANALYSIS
a) Governance.
Good governance is a means to achieving meaningful and sustainable development. It is also an end in itself in that the level of development of a society can be adjudged by kind of governance at play.
Good governance encompasses things like justice, law and order, observance of human rights, equity, transparency and accountability in the delivery of public goods and services, participation of the citizenry in public decision making, public awareness among others. Considerable progress has been made in enhancing good governance in the district over the years. Notable areas of improvement include the process of decentralisation, community empowerment through functional adult literacy, information and publicity. However, a lot of challenges remain to be addressed. The following areas represent some of the issues that require further attention:
Deepening the process of decentralisation right up to the grassroots;
• Enhancing the process of participatory planning;
• Enhancing transparency and accountability in service delivery and fighting corruption in the public sector;
• Empowerment of the vulnerable groups to effectively participate in the development process.
These and many more are some of the key areas that the district will be able to focus on in the DDP.
b) Management Career development for staff.
Career development opportunities are fewer for local government staff compared to their counterparts who work with central government. As a result some of the study opportunities have been privately sponsored by the beneficiary officers.
Some officers have been in one post and on the same salary scale for as many as 20 years. Others are given responsibilities to head departments without corresponding increase in remuneration. Study opportunities especially long courses are equally limited. Consequently, many staff are not adequately motivated to work. The district should continue in its endeavours to work out ways and means of enhancing career development for its staff.
A commendable effort has gone towards improvement of record management including establishment of the central registry in CAOs office and training of staff. This was achieved using funding from the Institutional Capacity Building Project of the Ministry of Local Government. However, there is need for continued support to strengthen the system. There is need for continued support in strengthening records management at the departmental and Sub-county levels through training, provision of equipment
1. Systems and procedures: systems and procedures are in most cases not written down for follow up of staff.
2. Poor co-ordination: there is still the problem of co-ordinating departmental activities as well as programmes from the central government. These affect the performances of departments.
3. In adequate skilled and trained staff of lower grades in some sectors
4. Poor Management Information System i.e. records management, computerized accounting system;
5. Lack of well documented procedures and systems;
6. Lack of Personnel Management skills among Heads of Department;
7. Lack of accurate data from the field
c) The planning functions.
A lot of powers, functions and responsibilities have been devolved to local governments within the framework of Uganda’s decentralization policy and programme. Schedule two of the Local Governments Act, 1997 provides for a range of functions and responsibilities that are mandated to the local governments.
In fulfilling those mandates, local governments are required by law to formulate, approve and execute their own development plans and budgets District local governments are obligated to prepare comprehensive and integrated District Development Plans integrating the plans of lower local governments for submission to the National Planning Authority. Like wise, Sub-counties are required to prepare comprehensive and integrated Sub-county Development Plans integrating plans of lower local councils for submission to the districts for incorporation into the District Development Plans.
For purposes of carrying out development planning functions at the district and sub-county levels, the following institutions are provided for by the LGA 1997:
(a) The District Council: The District Council is the supreme planning authority in the district. In executing its planning functions, the Council is guided by its established procedures and also in accordance with the guidelines stipulated by the National Planning Authority. The National Planning Authority is not yet fully operational. The Ministry of Local Government has prepared and made available to the district, guidelines for Development Planning for Local Governments to guide the planning processes.
(b) District Technical Planning Committee: District Technical Planning Committee (DTPC) chaired by the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), consisting of Heads of Department and any other technical person who may be co-opted by the CAO co-ordinates and integrates all sectoral plans and the plans submitted by the lower level local governments.
(c) District Planning Unit: To facilitate the Councils in carrying out their planning functions, District Planning Units (DPU) have been established. The DPUs serve as a secretariat for the DTPC. In addition, the DPUs support the Executives in the carrying their monitoring and evaluation function.
(d) Sub-county/division Technical Planning Committees: The sub-county/division TPCs consist of the Sub-county Chiefs/Town Clerks as the chairpersons and all heads of department or sector within their areas of jurisdiction as members. They are responsible for the co-ordination and integration of all sectoral plans of the lower councils within their areas of jurisdiction.
(e) Sub-county Investment Committees: Within the context of the Local Government Development Programme, there are established Sub-county Investment Committees. The Sub-county Investment Committees are intended to allow for the participation of other stakeholders such as opinion leaders, retired civil servants, representatives of religious institutions, CBOs, NGOs etc. that may be available within the sub-counties in deciding priorities for investments.
(f) Standing Committees of the Councils: At the district and Sub-county levels, there are committees responsible for Education, health and social services, security, works and technical services, production and Finance and planning. Before sectoral plans are tabled before the TPCs, they are thoroughly discussed and prioritised within the sectoral committees.
HOW THE PLAN WAS DEVELOPED
Arua District fully embraces the Policy of Decentralization as mandated by the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995 under Article 196 and the Local Government Act (1997).
Therefore Arua District Local Government considers Decentralization as a powerful cornerstone in her efforts to implement her Development Plan in line with the framework of Government Poverty Action Plan (PEAP) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Arua District reviews and rolls over its Development Plan every year. The main aim is at achieving the District Development Goals, both the Strategic and immediate Objectives through the implementation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which has been derived from the Local Government Budget Frame Work Paper (LGBFP). The main steps undertaken in producing this Development Plan include among others the following:
Firstly, the District had opportunity to take stock of the major achievements registered during the 2008/09 financial year, constraints that were encountered during the implementation of programmes and lessons learned. This was in the month of February 2009.
Secondly, the district reflected further on its strategic development framework in terms of its adequacy in responding to the development challenges and aspirations of the people.
Thirdly the District set new targets for the future (next three years-2009/10-2011/12) in a participatory manner including all the Stakeholders namely all the Lower Local governments, non Governmental Organisations and Civil Society organisations had representations during the Budget Conference.
Finally, a truly integrated and harmonised Plan does not only take care of sectoral linkages and bottom up priorities and needs but must be consistent with the national priority programmes policies and standards. Arua District Development Plan is fully compliant in these areas. The problems that the district is tackling are all poverty related.
Besides from the outcome, the process has also been more rigorous. The priority projects are appraised and screened using a set of nine criteria namely;
1. Consistency with the district strategic and intermediate objectives;
2. Technical feasibility;
3. Availability of funds (especially for the first year)
4. Number of people benefiting;
5. Development of local potential;
6. Sustainability considerations including provisions for recurrent costs;
7. Environmental considerations
8. Gender responsiveness and
9. Political acceptability
The appraisal aimed at screening and prioritising investment proposals. Investments that failed to fulfil the first three criteria were dropped outright. While those that passed the minimum requirements (first three criteria) were then ranked based on the total score obtained from the remaining criteria where each criterion was given a score on a scale of 1-5.
MENTORING
The district has constituted a Resource Pool consisting of heads of departments from the different sectors charged with the responsibility of identifying critical capacity gaps that exist at both higher and the lower local Government Levels.
Environmental indicators like mitigation measures, garbage disposal management, and drainage maintenance, pollution of rivers and general utilization and sustainability of the resource base have been considered as serious capacity gaps especially at the lower Local Governments.
The District has mentored the Lower Local Government Staffs in scream lining environmental issues in the development plans but these still exits in some LLGs.
Mentoring has also been done in Planning and financial management. The Sub-Counties have varying capacities in handling their books of accounts.
Issues of gender, poverty and HIV.AIDs have been handled in the capacity building component of the LGDP11. In some instances, some staff and local Councillors have been mentored through tailor made courses and some have gone for long courses like Post graduate diplomas in various disciplines in different institutions in the Country.
