By Obbo Yusuf
Ministry of Gender Labour and Social development in conjunction with World Food Program WFP and international labor organization (ILO) have embarked on a knowledge empowerment training on social protection programs to enable Kaabong and Moroto districts put to good use the Parish development model.(PDM) in Karamoja sub region .
The first five days training workshop on capacity building has commenced on Monday 28th February and will end on Friday 4th March in Soroti district where various government officials from the districts of kaabong and Moroto have been equipped with social protection knowledge to handle the new government program of parish development model.
On 28th October 2021 kaabong district launched it’s parish development model with support from WFP and ILO before the launch of the National launch by the president on 26th .Feb .2022
According to Sarah Anyokorit, the WFP program policy officer, Moroto district local government has been selected to be part of the transform training to enable them learn from kaabong especially on how to first truck their planning and ensure effectiveness of the entire PDM implementation especially in the coordination aspect .
Sarah added that the training will result into an effective operationalization of the PDM implementation and a proper coordination with the of Partners.
It should be noted that WFP has always put emphasis on the agenda of saving life majorly focusing on relief intervention during times of emergency. However, this time around they are putting more effort in the changing life aspects which they believe will cause a sustainable development and create resilient communities.
The PDM is a government approach to development which WFP is leveraging on to systematically engage and support the districts local governments in karamoja to plan for sustainable approaches.
Dr Moonga Mumba a social protection consultant from Zambia who is in Uganda to help in training of district officials on social protection by ILO ,WFP and ministry of Gender said “this is the first kind of collaboration of UN agencies to support local government on capacity building to operationalize social protection programs in Africa so my invite to Uganda that has just recently adopted PDM is a strong key to development since it will help poverty reduction and Vulnerability among communities in Uganda. I also encouraging partners to always collaborate whenever there is demand to reach a common goal “
Isaac Obai the national program coordinator for Social protection at international labor organization (ILo) said the parish development model provides an opportunity for different stakeholders including ILO to support government initiatives on the PDM in reaching the most vulnerable people in the communities
,ILo through its social protection program will work with the government to support the coordination and harmonization of enhanced service delivery, after a request from kaabong to support them implement the PDM, ILO and wfp with kaabong district collectively identified gaps that could be handled thus the five days training will strengthen the capacity of the DLGs of kaabong and moroto in the areas of Coordination and Management information system to effectively implement the PDM
