Community-based Planning in Uganda

Khanya-aicdd managed a 4 Country project including South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Ghana which developed a methodology drawing from international best practice to promote plans at community level, which are linked to the local government plans.

The Government of Uganda is strongly committed to decentralization, having devolved responsibilities for local planning, resource allocation and investment management to local governments. It is now a statutory requirement for each local government to produce a 3-year integrated rolling development plan. The national CBP programme has contributed to the decentralization process in Uganda.

Developing Community-based Planning (CBP) in Uganda

A steering group was established to oversee project implementation, and they commissioned a study to review the diverse approaches to CBP in Uganda within the context of decentralization. The recommendation was to incorporate all the planning approaches into the Harmonised Participatory Planning Guide (HPPG). Bushenyi District, was chosen as the first pilot supported by the DFID-funded Integrated Lake Management project. Bushenyi District implemented Community-based Planning (CBP) in all 170 parishes (covering approximately 1000 villages) using the initial CBP manual and thereafter modifying the methodology to a 3-day planning process.

An evaluation, undertaken of the Bushenyi experience in 2002 some 4-6 months after CBP had been conducted, made the following conclusions:

• More training was needed for facilitators on cross-cutting issues (gender, environment and HIV/AIDS), as these were not prioritised and adequately covered, and on some of the tools;
• More feedback to the communities is needed, such as approval of the plan being announced on radio, public notices and other media;
• The process was too hurried and more time should ideally be given in the future;
• Documentation of the process would be useful so that lessons can be learnt and shared.

From pilot to national roll out

The Bushenyi CBP pilot was run in 2001-2 and the District has continued with CBP since then. The CBP programme in Uganda introduced some of the following attributes to the participatory planning process in Uganda:

• A shift in approach to complement the ‘needs-based’, with the ‘vision-based’ focus of planning ;
• A new emphasis on the parish planning level for participatory planning, as previously more emphasis was placed on the sub-county level of planning;
• Planning based on social/interest groups, recognizing that communities are diverse with differing interests;
• Involvement of non-council stakeholders (Non-governmental Organisations, Community-based Organisations, Private Sector Organisations) in the planning process;
• Inclusion of methodological issues in the guidelines (i.e. description of the ‘how to’) in relation to the various tools proposed;
• Harmonisation of planning activities with the Local Government Budget Framework Paper (LGBFP).

The review and national workshop supported by CBP in mid-2001 led directly to the development of the HPPG. The Community-based Planning (CBP) reference group was widened to address the HPPG, which was tested through the 2002/03 planning cycle. After the HPPG review of 2003, substantial changes were made to the Guide, including splitting the Guides for Lower Local Governments (sub-counties) and for parishes/wards. The guides have now been illustrated prior to printing and are being used nationwide.

The CBP principles were incorporated in the design of the implementation arrangements for the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), a successor programme to the Northern Uganda Reconstruction Programme (NURP). The HPPG is also being linked with gender planning guidelines. The HPPG was rolled out at a national level and was funded under the multi-donor Local Government Development Programme (LGDP).

South Africa

Free State Development Plan

We also worked with Spatial Solutions and the University of the Free State to facilitate the first Free State Development Plan for the Free State Provincial Government. This was prior to the development of the first IDPs in South Africa, but soon after the establishment of the new local governments. At that stage the Provincial Government requested limited consultation as there was a pressure to deliver the plan quickly. This work involved:

• a thorough analysis of the situation by sector;
• workshopping priorities with the sectoral departments at provincial level;
• developing key priorities at provincial level and developing overall objectives;
• formulating strategies;
• developing key indicators and targets;
• discussion with local governments as to priority projects;
• developing priority projects and services.

The executive summary of the plan was then widely distributed in the Province, and used to develop departmental strategic plans. The President complimented the Free State on this plan, and used it to develop the concept of provincial growth and development strategies, which were applied countrywide.

Supporting local government planning – the case of Mangaung Local Municipality, South Africa

We also supported Mangaung Local Municipality in the Free State to develop its first Integrated Development Plan (IDP) in 2001/2, and in a major review conducted in 2004/5. This plan followed the classic phases of the IDP, which is both an area development plan and a business plan for the municipality. It had a number of innovative features:

• the plan was based on 43 participatory plans undertaken at ward level;
• the overall priorities of the plan were drawn from the priorities of the wards, which led to a significant change in the priorities of the municipality, away from infrastructure and towards softer issues such as local economic development, addressing HIV/AIDS, and a clean environment;
• integrated programmes were developed which crossed institutional boundaries within the municipality, and with external agencies;
• the plan was integrated with the institutional transformation required by Mangaung to deliver its mandate for social and economic development;
• one programme, Mangaung Compact, was specifically established to develop formalised partnerships with other key development actors;
• the plan was used to develop a proposal to National Treasury for a R120 million Restructuring Grant to support this transformation;
• projects in the plan included those proposed in the ward plans;
• in 2004-5 the spatial development framework was extensively changed, to really address the historical legacy of apartheid, promoting a compact city and identifying priority areas for development;
• development of a Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan and Key Performance Indicators, to integrate the plans with the operational plans and budgets of departments.