By Godwin Abedican

Arua

The state minister in charge of Northern Uganda, Hon. Grace Freedom Kwiyochwiny has warned government leaders in the districts against limiting the active participation of grass root citizens in government programs.

According to the minister it has become  a common occurrence that a few people receive invitations for government programs from district leaders on excuses of inadequate funds to cater for welfare of a large number of people, hence creating an awareness gap which subsequently affects the performance of such projects.

She was speaking, during the commissioning a multimillion aggregation project in Ocodri village, Biliaffe Sub county, Terego district, a consortium project led by Lutheran world federation, under the livelihood Enhancement for West Nile and Acholi (LEWA) Program. This is a project funded with support from European Union and supervised by the office of the prime minister and implemented by Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (DINU) and other partners.

According to the minister, it’s necessary to have the common citizens participate in programs or projects the government brings to benefit them such that accountability issues can be easily traced. “This is a big project and so if this is a big project, why have you brought only this number of people? The beneficiaries are less than fifty, I counted. So why do we commission such a big project with only fifty people and we are calling them farmers?” the minister angrily asked.

She says, all government projects come for the citizens and not for leaders as she implores leaders to think beyond soda and mineral water “If you fear big number of people, then whom are you working for? You are thinking in terms of soda and water? This is now how we do sensitization, this is not how we do mobilization. If you are thinking of mobilizing people according to the number of bottles of soda or bottles of water you give, I think that is not it. That is not development organization. I don’t know when the farmers are going to talk to me since you have limited their number. I don’t know what their problems are, I would have been happy to hear who these farmers are, how are they organized what are they doing, how are they doing, what are their challenges. Because our biggest thing is, when projects come like this, we don’t know what project challenges are so we go back, and for a program like this one which is winding up I am very worries about the sustainability,” Kwiyochwiny stressed.   
     
The minister says this is how many government projects have failed without traces since the leaders knock out the intended beneficiaries and at the end of it there is no one to sustain the projects. ”I am also a social worker, a community worker and when you are going to meet the community you don’t just meet the chairperson, you meet everybody. And the best you could have told them is you just come because not everybody who comes would ask for the water. They are happy to hear what the minister, what the commissioner, you expected an ambassador here, they would listen to them and then you remain with your soda and water. I think if we are going to implement community or peoples projects let’s not limit the number. If there is no water there is no water everybody goes back but hey would have listened” She concluded.

Under this program by the partners, a total of 6 new aggregation centers have so far been constructed, with 10 rehabilitated. The aggregation center in Terego is meant to benefit around 11 groups that have so far registered as cooperatives to help them improve on post-harvest handling and enable bulking so that farmers can negotiate better prices for their products in the market.

COVER PHOTO: Hon. Grace Freedom Kwiyochwiny speaking as some few foarmers listen to her By Godwin Abedican