President Yoweri Museveni has said that peace and liberalizing the economy has emancipated the services sector and enhanced public services delivery towards improvement of the welfare of Ugandans saying decentralization in Uganda is an example of progress on the continent.
Sekandi being awarded at a previous function for his contribution to the decentralization process in Uganda.
The President said this in a speech read for him by the Vice President, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, during the annual commemoration of the African Day of Decentralization and local Government at Masaka Liberation ground on Wednesday.
Museveni, said that decentralization was a key milestone that enabled the involvement of Ugandans in the decentralization process from the beginning in order to bring services nearer to the people.
The event was held under the theme; ‘Decentralization at 24: Re-engineering Locally initiated Development decision-making and leadership at all levels’.
Museveni also revealed that the Country’s GDP has shifted from about 300 dollars per capita in 1985 to the current about 800 dollars.
“Uganda’s average GDP is growing at 6.2 percent annually. This is one of the fastest growing economies on the continent,” he said, adding that the number of Ugandans living below the poverty line of less than 20 percent of the population has also significantly reduced.
Museveni however, said there was need for more concerted efforts to reduce absolute poverty for the East African region and on the continent in general.
He said this can mainly be achieved through investing in infrastructure improvement and that this in turn would reduce the cost of doing business and hence attract more investment and link markets.
Tom Butime, the Local Government Minister revealed that Local Governments have established business economic forums, which comprise all economic development stakeholders identifying comparative viable economic ventures which will propel the country to the desired middle income status by 2020.
He said that among other achievements, decentralization has provided leadership from the village to national level, adding that civil servants who deliver the basic services are recruited based on need of the respective local Government.
Thomas Ole-kuyan, the Deputy Country Director United Nations Development Programme, said that with Uganda’s focus on local governance, its people will have greater access to services, security and have their priority development goals met.
He pledged UNDP’s support to the decentralization process in Uganda in order to achieve uniform growth across all districts.
Ole-kuyan added that during the 24 years of decentralization, Uganda has evolved in the areas of; political and administrative governance, financial management, Service delivery and economic development functions which, he said are imbedded in the power shared across the government administrative spectrum.
During the same function, Sekandi was among individuals honored for their exemplary public service records and support to the decentralization process in Uganda.