By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the World Bank have agreed to collaborate in creating a job tracking mechanism for all Government investments.
Speaking today during a meeting with the World Bank country manager for Uganda, Mr. Anthony Thompson, the Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Hon. Frank Tumwebaze noted that the tracker would help keep evaluate how inclusive government investments are at the social level.
“Social development is a prerequisite for inclusive development. We shall therefore seek to establish how each ministry, department and agency’s budget has impacted the livelihoods of Ugandans in areas where they implement programmes.” The Minister said.
He added that the tracker would have audit parameters that would check and strive to eliminate imbalances between social development and economic development.
“We can have economic development but without impact on the livelihoods of the populace. This is where the tracker will be of great importance to help us institute changes for the desired results.” He said.
The Minister observed that a preferable development model should be able to be assessed in terms of physical inputs and per capita gains (individual benefits) as a result of any investment made by Government.
Mr. Thompson commended the Minister for mooting the idea he described as interesting and revealed that the World Bank already had a team in this area to help actualize the plan.
He said the Bank was also working with Government to create at least 600,000 new jobs per year and eventually increase this figure to one million by 2030 so as to mitigate the unemployment problem.
Thompson hailed the government for strides made in ensuring that social risk management in infrastructure projects is reinforced for the protection of community members
“The World Bank puts billions of dollars in infrastructure programmes including construction of roads, energy facilities, schools among others and it’s in our interest to see that we have in place measures to prevent bad things from happening and where they do, the cases can be followed up for redress,” he noted.
He also revealed that the Refugee Response Programme would continue with strengthened delivery to support both the refugees and the host communities.
He disclosed that before the year ends they expect to receive a final approval from the Bank’s board to provide funding for the upgrading of the Koboko-Yumbe-Moyo road from murrum to asphalt.
The thoroughfare is critical in extending services to thousands of refugees currently resettled in the area alongside local communities.
The acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr. James Ebitu, commended the World Bank for supporting the Ministry in the ongoing establishment of a “Single Registry” for social protection programmes – that would be used to harmonise and coordinate information management across the social protection sector.
He said the database of information that details socioeconomic information about individual beneficiaries (or households) of a social protection programme will usher in a new dimension in planning and programme’s implementation.
The database is expected to be launched before the end of next month.
The meeting was also attended by the Commissioner Gender and Women Affairs, Mrs Angela Nakafeero, the Commissioner Labour, Industrial Relations and Productivity, Mr Alex Asiimwe and the Executive Secretary National Women’s Council, Mr Collins Mwijuka
