(R-L ), Mr. Wilson Williams Mutumba, Dr. Gideon Nkurunziza,Ms. Winnie, Dr. Sabrina Kitaka,Prof. Vincent Bagire and Mr.Robert Ssendegeya,

A Group of staff led by Mr. Wilson Williams Mutumba, a Lecturer in the Department of Leadership and Governance, Faculty of Management who also doubled as Principal Investigator together with team members including Dr Gideon Nkurunziza- a Senior Lecturer and Head of Education Department, Mr. Jaaza Mohamood- Lecturer in the Department of Management who also doubled as the Co-Principal Investigator, Ms. Jennifer Namubirua Lecturer in the Human Resource Department, and Ms. Rehema Kagere – a Lecturer in the Leadership and Governance Department conducted Research on Parish Development Model under Makerere Research Innovation Fund (MakRIF) funded by the government of Uganda.
The researchers organised a dissemination workshop that took place on January 21, 2025, at MUBS Main Campus, Entrepreneurship Centre under the theme, ”Harnessing Parish Development Model among marginalised groups for poverty alleviation in Uganda. ”
The research intended to capture deeper perceptions of the people and recommend effective modalities and strategies that should be adopted for effective implementation of the Parish Development Model for poverty alleviation.
While giving her remarks Dr. Sabrina Kitaka, the Vice Chairperson MakRIF who represented the Chairperson of MakRIF, Grants Management Committee, Prof. Fred Masagazi Masaazi said poverty is something none of us should relate with, poverty is in the mind and there is poverty of money, if one suffers from poverty they can easily be frustrated and she was glad that PDM is changing the poverty situation.
She said Uganda is one of the poorest countries, we live in a country where 30% of the population is below 19 years, 70% is less than 30 years which means the dependency is very big which can be reduced if PDM is well implemented. She further said that it is important for us to know that the PDM is now over 4 years and it being 4 years it means its still a child, as PDM is supported to grow, it will grow up and transform the societies.
She added that the first capitalization of PDM included 877 billion Uganda shillings and to date PDM has received 2.2 trillion Ugandan shillings, there is need to see value for money and its good one of the pillars includes information system.

Dr. Sabrina Kitaka, Vice Chairperson MakRIF in a group photo with MUBS Staff and officials from, PDM Secretariat at MUBS Entreprenuship Centre

In addition to the above, Dr. Kitaka said that the challenge of creating productive jobs for people who live the chain is very big, she mentioned that of resent Makerere graduated with over 10,000 students of which they are going to be job seekers, she went a head and suggested if they join PDM they could make a very big difference in the society by becoming job creators instead of becoming job seekers.
Furthermore, the Vice Chairperson, MakRIF said, promoting economic growth and reduction of poverty is not only a long-term problem, but also an immediate problem, there is big emergency to prevent poverty. There is need to ensure that poverty ends and its all of us to work together and educate the public and receive money and use it correctly.
Prof. Vincent Bagire who represented the Principal, Prof. Moses Muhwezi appreciated the research team for the effort put in to conduct this study, and the findings they are disseminating in the workshop. He said as an Institution of higher learning there must be spirit of research, and it will move people upwards.
He suggested that there should be integration of interns in the success of PDM and it being a national model it can work, government has committed funds, resources and mobilization, trainings and a structured PDM.
And for the academia, there is need to identify some key issues that will make it work and look at how people can be supported. He urged out that if the students are in the community instead of going to organizations looking for internship placement they should go to communities and bring in theory, academic knowledge to the groups of PDM.
Mr. Robbert Ssendegeya, the Head of the PDM Secretariat at the Ministry of Local Government said nothing can be achieved while working alone, the involvement of academia in the PDM is very key.
PDM especially the financial inclusion Pillar aspect targets 39% of the Ugandans who cannot access financial services. He said people should work because no one will develop except when they are working that is why there are many given options as much as possible to make sure everyone is somewhere.

MUBS Staff, members of the community and stakeholders attending the dissemination workshop

Mr. Wilson Williams Mutumba, who was the lead researcher (Project Principle Investigator) who also serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Leadership and Governance in the Faculty of Management said they conceived the research earlier because they had something at the back of the mind which is the reason that the government has been having different interventions but at a particular time the government decided to come up with PDM however, there has been a number of interventions like Emyoga, NAADS, Operation wealth creation among others, hence what is positioned to take PDM forward since the other interventions failed and reestablish.
Mr. Mutumba stated that PDM is a bottom-top strategy for wealth creation that is anchored on 7 pillars including Pillar one: Production, Processing and Marketing; Pillar two: Infrastructure and Economic Services Pillar three: Financial Inclusion; Pillar four: Social Services Pillar five: Community Mobilisation and Mindset Change Pillar Six: Community Information System; and Pillar seven: Governance and Administration. He further noted that PDM strategy was used in other countries including Malasia, and India, where they succeeded, noting that the efficacy in Ugandan context is yet to be known Mr. Mutumba stressed out what motivated them to do the research about PDM was the persistence of poverty levels, quoting the recent UBOS (2024) report that reported 16.9% and the reasons why most start-ups fail to survive beyond one year as reported by previous researchers despite the enormous financial resource the government has disbursed through the various interventions. Mr. Mutumba further emphasised the need for the government to always first get performance reports, get provide evidence of failure of the previous interventions, draw lessons from past mistakes and address previous weaknesses in order to better position a new intervention so as to realise its potential.” He noted that based on their findings, PDM has the potential to work and achieve its intended objective of getting people out of poverty if the government pays attention to the project findings, addresses the highlighted challenges, and adopts and implements the policy recommendations they have made. He gave a metaphor of failing to know where one is going if they don’t know they are coming from a key issue as he stressed learning lessons from previous experiences. The objectivity and the purpose of the study were; To examine the previous poverty alleviation strategies for marginalized groups (women, Youth, elderly, and disabled). To explore the poverty alleviation indicators among marginalised groups, including women, Youth, elderly, and disabled and to develop and recommend strategies for successful implementation of PDM to achieve poverty alleviation among the marginalized groups in Uganda. While the purpose of this research was to capture deeper perceptions of the people and recommend effective strategies that should be adopted for the effective implementation of the Parish Development Model for poverty alleviation. Said by Mr. Mutumba.

Dr. Gideon Nkurunziza, giving his presentation on the PDM Resaerch

Dr. Gideon Nkurunziza, Head Department of Education and one the research team members, presented the key findings which are; the need of trainings to the people, need of literacy skilling, aligning PDM not to see it as something new and the collective actions like working in groups and sharing values. He also noted that finding revealed that besides this money not being enough for each parish to make substantial investments, this uniform method of giving equal amount of money to all parishes without considering the parish population size is considered as a “uniform model of “one size fits all which reflects a mismatch of equity among others.
He further said that there is need for mindset change, enhancing skills development, the managerial skills, having entrepreneurial mindset and the quality market provision.
The key recommendation Dr. Nkurunziza urged out are integrity approach, and also utilize statistics from UBOS to plan resource distribution based on population size and rural- urban disparities (to avoid uniform model of “one size fits all”) which reflects a mismatch of equity. He stated that the government should always utilize evidence-based policies to ensure equitable resources distribution, incentivize agricultural input, climate change management, land use management among others.
The key lessons and conclusion he said people who have successful made it should be brought out as well as those who have failed, having focus and learning from the past.