Planning Unit

In 2013, Government of Uganda launched a long-term development vision, the Uganda Vision 2040, which is an all-encompassing perspective plan. The theme of this vision is to have a “Transformed Ugandan society from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years”. The Uganda Vision 2040 acts as another guide to any future planning framework in the country including those at the local government levels. For example, the Vision 2040 stipulates that the road to transformation will require careful planning and commitment of resources, and that the human rights-based approach to development will be integrated in the policies, legislation, plans and programs.

The District Planning Unit is basically a supportive department to council.  The District Planning Unit guides and coordinates the Development Planning function in the District including the preparation of the District and Lower Local Government Development Plan, monitoring and evaluation of the plans and projects.

 Mandate

The powers of Council to produce District budgets and Development plans/work plans is fulfilled through the District Planning Unit which guides and coordinates the preparation of the above documents as stipulated in the 1995 Uganda Constitution Article 176 and the local Government Act CAP243 section 36. These laws provide for decentralization, empowering local governments with the responsibility of: Allocating public resources, Integrated participatory planning, Budgeting and Investment management

 Functions

The District Planning Unit is charged with the following functions

  1. To facilitate the planning function in the District and Lower local governments in line with the District and National Development Plan and the National Vision
  2. Collect and collate information for planning purposes
  3. To promote efficient and effective implementation of National and District priority programmes
  4. Providing technical guidance on the overall Local Government Development Planning cycle
  5. Taking lead in the organisation and coordination of the planning forum and overall consultative process for the Local Government Development Plan formulation
  6. Liaising with the National Planning Authority on all technical matters regarding management and coordination of the Local Government Development Planning cycle
  7. Ensuring the existence of comprehensive and Integrated  District and Lower Local Governments Development Plans and District Annual Budget
  8. Giving feedback to the Lower Local Governments and Councils about the results of the planning process.
  9. Ensuring that the activities of development partners are coordinated

10.     Ensuring a functional Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system in the district so as to coordinate the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of government policies and programmes

11.     Coordination and dissemination of information on government policies, programmes and projects.

          12   Integration of population issues/factors into development   

                planning process.

Achievements during the FY 2019/2020

·           The Department managed to coordinate the formulation of the annual budget for FY 2019/2020

·           Quarterly report for first July to September was prepared and submitted to Ministry of Finance

·           Coordination of Refugee interventions in Rwamwanja refugee settlement and the host sub counties

·           The process of formulating the 3rd District and lower Local Government Development Plans is on-going

·           The ongoing budget conference will result into preparation and submission of the Budget framework paper and draft budget for FY 2020/2021 that will be submitted to Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development by 15th November 2019

·           Coordinated Board of survey exercise in the District and LLGs.

·           Compiled District statistical abstract

·           Formulated family planning costed implementation plan yet to be finalized and presented to DEC, Standing committees and Council for approval.

·           Coordinated review and advocacy meeting for District Family planning working group

·           Formulated District strategic plan for statistics improvement. The plan is yet to be finalized and presented to Standing committees and Council for approval.

·           Coordinated District Technical Planning Committee meetings.

 

Plans for FY 2020/2021

·                The Department will finalize and guide implementation of the approved District Development plan (DDPIII) 2020/2021-2024/2025

·                Launch and commission the District Nutrition Action Plan (2020/2021-2024/2025)

·                A District population action plan for 2020/2021-2024/2025 will also be launched and approved for implementation

·                Update and maintenance of District Data base including preparation of annual statistical abstracts

·                Continue to coordinate refugee and host population interventions under ReHoPE

·                Monitoring and evaluation of Government and Development Partner programmes in the District

·                Strengthen planning and budgeting capacity for District departments and Lower Local Governments

·                The Department will continue to coordinate budgeting and reporting processes as well as guide council in budgeting and development planning.

·                Coordination of the District Technical planning committee meetings.

The legal framework for development planning and budgeting

The mandates of the Districts to prepare, approve and implement development plans and budgets is guided by the following legal frameworks

 

Article176,(2b) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda(1995as amended) adopts decentralization as the principle applying to all levels of local government and, in particular, from higher to lower local government units to ensure peoplesparticipation and democratic control in decision making.

 

Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995) provides for the right to every Ugandan citizen to participate in the affairs of government individually or through his or her representative.

 

 

The 1995 National Population Policy (NPP) highlights the need to promote the integration of population factors in development planning at the national (ministries, institutions) and lower level (DPUs and DPTCs) (section98 (i), and 99 (a) of the policy)

 

The LED Policy (2014) provides for Local Governments to understand their local economies and their competitive advantages and develop strategies integrating private sector support, job creation and household income generation in LG development plans. The policy also requires LGs to conduct local economic business assessment to form a basis for resource and local business mapping strategies, for attracting business development services to the localities and for monitoring and evaluation economic growth in the communities.

 

 

The National NGO policy 2010(Section5.3) requires the “CAO to provide the NGO community in the district with guidelines to enable the NGOs to participate effectively and in a coordinated manner in the district planning and program implementation”.

 

 

Similarly, the National NGOpolicy2010(Section5.3) requires that all NGOs and CBOs engaged in development activities within a district shall share their program activity plans and budgets with the Local Government Authority for purposes of harmonization of such program activities into the broader sectoral or area development plans and resource estimates”.

 

The physical planning Act,2010 (section6(1)) calls for integration of physical planning with social and economic planning at the national and local levels.

 Service delivery levels

Staffing

The staffing structure of the Planning Unit provides for the positions of

·         District Planner

·         The Senior Planner

·         planner

·         Driver