Written By Drake Rukundo
The current third National Development Plan (NDP III), has adopted a programme-based approach to planning, budgeting, implementation and performance reporting. According to the NDP III, the programme approach supports better performance and greater accountability by applying a clear logic to planning, budgeting and implementation with a focus on intended results at all levels. According to the NPA Act, normatively, LG development plans ought to have informed the NDPs harmonization- in an interplay of a top-bottom that meets a bottom-up process. Accordingly, NPA has been supporting LGs (Districts, municipal councils) to formulate 5-year Local Government Development Plans (LGDPs) for FY 2020/21-FY 2024/25 using the revised guidelines to achieve alignment to NDP III.Read full article here

Written By Daniel Lukwago
The programme-based planning and budgeting introduction came when most LGs were still grappling with planning and budgeting reforms, as such the Output Budgeting Tool (OBT). The OBT was introduced during FY 2008/09, with the intention to strengthening the link between the budget, results and policy objectives of the Government; improving allocation and operational efficiency of public expenditure through focusing allocation on sectors that have the most significant impact in achieving government policy objectives, and linking financial allocations with Outputs. Before LGs mastered the OBT, Government adopted the Programme-Based Budgeting (PBB) in 2018, which led to the establishment of the Program Budgeting System (PBS) that transformed the budget from output-based (OBT) to a more result and performance-based approach. Read full article here

Written By Jonas Mbabazi Musinga
The government of Uganda under the National Development Plan III (NDP III) has changed the planning and implementation framework for government programmes from the Sector Wide Approach (SWAps) to a Program Based Approach (PBA). However, there is a risk that the system will only change in name – especially if we do not learn from the challenges that plagued the SWAps. Read full article here

In 2020/21 came with reforms on the arrangement of government programs, out went the SWAps Approach and in came the Program-Based Approach (PBA). Talk of new wine in old bottles was rife but this did not deter policymakers from implementing the policy shift. For those of us outside government, there is no justification whatever to suggest that anything about the sectors needed fixing. The naming—sectors—was by all standards, regular and fancy. Despite a few half-hearted complaints about limited funding, non-prioritisation and failure to coordinate the implementation efforts, there was nothing to suggest that anyone was losing any sleep over the use of the word sector at all. Read full article here

Written By Walter Akena
The lack of comprehensive needs assessment and inappropriate application of the prescribed formulae for allocation of Central Government grants to LGs has resulted in increased funding gaps. On the other hand, there exists huge potential for Local Governments to enhance their local revenues but owing to various weaknesses not much has been done to exploit that potential. Local tourism is one potential source of local revenue but which local governments have not deliberately thought about. Tourism development is recognised by the Third National Development Plan as one of the 18 programmes to deliver the required results and address the 13 bottlenecks adopted by the African Union.Local tourism is a huge revenue generation potential for local governments that has not yet been fully explored and thus presents an enormous opportunity under the new Program-Based Approach.
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