14 issues identified under fourth national development plan

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Up to 14 cross-cutting issues have been identified as the fourth national priority pillars of the third phase of the National Development Plan – NDP III.     

The first three pillars advocate for the promotion of inclusive development and sustainability of economic progress of the country in view of leaving no one behind. They are related to industrialization of the country, development of human capital and Value addition, as the country strives towards a middle-income country under the Vision 2040.      

The cross-cutting issues include environment management, gender mainstreaming, Human Immune Virus, Science and Technology, Culture and Mindset change. The others are Human rights, resilience to environmental shocks and social protection among others.     

Development activists say that the third phase of the National Development Plan should introduce a common framework for mainstreaming the cross-cutting issues in all sectors of development for meaningful socio-economic transformation of the country.     

Professor Joseph Muvawala, the chairperson of Uganda National Planning Authority says the government failed in the previous development plan to mainstream some of the issues due to lack of a common framework for measuring progress.        

Dr Muvawala says government ended up creating silos of the issues by setting up poorly facilitated desks in the various ministries to champion issues of refugees, gender mainstreaming and associated budgeting processes.    

Nelson Musaba, the Chairperson of Uganda AIDS Commission says “Uganda’s success to the HIV AIDS fight over the last 25 years depended on the integration of HIV issues in the various sectors of government as opposed to the public health problem approach”.

Musaba says for NDP III to prevent a surge in HIV scourge, the third phase of the National Development Plan should prioritize the allocation of portions of the various sectoral budgets for HIV challenge.      

“We are having 1.4 Million people living with HIV in Uganda and we project that 50,000 others will get infected every year in the run-up to 2040. This is going to pose a big burden on the public health budget unless we do something now” he told the National Development Plan consultative dialogue in Kampala on Thursday.     

Dr Otim Onapa, an official in the Ministry of Science and Technology said the National Development Plan III should promote innovations in Science and technology as the lynchpin for achieving the Middle-income status.  

According to Dr Otim, the Plan should provide smoothen Uganda’s investment Climate for private investors to finance innovations in Science and technology required to take technology from Laboratories to the Markets.

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