• Whereas representation during the process is bigger at the lowest level (village council) it gets smaller at the upper levels. This has a bearing on priority setting at various levels.
• The process demands for female participation. However, cultural upbringing limits female participation
• Participatory planning/budgeting meeting require the guidance by a technical person who can guide on government policy. However, due to small staff structure and the timing of the process, technical guidance usually lacks. However where facilitators do exist, they lack facilitation and listening skills
• In such meetings a few elites dominate the discussions and at times in their favor.
• In most cases, priorities set as a result of participatory planning and budgeting are hardware physical infrastructure projects in the name of roads, Health centers, schools and less of other support services. It is as well evident that the utilization capacity of some of the hardware infrastructure projects is low.
• Low youth participation in local council participatory planning/budgeting meetings.
   

Proposed remedies to existing gaps

As a step to budge the gaps during the process, government of Uganda with support from World Bank implemented the Local Government Development Programme which enforces compliance of local governments to show evidence of:

• Enhancing youth and Women participation
• Feed back on approved priorities by upper councils to lower councils
• Minutes of discussion and participation of various groups of people and organizations
• Capacity building on facilitation skills, participatory rural appraisal and Project profiling skills.
• Integrated approach to planning
   

Way forward

• Increased awareness to the population on the role of actors and need for participatory planning and budgeting
• Improving skills of technical officers in explaining government policy undertaking feasibility studies and other planning skills and community facilitation skills
• Central government to harmonize planning and budgeting cycle with local governments
• Promotion of top down and horizontal linkages in planning
  Popularize government policy for access to all.
• Sharing of experiences between neighboring local council, across regions and countries especially the south to south cooperation.
  
  By Solomon Sonko: Ag Town Clerk, Njeru Town Council
   

Maseru Declaration on Leadership Capacity Building for Decentralized Participatory Governance and Poverty Reduction in Africa

September 1st 2006

WE, the Ministers and Heads of delegation in charge of Decentralization and Local Government, accompanied by Senior Civil Servants, Chairpersons, Secretaries General of National Association of Local Governments, and Mayors representing different countries of Africa at the Pan-African Conference of Ministers of Local Government and Decentralization held in Maseru, Lesotho, from the 30th of August to the 1st of September 2006, with the theme of “Strengthening Competencies for Participatory Planning and Budgeting for Effective Local Level Delivery of Services” have approved the following declaration:

I. PREAMBLE

Noting that the present Ministerial Conference is a direct follow-up to the Ministerial Conference on Decentralization held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe 1999; the 2nd Africities Summit held in Windhoek, Namibia 2000; the 3rd Africities Summit held in Yaoundé, Cameroon 2003; the Eastern African Ministers of Local Government Conference on Decentralization and Local Development held in Mombasa, Kenya 2004; the Conference on Decentralization: the new Dimension of Peace, Democracy and Development, held in Florence, Italy 2004; the Eastern African Ministers for Local Government Consultative Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya 2004; the Arusha Conference on the Foundation of Eastern Africa Local Government Association held in Arusha, Tanzania 2005; and the Ministerial Local Government Conference on Leadership Capacity Building for Decentralized Governance & Poverty Reduction for Sub-Saharan Africa held in Kigali, Rwanda 2005,

Expressing gratitude to the Government of Lesotho, and in particular the Ministry of Local Government, for hosting this conference,

Thanking the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for the technical, financial and other contributions which made this conference a reality,

Acknowledging the importance of sharing of country experiences on Local Government Leadership, Decentralized and Participatory Governance, and the role of Local Governments in Local Economic Development and Poverty Reduction in line with the Millennium Development Goals and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) objectives,

Taking cognizance of the production of training modules at the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA); initiation by MDP-ESA of capacity building programs with financial support from the Netherlands Government, the World Bank and UN-HABITAT; the establishment of a web-based Dialogue Forum for continuous sharing of information on issues related to participatory governance and social accountability; and that draft statutes and Rules and Regulations for the All African Ministerial Conference on Decentralization and Local Development (AMCOD) are being drawn up,

Also taking cognizance of the Euro-Africa Partnership for Decentralized Governance,

Further taking cognizance of the Aberdeen Agenda on developing effective local government, and the Kampala Agenda for African Local Government on local democracy, good governance and delivering the Millennium Development Goals, held in Kampala, Uganda on the 26th to the 28th of April 2006,