18Oct, 2026

ADJUMANI LEADERS DEMAND EVICTION OF ZOKA FOREST ENCROACHERS, CLEAR BOUNDARIES.

By Esther Gune

Adjumani District leaders have called for the eviction of illegal occupants from Zoka Central Forest Reserve and clear demarcation of its boundaries, as concerns grow over the protection of the forest and land disputes affecting surrounding communities.

The calls follow President Yoweri Museveni’s concerns about the state of the forest after observing the area from a helicopter during his visit to Adjumani on September 15, 2026.

Akuku Charles Anzo, the NRM chairperson for Adjumani District, appealed to the President to intervene in the land disputes around Zoka, saying clear demarcation was necessary to establish the limits of the protected reserve.

Anzo called for the forest boundaries to be clearly marked to distinguish protected land from neighboring community and private land.

He said: “We need clear demarcation of the forest boundaries so that people can know where the forest ends and the neighboring land begins.”

Anzo said government intervention was necessary to address the disputes and strengthen the protection of the reserve.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Okware, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner of Adjumani, described the encroachment as an organized form of land grabbing rather than ordinary invasion of the forest.

“What is happening is not just ordinary encroachment. It appears to be an organized way of grabbing land,” Okware said.

He called on the relevant authorities to take decisive action to prevent further encroachment and destruction of the protected area.

Asara Janet, the District Local Councilor representing Itirikwa Sub-county, urged district leaders to officially announce plans to evict people occupying the forest illegally.

Janet said: “The district leadership should come out clearly and announce the eviction of those occupying the forest illegally so that the responsible authorities can take the necessary action.”

She said a clear announcement will provide direction for enforcement and help the authorities move forward with the proposed eviction.

However, the Vice Chairperson of Adjumani District, Hon. Obulejo Geoffrey, called for fairness in enforcing the law against forest encroachment.

He said: “If the law is to be implemented against people encroaching on the forest, it should be applied equally to everyone without discrimination.”

The leaders’ demands point to two challenges facing authorities: protecting the forest from illegal occupation and resolving disputes over the boundaries separating the reserve from neighboring land.

Zoka Central Forest Reserve is an important natural resource in the West Nile sub-region. Protecting it requires coordinated action by the district leadership, the National Forestry Authority and other relevant government agencies.

However, the leaders’ calls have not established the scale of encroachment, the number of people affected or whether an official eviction date has been set.

The National Forestry Authority and district leadership need to clarify the legal boundaries of the reserve, the evidence of encroachment and the steps planned to address the disputes.

They also need to explain how any eviction will be conducted and how the law will be applied fairly to all affected occupants.

President Museveni’s concerns have renewed attention on Zoka Forest, but the lasting impact of the renewed attention will depend on whether government agencies translate the calls into clear boundaries, transparent enforcement and effective protection of the reserve.

END.

16Oct, 2026

FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE COUNCIL HALL: ADJUMANI MOVES TO PRESERVE JB OPIO’S LEGACY.

By Bazio Doreen.

A road bearing his name and a proposed resource centre may soon become lasting reminders of a leader whose public service journey stretched from primary school classrooms to the highest political office in Adjumani District.

The late Hon. John Boyi Opio, remembered as the first District Chairperson of Adjumani, was honored during a special Adjumani District Council sitting on 16th October 2026, with leaders resolving to recognize his contribution to education, politics, community cohesion and environmental conservation.

The council resolved to rename the Administration Road that connects Gulu – Adjumani highway to Paridi Stadium; as JB Opio Road. Members also proposed naming a planned Resource Centre under the Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (DRDIP II) after the late leader.

The decisions raise a broader question about how local governments preserve the histories of pioneering leaders and pass their values on to younger generations.

A legacy beyond political office.

Opio’s public life was not confined to politics. He served as Head Teacher at Cesia and Onigo Primary Schools before becoming the first District Chairperson and later a Chairperson of the District Service Commission during the tenure of former District Chairperson Hon. Owole Nixon.

His career placed him at the intersection of education, public administration and political leadership.

Adjumani District Chairperson, Hon. Ambayo John Anyanzo, described him as a mentor and political father whose influence extended to many leaders serving today.

According to Anyanzo, Opio’s willingness to sacrifice for the community helped him earn public trust.

The district chairperson said Opio’s photograph would be included in the Hall of Fame being developed at the new district council hall, creating another avenue to preserve the memory of leaders who shaped the district.

However, the proposed road renaming and resource centre will need to progress from council resolutions and plans to implementation before they can serve as permanent public memorials.

A call to preserve the values of public service

Adjumani Assistant Resident District Commissioner, Obumai Simon Peter, described Opio as a selfless, peace-loving patriot who devoted a substantial part of his life to serving the community.

He urged current leaders to learn from the late leader’s example, particularly his commitment to environmental conservation.

Thomas Lagu, representing the Lajopi Clan, similarly remembered Opio as a humble, unifying leader who valued teamwork.

Beyond public office, Opio was a prince in the Lajopi Clan and a farmer known for growing mangoes, a dimension of his life that reflected his connection to community traditions and agriculture.

Remembered at home as well as in public life

For his family, Opio’s legacy extended beyond leadership titles and public recognition.

His daughter, Glofa Opio, described him as cheerful, hardworking and responsible, recalling a father who cared deeply for his children.

The late Opio who died at Adjumani Hospital on 9th October 2026 after a short illness was survived by a large family, including 6 wives, 22 children and 76 grandchildren, according to information shared during the meeting.

Looking towards the next generation

The tribute also touched on the future of leadership and regional identity.

Anyanzo said a Ma’di Sub-region Convention planned for December 2027 is expected to establish a Ma’di Elders Forum, which could provide a platform for elders to contribute to regional discussions and community affairs.

He also called on the District Service Commission to consider qualified children of former leaders for available employment opportunities, subject to the applicable recruitment procedures and merit requirements.

The special council meeting had initially been intended as a joint gathering of Ma’di Sub-region councils. However, the chairpersons of Moyo and Obongi districts were reportedly away on official duty in Kampala.

For Adjumani, the proposed memorials offer an opportunity to connect public spaces with the district’s history. Whether the resolutions translate into completed projects, and how the planned elders’ forum takes shape, will determine how far the tribute extends beyond the council chamber.

For now, the remembrance of JB Opio brings together two aspects of his life: the public servant who helped shape local leadership and the family man remembered for his care, hard work and commitment to others.

END.

15Oct, 2026

ITULA SS WINS INTER-SCHOOL CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE IN OBONGI.

By Onzima Allan

Itula Secondary School has emerged as the overall champion in an inter-school debate on climate change and nature conservation, bringing together seven secondary schools in Obongi District to promote environmental awareness and action among young people.

The debate, hosted by Obongi Secondary School, was organized under the Strengthening Environmental Accountability and Climate Action in West Nile and Karamoja (SEA-WNK) project. The initiative is implemented by a consortium led by RICE West Nile, alongside three other partners, with funding from the Embassy of Denmark through the Partnerships for Accountability, Civic Engagement and Rights (PACER) programme.

Speaking at the event, Mukili Saddam, Consortium Coordinator at RICE West Nile, highlighted the key components of the SEA-WNK project and its role in strengthening environmental accountability and promoting climate action in the region.

Wayiga Muhammad, Head Prefect of the host school, Obongi SS, welcomed the initiative, expressing enthusiasm for opportunities that empower students to participate in environmental conservation and address climate change challenges.

Draecaabo Patrick, the District Coordinator of the Uganda National Students’ Association (UNSA) in Obongi, emphasized the importance of the debate in promoting environmental management and encouraging students to take an active role in protecting their surroundings.

Unzimai Henry Pastore, the Obongi District Environment Officer, commended the choice of theme, noting its relevance to nature conservation and the need to strengthen environmental protection efforts.

Meanwhile, Azubuu Michael, District Secretary for Works, Production and Natural Resources at Obongi District Local Government, highlighted the climate-related challenges facing the district and linked them to the extent of environmental degradation. He underscored the importance of raising awareness and encouraging collective responsibility for protecting natural resources.

The debate provided a platform for students to exchange ideas, demonstrate their understanding of climate change and explore the importance of conserving nature. It also reinforced the role of schools and young people in promoting environmental stewardship and supporting community-level climate action.

Through initiatives such as the SEA-WNK project, students are encouraged to become active participants in addressing environmental challenges and advocating for sustainable practices in their schools and communities.

ENDS.

14Oct, 2026

BEYOND TREE PLANTING: CAN ADJUMANI’S CLIMATE-SAVVY SCHOOLS CHANGE HOW COMMUNITIES ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE?

With Adjumani experiencing a prolonged dry spell and the prospect of heavy rains and flooding ahead, a new project aims to equip children, schools and vulnerable households with practical tools for climate resilience. Its impact will depend on whether the interventions reach communities, reduce pressure on forests and survive beyond donor support.

By Bazio Doreen.

For schools that rely on firewood to prepare meals, climate change is not just a lesson in a classroom. It is also a question of how food is cooked, how natural resources are used and whether communities can withstand increasingly difficult weather conditions.

In Adjumani, where communities have recently experienced approximately three months of dry weather and are anticipating heavy rains, the consequences of changing weather patterns are becoming harder to ignore.

A new initiative hopes to turn that growing awareness into practical action.

The Climate-Savvy Children in Uganda project, introduced during an inception meeting on October 13^th, 2026, aims to strengthen the resilience of children, schools and surrounding communities in Adjumani and Lamwo districts.

Implemented under the Uganda Refugee Resilience Initiative (URRI) by a consortium led by Save the Children International, with support from Haldor Topsoe, the project will promote climate literacy, energy conservation, ecosystem restoration and tree planting.

But as the project moves towards implementation, important questions remain: Will schools receive technologies that meaningfully reduce their firewood consumption? Will communities around the selected schools benefit? And what arrangements will ensure that the trees, cooking stoves and climate clubs remain functional after the project ends?

From climate awareness to practical solutions

The project, valued at UGX 247,232,380 and scheduled to run until July 2027, targets 10 schools, 10,000 children, 1,000 vulnerable households and 40 artisans across Adjumani and Lamwo.

Planned activities include: establishing 10 functional climate clubs, installing 10 institutional cooking stoves and planting 500 seedlings across four nursery sites.

According to Aciro Kevin, Programme Manager at Save the Children, the project aims to reduce firewood consumption by between 40 and 60 per cent.

The proposed interventions address several connected issues: children’s understanding of climate change, the use of firewood for institutional cooking, the loss of vegetation and the capacity of communities to adapt to environmental pressures.

“We can’t run away from harsh weather and therefore people need to adopt resilience initiatives and adapt to climate change,” Aciro said during the inception meeting held at the District Natural Resources Department Boardroom.

Her remarks reflect the project’s emphasis on adaptation rather than simply raising awareness about climate change.

For schools, more efficient institutional cooking stoves could reduce the amount of firewood needed to prepare meals. Climate clubs could give children opportunities to learn about environmental conservation, while tree planting could contribute to restoration efforts if seedlings survive and are properly maintained.

However, these benefits will depend on implementation. The project has set a firewood-reduction target, but the baseline, measurement method and arrangements for independently verifying the reduction will be important in assessing whether the target is achieved.

Who gets selected—and who gets left out?

The inception meeting also highlighted the importance of selecting beneficiaries who can make effective use of the interventions.

Allan Sebutinde, Save the Children’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Coordinator, said criteria had been established for selecting schools, households and artisans.

He asked the district education department to submit a list of 20 schools for assessment, from which five schools in Adjumani would be selected.

“I request the District Education Department to submit a list of 20 schools for assessment, from which five schools will be selected,” Ssebutinde said.

The remaining five schools will be selected in Lamwo to meet the overall project target of 10 schools.

Among the proposed requirements, schools should have a feeding programme and be in a favorable condition to support successful implementation.

The selection process presents an opportunity to ensure that resources reach institutions where the interventions can be sustained. However, it also raises a social-accountability question: how will the project balance readiness to implement with the needs of schools and communities that are especially vulnerable to climate change?

A school with better facilities may find it easier to maintain a new cooking stove or organize a climate club. Yet a school facing greater resource constraints may have an equally pressing need for support.

The project partners and district authorities should therefore communicate the selection criteria clearly, document the reasons for choosing beneficiaries and provide a transparent process for addressing concerns from schools that are not selected.

The criteria should also be applied consistently across refugee-hosting and host communities.

Communities should not be spectators.

The District Vice Chairperson, Hon. Obulejo Geoffrey, urged project implementers to extend the benefits to communities surrounding the selected schools.

“I am a tree grower and I also know the benefits of trees. We have unreliable rainfall and our people are starving. We need our farmers to also embrace afforestation,” Hon. Obulejo said.

He also observed that the initiative could reduce dependence on forest products by encouraging alternative sources of wood fuel and more sustainable energy practices.

His concern is significant because environmental pressures do not stop at school boundaries. Where schools adopt more efficient cooking methods but neighboring households continue to depend heavily on firewood, the wider environmental benefits may remain limited.

Including surrounding communities could help extend climate literacy beyond classrooms and encourage the adoption of practical conservation measures at household level.

The targeting of 1,000 vulnerable households and 40 artisans offers a further opportunity to connect environmental education with household resilience and local skills.

The project partners will need to explain how these beneficiaries will be identified, what support they will receive and how participation will be distributed between refugee and host communities.

For artisans, clear information about the training or support available would also help establish whether the project is building skills that can be used beyond its implementation period.

Fruit trees, survival rates and the cost of sustainability.

The Resident District Commissioner, Toko Swaib, welcomed the initiative and encouraged the project team to prioritize fruit trees.

He also called for authorities in selected schools to receive orientation on the project and advised against selecting schools already implementing similar projects or those that had previously benefited from comparable interventions.

“The PTAs, and SMCs, need to understand what this project is about before they commit to ease implementation. This will also help us achieve sustainability when the project ends,” Toko said.

The recommendations highlight two considerations: avoiding duplication of support and ensuring that schools take responsibility for the investments they receive.

But planting seedlings is only the beginning of successful tree restoration.

The project plans to distribute 500 seedlings across four nursery sites. Its environmental impact will ultimately depend on how many seedlings survive, whether suitable species are selected for local conditions, and whether schools and communities have the water, tools and arrangements needed to maintain them.

Fruit trees could provide environmental benefits while potentially contributing to food availability over time. Their success, however, will depend on species selection, growing conditions and long-term maintenance.

A transparent monitoring system should therefore track not only the number of seedlings planted but also their survival rates at regular intervals.

The project should also clarify who will be responsible for replacing seedlings that fail, protecting trees from damage and maintaining the sites after donor-funded activities end.

Climate resilience as heavy rains approach

Adjumani’s recent dry spell has heightened local awareness of weather-related challenges. The prospect of heavy rains and potential flooding adds urgency to efforts to strengthen climate preparedness.

The district’s experience also illustrates why resilience initiatives need to extend beyond individual activities such as planting trees or introducing energy-efficient stoves.

Climate literacy should help children understand local environmental risks and the actions they can take. Schools can also contribute by integrating practical climate actions into their improvement plans and engaging parents and surrounding communities.

The project intends to support this continuity through maintenance committees, involvement of School Management Committees and Parent-Teacher Associations, and integration of climate actions into school improvement plans.

These arrangements could help ensure that the initiative remains part of everyday school management rather than a temporary project activity.

However, committees and plans will only be effective if responsibilities are clearly assigned, resources are available and progress is monitored.

The accountability test begins after the launch

The project offers an opportunity to test whether climate education can translate into practical, measurable improvements in refugee-hosting and host communities.

The inception meeting established the project’s intended beneficiaries and activities. The next step is to make progress visible and verifiable.

Save the Children and its partners should provide clear information about beneficiary selection, the installation and use of institutional stoves, the functioning of climate clubs, and the distribution of seedlings across nursery sites.

They should also establish how the targeted reduction in firewood consumption will be measured and report whether the expected savings are achieved.

For tree planting, survival rates will offer a more meaningful indicator of progress than the number of seedlings distributed. For climate clubs, evidence of regular activity and practical initiatives will be more informative than membership figures alone.

District leaders and school authorities also have a role to play in monitoring implementation, addressing community concerns and ensuring that schools understand their responsibilities.

The project should create accessible channels through which children, parents, teachers and surrounding residents can ask questions, report challenges and contribute to decisions affecting them.

Ultimately, the success of the Climate-Savvy Children project will not be measured solely by the number of schools selected or trees planted.

It will depend on whether children gain practical climate knowledge, schools reduce their dependence on firewood, seedlings survive, vulnerable households benefit and the systems introduced continue functioning after July 2027.

For Adjumani, where communities are already confronting difficult weather conditions, the real promise of climate resilience lies in turning a project launch into lasting changes in how people protect their environment and prepare for the future.

END.

14Oct, 2026

VACCINATED BEYOND THE TARGET, YET STILL AT RISK: ADJUMANI’S MEASLES CHALLENGE.

Adjumani reported 197 per cent coverage during Uganda’s October 2026 measles-rubella campaign. But while vaccination figures exceeded expectations, low-performing sub-counties and limited access to health services in Apaa raise questions about whether every child is being reached—and who is accountable for closing the gaps.

By Bazio Doreen.

For a mother in Apaa, protecting her child from measles may depend on more than the decision to seek vaccination. It may depend on whether a public health facility is accessible, whether outreach teams reach her community and whether her child can return for subsequent doses.

In an area where access to public healthcare has been severely disrupted, these are not merely questions of parental responsibility. They are questions about the availability of essential services and the government’s obligation to make them accessible.

The concerns are particularly significant in Adjumani District, which reported vaccinating 61,652 children during the October 1^st – 5^th, 2026 measles-rubella campaign against a target of 31,200.

The reported coverage of 197 per cent placed Adjumani second nationally, above West Nile’s 129.1 per cent and the national average of 110.9 per cent.

Yet beneath the impressive headline figure are communities that fell short of the 95 per cent campaign target, questions about the accuracy of population estimates and a continuing need to reach children who miss routine immunization.

For a district hosting refugees and communities with limited access to health services, the central question is not simply how many children were vaccinated during five days. It is whether every eligible child can access protection when they need it.

The paradox behind Adjumani’s 197 per cent

According to the district campaign figures, Adjumani vaccinated 30,452 more children than its target of 31,200.

District-level explanations for the unusually high coverage include: mobile refugee populations, outdated population estimates from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, children coming from neighboring districts and mop-up vaccination data that have not been fully reconciled.

These factors may help explain why the number vaccinated exceeded the planned target. However, their individual contribution has not been established by the figures available.

The discrepancy deserves scrutiny because vaccination coverage is calculated against an estimated target population. If that estimate is outdated or does not accurately reflect population movements, the resulting percentage may not provide a reliable picture of how many eligible children living in the district were reached.

The district health team therefore needs to reconcile vaccination registers, geographical records and mop-up data, including vaccinations administered to children from neighboring districts.

Such verification would help establish how many unique eligible children were vaccinated, where the children came from and which communities still have children who missed the campaign.

This is not about dismissing the work of vaccination teams. It is about ensuring that the figures used to assess performance also help health authorities identify and protect children who remain vulnerable.

Uganda’s measles history shows why the numbers matter.

Adjumani’s campaign took place against a concerning national background.

A study by the Uganda National Institute of Public Health found that Uganda reported 3,192 measles cases between 2020 and 2025. Cases increased from 48 in 2021 to 1,967 in 2025. During that six-year period, 115 of Uganda’s 146 districts experienced at least one confirmed measles outbreak.

The study also found that 46 districts reported outbreaks in 2025 alone.

The findings point to a persistent public health challenge despite the availability of an effective vaccine. They also show why campaign coverage must be considered alongside routine immunization, outbreak surveillance and access to healthcare.

The World Health Organization reported ahead of the October 2026 campaign that Uganda had experienced 66 separate measles outbreaks in 2025. It also noted that many affected children had never received a first dose of the vaccine.

The distinction is important. Children who have never been vaccinated require a different follow-up approach from those who have started but not completed the recommended schedule.

For district health authorities, the responsibility extends beyond administering vaccines during a campaign. It includes identifying missed children, maintaining reliable records and ensuring that communities can access routine immunization services.

First doses, missed follow-ups and the risk of being left behind.

Routine immunization figures offer another warning.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF estimates for 2025 placed Uganda’s measles-containing vaccine coverage at 92 per cent for the first dose and 66 per cent for the second dose.

That gap raises questions about whether children who enter the vaccination system are being followed up until they receive all recommended doses.

The Uganda National Institute of Public Health study found that, among the 3,192 measles cases reported between 2020 and 2025; 2,970 cases—93 per cent—were recorded among people who had received one measles-rubella dose. None of the reported cases had received the full two-dose schedule.

These findings should not be interpreted as proof that one vaccine dose caused infection or that every child who received one dose remains unprotected. They do, however, reinforce the importance of completing the recommended vaccination schedule and investigating the circumstances surrounding infections.

For families, the practical questions are straightforward: Are vaccination services available nearby? Do caregivers know when to return? Are missed appointments followed up? And can health workers identify children whose vaccination records are incomplete?

The answers depend on functioning health systems, reliable records and sustained engagement with communities—not mass campaigns alone.

Apaa: when access to healthcare becomes a public accountability issue.

The challenges in Apaa bring these questions into sharper focus.

Lulu Henry Leku, Adjumani’s Assistant District Health Officer In Charge of Maternal and Child Health, estimates that 65 per cent of children in the Apaa area hosting about 100,000 residents had received no vaccination doses before the October campaign. He linked the gap to the lack of accessible health facilities and reported that the nearest public health unit, Mungula Health Centre III, was approximately 30–40 kilometers away.

Lulu also described the difficulties faced by sick children and pregnant women who must travel long distances to obtain care.

These circumstances raise a question that cannot be answered by campaign coverage figures alone: how can families be expected to maintain routine immunization when the services they need are difficult to reach?

Measles cases were recorded in Apaa between January and March 2026. The local health-service gaps described in the report offer important context for understanding the area’s vulnerability, although the circumstances of individual cases and their vaccination histories require verification.

The issue also extends beyond the health department. Where administrative, land-management or infrastructure constraints prevent the establishment of permanent services, government institutions need to explain what alternative arrangements are available to ensure that residents are not excluded from essential healthcare.

Mobile clinics, regular outreach sessions, accessible vaccination points and coordinated cross-district services are among the options that could be assessed. The appropriate response would require clear responsibilities, adequate resources and a timetable for implementation.

Without such measures, residents may continue to bear the consequences of barriers they cannot resolve themselves.

A district-wide success that hides local gaps.

Adjumani’s overall performance also masks significant differences between lower local governments.

According to the district campaign results, Itirikwa recorded 110 per cent coverage, Adropi 108 per cent, Arinyapi 106 per cent, Ciforo recorded 99 per cent, Ukusijoni 97 per cent, Pachara 95 per cent and Adjumani Town Council 104 per cent.

However, Ofua recorded 74 per cent, Dzaipi 76 per cent, Pakele Town Council 80 per cent and Pakele Sub-county 85 per cent.

These four areas fell below the national target, despite the district’s reported coverage of 197 per cent.

The figures should prompt district leaders to examine the reasons behind the differences rather than relying solely on the overall district result.

Several of the lower-performing areas are refugee-hosting communities. Population mobility may complicate planning and follow-up, but it should not automatically be treated as the explanation for every missed child. Local investigations are needed to establish whether the gaps reflect access barriers, missed outreach, inaccurate targets, incomplete reporting or other factors.

The district health team should publish or communicate the findings of this review and explain what corrective action will be taken in each underperforming area.

For residents, this information matters because it connects a campaign’s reported results to the services they can expect to receive in their own communities.

Who is accountable for reaching the children still missing?

The October campaign provides an opportunity to ask practical questions about public service delivery.

The district health team needs to reconcile the reported coverage figures, identify children who missed vaccination and explain how the low-performing areas will be supported.

Sub-county leaders and health workers need to establish why coverage was low in Ofua, Dzaipi and Pakele, while supporting follow-up visits and community mobilization where required.

The Ministry of Health and immunization programme need to clarify the final campaign totals, support routine immunization and ensure that national monitoring captures both children receiving their first dose and those who have not completed the recommended schedule.

Responsible government institutions also need to address the healthcare access barriers affecting Apaa. If permanent facilities cannot be established immediately, residents need to know what alternative services will be provided, by whom and how regularly.

These are not merely administrative details. They determine whether families can access essential services and whether public resources are producing the intended results.

A useful accountability process would include verified campaign data, a breakdown of performance by lower local government, a list of priority communities for follow-up and a clear plan for tracking children who missed vaccination.

It should also give residents an opportunity to report missed outreach visits, inaccessible services and children who remain unvaccinated.

Beyond the campaign: measuring what matters.

Adjumani’s reported 197 per cent coverage is a significant campaign result, but the percentage alone cannot establish whether every eligible child has been reached.

The district needs to reconcile its vaccination data, improve population estimates and coordinate records across neighboring districts. It also needs to prioritize the communities that fell below target and strengthen access to routine immunization, especially in areas such as Apaa.

The next phase should be judged by more than the number of vaccines administered. Relevant measures include the number of previously unvaccinated children reached, the number of children who missed scheduled doses and were subsequently followed up, and whether routine services are accessible to families throughout the year.

District health officials should also communicate the findings of the data review and report progress in the underperforming communities.

For parents in Apaa and other underserved areas, protection cannot depend on whether a vaccination campaign happens to reach their village during a particular week.

It depends on a health system that can find children who have been missed, provide services within reasonable reach and account publicly for gaps that remain.

Adjumani has reported vaccination beyond its target. The next test is whether it can turn that achievement into sustained, verifiable protection for every eligible child.

END.

8Oct, 2026

ADJUMANI’S IGG OMBUDSMAN CLINIC REVEALS UNPAID SALARIES AND PENSION DISPUTES.

By Bazio Doreen.

“I joined service in December 2024 but I have never received my salary arrears.”

For Ambayo Godfrey, an Education Assistant at Elegu Primary School, those words describe nearly two years of working without the financial benefit expected from a government job.

He made the statement on 7^th October 2026 at an Inspectorate of Government (IGG) Ombudsman Clinic in Adjumani Town Council, where current and former public servants brought complaints about unpaid salaries, pension calculations, payroll records and employment procedures.

His was not the only grievance.

Another teacher said she could not access a loan because her employment details remained on an old payroll system. A former senior government officer questioned his retirement benefits. A former town council speaker complained about unexplained deductions from councilors’ allowances.

Taken together, the cases reveal how administrative problems can become personal financial problems for public servants.

A national problem playing out locally.

The Adjumani clinic was organized as a pre-activity ahead of International Ombuds Day on 8^th October 2026.

This year’s theme is “Ombuds: Office of Options”, with the campaign slogan #TalkToTheOmbudsman. The IGG says its Ombudsman mandate covers maladministration, delays in service delivery, workplace victimization and other administrative injustices.

National statistics show why these complaints matter. In FY 2025/2026, Ombudsman matters accounted for 37 percent of all complaints investigated and concluded by the IGG.

The Inspectorate says it resolved 1,011 Ombudsman cases during the year and recommended Shs 2.353 billion for payment to people whose employment benefits had been denied or delayed.

The complaints most frequently received nationally include delayed salaries, pensions and gratuities, payroll access, delays in obtaining documents and workplace malpractice.

In Adjumani, those national statistics have names and faces. Ambayo’s complaint was perhaps the most direct. He joined public service in December 2024 but says he has not received a salary.

However, Igama Nobert, the District Principal Human Resources Officer, told the clinic that payroll problems can arise from mismatches between NIRA and payroll records.

He explained: “When you miss salary in June, you automatically miss the one for the next financial year, especially July.”

He said it can take up to four months to regain access to the payroll after harmonization and gazettement.

But Adjumani has experienced salary problems before.

In 2023, district officials reported that 447 employees had not received salaries for February and March, amounting to Shs 592 million, while the district reported a Shs 5.1 billion wage shortfall.

The history suggests that payroll and wage management deserve sustained attention rather than being treated solely as isolated individual cases.

For teacher Madraa Gloria Koma, the problem is different but the consequences are similar.

She told the clinic that her details had remained on Payroll-Based System (PBS) since 2024, even as other staff were migrated to Human Capital Management system (HCM).

The consequence, she said, is that: “I can’t get a loan.”

Igama confirmed that 17 staff members were still being paid through PBS because they had failed to migrate their details in time.

The district says staff with mismatches between PBS and NIRA records can request a waiver where they cannot harmonize their details.

For Opeli Steven, a former Senior Assistant Chief Administrative Officer and pensioner, the problem emerged at the end of his public-service career.

Opeli said his service was irregularly terminated in 2021 and that he retired in 2023 at the age of 47.

He told the clinic: “The pension and gratuity I received was inadequate and wrongly computed.”

Other former public servants raised complaints concerning underpayment of pension and gratuity and alleged irregularities surrounding the retirement of SACAOs and Parish Chiefs.

District officials said some pension cases are affected by missing documentation.

Igama explained that some former employees lack minutes confirming their appointment or confirmation of service, which are required when processing retirement benefits.

The staffing problem behind the complaints.

The administrative complaints are occurring within a wider staffing challenge.

In March 2026, Adjumani resumed recruitment for 59 public-service positions after protests disrupted the recruitment exercise. The district had an allocated Shs 810 million wage bill for the positions. Only 64 percent of the district’s human-resource positions were filled.

This is important because the effect of staffing shortages is not confined to government employees. When positions remain vacant, citizens can experience longer waiting times, fewer frontline workers and weaker access to government services.

Adjumani’s staffing challenge is particularly significant because the district serves both host communities and a substantial refugee population. A teacher’s problem becomes a community problem. The impact of public-service employment problems can extend beyond individual workers.

In 2024, Adjumani Teachers’ SACCO reported that teachers had failed to repay Shs 85 million in loans, with some loans dating as far back as 2017. The SACCO said some teachers were difficult to trace.

While the SACCO problem is not itself an Ombudsman complaint, it illustrates the wider economic consequences that can arise when public servants experience unstable incomes or administrative disruptions.

A delayed salary can affect loan repayment. A payroll migration problem can affect access to credit. A disputed pension calculation can affect retirement planning. An identification mismatch can delay employment benefits. Administrative systems may look technical from an office desk. For the person affected, they are not.

Francis Were, Ma’di Sub-Region Inspectorate Officer, believes communication is part of the solution.

“People complain because of a communication gap that needs to be addressed. Information should be shared on all available information platforms,” Were observes.

The statement goes to the heart of several grievances raised in Adjumani.

If an employee understands why a salary has been delayed, what document is missing or which institution must correct a record, they are better positioned to pursue a solution. If they do not, the problem can become a cycle of visits to different offices without resolution.

Hon. Osman Yusuf Shaban, Former Town Council Speaker, raised concerns about deductions from councillors’ sitting allowances.

He said: “Allowances of councilors was being deducted without clear reason from the Town Council leaders.”

Eriku Patrick Keleture, Adjumani Town Clerk, offered a different explanation. He said the allowances are subject to a 40 percent tax deduction, which he described as secondary tax charged by URA. He explained that the deduction occurs at the bank before councilors withdraw the remaining money.

The exchange illustrates why clear communication of administrative decisions matters in public service. A deduction may be lawful, but where the affected person does not understand its basis, it can become a grievance.

Vundru Dominic, NIRA Registration Officer, told the clinic that harmonization of identification details is ongoing.

He said ordinary processing of a National ID can take about three months, while express processing costs Shs 300, 000 at NIRA headquarters in Kampala.

He also said changes to details intended to harmonize National ID information with academic records can take about one month and require approvals involving the courts, URSB and NIRA.

This matters to public servants because identity information increasingly links employment, payroll and access to financial services.

Emmanuel Okware, Deputy RDC, urged aggrieved staff and citizens to use the IGG’s complaint mechanisms.

Meanwhile, the national record suggests complaints can produce financial outcomes. The IGG says it resolved 1,011 Ombudsman cases in FY 2025/2026, with more than Shs 2.35 billion recommended for payment to people whose employment benefits had been denied or delayed.

Adjumani now has an opportunity to demonstrate the same principle locally. The district could track the complaints raised during the clinic, identify the responsible institution, publish progress and report how many have been resolved.

That would make accountability measurable. For Ambayo, Madraa and Opeli, the Ombudsman Clinic was a chance to be heard. But their stories will only have a satisfying ending when the administrative systems they complained about actually respond.

The clinic opened the door for complaints. The real test of accountability is what happens after the door closes.

END.

8Oct, 2026

MADI SKILLING HUB LEARNERS URGED TO TURN VOCATIONAL SKILLS INTO ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES.

By Onzima Allan.

Adjumani District leaders have urged learners at the Madi Presidential Industrial Skilling Hub to embrace discipline, integrity and mutual respect while translating their vocational skills into sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities.

The appeal was made during a low-key Independence Day celebration at the hub, held on 8th October 2026 in line with the government’s restrictions on public gatherings.

Located in Pakele Sub-county, Adjumani District, the Madi Presidential Industrial Skilling Hub was officially opened by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on April 13^th, 2023. The facility serves young people from Adjumani, Moyo and Obongi districts, providing practical vocational training intended to address unemployment, promote entrepreneurship and improve household incomes.

According to the Uganda Media Centre, the hub admitted 240 learners in its sixth intake in June 2026, as part of a nationwide intake of 4,560 trainees across 19 Presidential Industrial Skilling Hubs. The programme provides free vocational training, with learners receiving accommodation, meals and training materials. Graduates are assessed and certified through the Uganda Vocational and Technical Assessment Board (UVTAB).

Ijjo Michael, the Hub Manager, outlined the activities undertaken by learners and urged them to uphold integrity, discipline and mutual respect as they prepare to apply their acquired skills in the workplace and in business.

Hon. Kenyi Wellborn, Chairperson LC III of Greater Pakele Sub-county, encouraged learners to consult local leaders and relevant offices for guidance and support in developing their skills into viable income-generating activities.

Hon. Anyanzo John Ambayo, Adjumani District Chairperson, called on learners to work closely with relevant stakeholders to identify opportunities, strengthen their competencies and maximize the benefits of the government’s skilling initiative.

Meanwhile, Toko Swaib, the Resident District Commissioner of Adjumani, cautioned learners to make responsible decisions, safeguard their well-being and uphold the values expected of beneficiaries of the programme.

The hub offers training in vocational disciplines including tailoring and design, hairdressing and makeup, building and con

END.

7Oct, 2026

37 FARMER GROUPS IN ADJUMANI GET TRACTOR TO BOOST AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION.

By Doreen Tasia

Thirty-seven farmer groups in Itirikwa and Ukusijoni sub-counties in Adjumani District have received a new Holland tractor 75 horse, to support agricultural production and improve access to mechanized farming services.

The tractor was procured under the Eco Food Uganda project, an initiative aimed at promoting sustainable and inclusive Agri-food supply chains while improving food security and livelihoods among smallholder producers, women and people with disabilities.

The Ugx 8.8 billion Eco Food Uganda project is being implemented by Christian Blind Mission International (CBM), CEFORD, NUDIPU, and EAEA with funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, through the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS).

During the commissioning of the tractor on October 6th 2026, Kitz Detros, the Interim Country Director Christian Blind Mission, revealed that besides promoting agricultural transformation, the project also encourages equality and inclusion.

“The CBM is committed to improving the lives of persons living with disabilities through this project together with our partners, we are not only bringing here the innovations and transformative value chain but also looking at the person with disability enjoying the rights and access to the services,” Kitz Detros said.

The tractor is expected to ease the burden of manual land preparation, enable farmers to prepare their gardens on time and increase agricultural productivity in the two sub-counties.

Edema Richard, the Principal Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, urged the tractor management committee to ensure its safety.

“First I want to thank CEFORD for the intervention, and to the committee chairperson, I urge you to be serious with the job as far as the asset is concerned, make sure it is protected with the required level so that we see improved livelihood,” he emphasized.

Mawe Robert, the Secretary for Production, reminded the partners of the need for Agro- industrialization.

“Am appealing to the consortium to also see the aspect of Agro industrialization ,I will be very happy if the production here is being processed so that we see economic transformation especially for sunflower and soya ,we can always find a place for such establishments,” Mawe noted.

Emmanuel Okware, the Deputy Resident District Commissioner, pledged support in the implementation of the project.

“We appreciate the people who sat and developed this concept of 2.5 M Euros project which is being implemented in the two sub counties which I think is a big commitment to increasing productivity and income among youths ,women and persons with disabilities, we shall continue supporting in ensuring the success of the project,” said Okware.

Achen Dorcus, the Chairperson Atidrira Sunflower Farmers Group In Itirikwa Sub County, explained that access to the tractor could help reduce dependence on traditional methods of land preparation, which are often labor-intensive and time-consuming.

“We thank the partners for the support and we pray that the almighty God blessed them with more resources, our remaining challenge now as sunflower growers is the lack of proper storage facility,” she noted.

The members from 37 farmer groups growing sunflower soya beans and maize under the project will access the tractor at a fee of 60,000 shillings.

In West Nile, the project is being implemented by the Community Empowerment for Rural Development (CEFORD) in Adjumani District.

The wider project also covers parts of the Lango sub-region, including: Alito and Okweridot Sub Counties in Kole District, as well as Ayami and Ogur sub-counties in Lira District.

End.

6Oct, 2026

BRINGING THE SCAN CLOSER: HOW ADJUMANI IS TACKLING A HIDDEN BARRIER TO SAFER PREGNANCIES.

By Bazio Doreen.

At seven months pregnant, Anzoa knows that getting an ultrasound scan is not simply a matter of visiting the nearest health facility.

In this complex account representing the experiences of women in Adjumani, a pregnancy scan can mean finding money for transport, travelling long distances and, sometimes, making the journey to Adjumani General Hospital because the service is not available closer to home.

For an expectant mother, distance can become more than an inconvenience. It can delay information about a pregnancy and, where complications are present, delay decisions about referral and treatment. Adjumani District is now trying to address that gap by moving the technology closer to the women.

The district has received five portable Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) machines to strengthen antenatal care and help health workers detect pregnancy-related complications earlier.

The machines, handed over on October 5^th, 2026, were provided through the Ministry of Health under the Pathfinder International EMPOWER Programme, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom through the British High Commission.

The five machines are worth approximately Shs 100 million, while another Shs 40 million has been invested in training five health workers to operate them.

The solution is straightforward: instead of expecting every pregnant woman to travel to where an ultrasound machine is available, portable equipment allows the service to move closer to communities.

Solving the distance problem.

Adjumani has 43 high-volume health facilities, according to Medical Superintendent of Adjumani General Hospital, Dr Michael Ambaku.

He says the concentration of ultrasound services at the district hospital has placed a burden on women who live far from the facility.

“Currently, mothers have been highly burdened to travel long distances to Adjumani General Hospital,” Ambaku said.

The five beneficiary facilities are: Adjumani General Hospital, Mungula Health Centre IV, Ofua Health Centre, Ukusijoni Health Centre and Ayilo Health Centre III.

The facilities were selected based on the number of mothers they serve. This is important because access to maternal healthcare is not only about whether a service exists. It is also about whether a woman can reach that service in time and at an affordable cost.

Uganda’s 2026 EMPOWER assessment found that facility deliveries have increased from 60% to 86%, but maternal mortality remains at 189 deaths per 100,000 live births. Neonatal mortality stands at 22 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with the global target of 12.

The assessment identified persistent barriers including distance, cost, shortages of trained personnel and gaps in quality of care.

The Adjumani intervention therefore addresses one piece of a much larger puzzle; building on what is already working. The new machines arrive at a time when Adjumani has recorded notable improvements in maternal health.

A district report covering July 2024 to May 2025 recorded 13,577 deliveries, of which 13,575 were safe, with two maternal deaths. Officials attributed the achievement to interventions including Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPACR) and Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response (MPDSR).

Adjumani General Hospital had also been ranked third among more than 63 government general hospitals nationally for low mortality rates. The figures suggest progress, but health officials say the work is not finished.

Adjumani District Health Officer Dr Dominic Drametu says prenatal deaths require more attention. He hopes the new machines will enable the district to conduct outreaches and monitor pregnancies in neighboring facilities.

“It is my hope that with these machines and the trained health workers, we shall embark on health outreaches to be able to monitor fetuses in neighboring health facilities,” Drametu said.

From equipment to a functioning solution. The strongest part of the intervention is that it does not stop at the delivery of equipment. Five health workers are being trained, and specialist mentors from Mengo are providing hands-on mentorship to the trained POCUS users.

This matters because medical equipment can only improve outcomes when health workers know how to use it, the machines remain functional and patients can access the service.

The district will therefore need to track more than the number of scans conducted. It will need to know: How many pregnant women are being scanned at the five facilities? How many high-risk pregnancies are being identified? How quickly are women with complications referred? Are the machines functional throughout the year? Are trained health workers consistently available? And are women in remote and refugee-hosting communities actually benefiting?

These indicators can turn the intervention from a successful equipment handover into a measurable maternal-health solution. A model that could be taken further

Dr. Daniel Kamya, Pathfinder International Regional Coordinator for Northern and Eastern Uganda, said the intervention followed engagements between the British High Commission, Ministry of Health and Adjumani leaders after gaps in antenatal care were identified.

The portable machines are intended to support scanning at health facilities and during referrals, while mentorship will continue after the initial training.

This approach offers a potentially useful model for other underserved districts: identify a specific service gap, take the appropriate technology closer to communities, train the people who will use it and continue mentoring them.

For Adjumani, the next step is making sure the model works beyond the launch day.

The District Chairperson, Ambayo John Anyanzo, has urged health workers to put the equipment to good use, while calling for additional investment in medical equipment.

For women like the composite Anzoa, the measure of success will not be the number of machines delivered or the value of the investment. It will be whether she can walk into a nearby health facility, receive a timely scan, learn whether her pregnancy needs special attention and, if necessary, be referred before a manageable complication becomes a crisis.

That is where the real value of bringing the ultrasound closer will be measured.

END.

30Sep, 2026

PDM’S MILLION-SHILLING PROMISE: INSIDE THE STRUGGLE TO TURN LOANS INTO LIVELIHOODS.

Four years after the Parish Development Model was launched, monitoring in Adjumani reveals a complicated picture of money reaching households, but also gaps in training, markets, supervision and loan recovery. Across West Nile and the country, audit findings point to similar questions about whether the revolving fund can become a sustainable engine of household transformation.

**The District PDM Focal Person and CSBAG Adjumani Field Officer pose for a group picture with PBCs and PDM beneficiaries.**

By Bazio Doreen.

The day the money arrived was supposed to mark a turning point.

For one beneficiary in Dzaipi Sub County, however, the Shs 1 million came on the same day his father died.

The beneficiary used part of the money to buy a coffin.

It is a small story in a programme involving trillions of shillings, millions of beneficiaries and thousands of parish savings and credit cooperatives. But it captures one of the central tensions surrounding Uganda’s Parish Development Model (PDM): what happens when money intended to transform a household meets the realities of life at household level?

PDM was launched in February 2022 with the stated objective of moving households (up to 39% of the country’s population) from subsistence production into Uganda’s money economy. Under the Parish Revolving Fund, eligible beneficiaries can access loans of up to Shs 1 million at 6 percent interest, with repayment structured over three years, including a two-year grace period. Four years on, the scale is considerable.

By September 2026, the Ministry of Finance said the government had capitalized the Parish Revolving Fund with Shs 4.317 trillion, reaching 3,571,108 beneficiaries through 10, 589 PDM SACCOs. Women account for 53.88 percent of beneficiaries, while men account for 46.12 percent.

But the question is no longer simply how much money has been disbursed. It is what that money has become.

When Shs1 million meets a household’s reality.

In Adjumani, the question has become particularly visible through a monitoring exercise conducted by Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG) through Participatory Budget Clubs (PBCs) between April and May 2026.

The findings from the monitoring exercise were disseminated to key stakeholders including district technical staff, beneficiaries, PBC Chairpersons and Sub County leaders during a meeting held on 30^th September 2026 at the District Natural Resources Boardroom.

***Peter Apidra, CSBAG Field Officer, Adjumani.***

Peter Apidra, CSBAG Field Officer in Adjumani, told key stakeholders that PDM’s economic empowerment component directly relates to CSBAG’s mandate to collectively influence government and effectively participate in setting national budget priorities.

“PDM has a component of economic empowerment which aligns directly with the CSBAG mandate of budgeting and planning,” Apidra said.

He noted that community monitoring provides an important mechanism for identifying challenges affecting programme beneficiaries and informing improvements in planning and implementation not just at the district level but even at the national level.

CSBAG is a coalition formed in 2004 to bring together CSOs at national and district levels to influence government decisions on resource mobilization and utilization for equitable and sustainable development.

During the monitoring exercise under the “Strengthening Budget Accountability Systems and Practices Project” that started in 2024 and ends in 2027, PBCs interviewed 94 PDM beneficiaries across the district. The findings offer a window into the lives behind the program’s statistics.

Of those interviewed, 50 were women and 44 were men. Thirty-seven were aged between 18 and 35, 48 were between 36 and 60 years, while nine were above 60 years.

Their education levels also varied considerably: 22 had no formal education, 39 had attained Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) level, 27 had reached Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE), three had Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) qualifications and three had degrees.

For many, PDM is therefore not simply a question of accessing credit. It is a programme being implemented among households with different levels of education, financial literacy, business experience and economic resilience. That distinction matters.

A loan may be designed as capital, but a household does not stop having emergencies simply because it has received public financing. A death in the family, food shortages, school requirements, medical needs or a poor harvest can compete with an enterprise for the same money.

According to Aserua Rose, who represented the LC III Chairperson Pachara Sub County, some beneficiaries, bought mattresses with the PDM money.

The problem, she argued, was not necessarily the mattress itself, but the fact that it would not generate income with which the loan could be repaid.

“I have seen some beneficiaries buy mattresses in this money. I wonder if the mattresses can generate any income or interest,” Aserua observed.

The challenge is therefore not only whether beneficiaries receive the money. It is whether the economic environment around them allows a Shs 1 million loan to become a productive asset.

A programme that has grown far beyond Adjumani.

The Adjumani experience sits within a much larger national experiment.

The 2024 National Population and Housing Census found that 832,746 households nationally had benefited from PDM funds, representing 7.8 percent of the country’s households. In West Nile, 62,984 households had benefited, equivalent to 9.8 percent of the region’s 640,901 households.

The census figures also show variation within the region. The Madi area recorded 11.1 percent of households benefiting, while West Nile overall stood at 9.8 percent.

By February 2024, the Ministry of Finance data cited by the Economic Policy Research Centre showed that West Nile had 830 PDM SACCOs and had received about Shs 83 billion in transfers to SACCOs.

By 2025, the figure had grown considerably. Manifesto implementation data presented in February 2026 indicated that 830 PDM SACCOs had been operationalized across West Nile, with Shs 254 billion reportedly reaching 227,890 beneficiaries between 2021 and 2025.

The numbers demonstrate the reach of the programme. But they also raise another question: If hundreds of billions have entered the region, how much has remained in circulation as productive capital?

The repayment clock.

The first PDM loans were disbursed in December 2022, with a 24-month grace period. That grace period expired in December 2024, meaning beneficiaries from the first funding cycle were expected to begin repaying so that the money could revolve to other households.

The national recovery figures have since raised concern. The Auditor General reported that among beneficiaries who received Parish Revolving Fund money by December 2022, only 18,105 beneficiaries in 709 SACCOs across 30 local governments had commenced voluntary recovery, with Shs 9.34 billion recovered. This was against more than Shs 3.26 trillion released to the programme.

The national audit also found that by the end of the 2024/25 financial year, Shs 3.259 trillion had been released to 10,589 SACCOs, while Shs 2.750 trillion had been disbursed to households. In a sample of 115 local governments, Shs 547.7 billion—73 percent of the Parish Revolving Fund received—had been disbursed, leaving about Shs 205 billion undisbursed.

The audit further identified 109 beneficiaries in 86 SACCOs whose projects did not exist, 328 households that had not procured planned items, and 2,336 households in 506 SACCOs that had received the revolving fund more than once. Accounting officers cited delayed or off-season disbursements, climate and market conditions, weak supervision and inadequate beneficiary guidance among the factors affecting implementation. The implications reach beyond individual borrowers.

PDM is structured as a revolving fund. If the first generation of borrowers does not repay, the same capital cannot easily reach the next generation.

That is why repayment is not merely a debt-collection issue. It is central to whether the programme can sustain itself.

Adjumani’s own repayment challenge.

In Adjumani, the CSBAG monitoring exercise found that only 33 of the 94 beneficiaries interviewed had partially repaid their loans. The finding comes alongside another concern: 74 beneficiaries said they had no records for their enterprises.

For a programme based on revolving capital, that creates a difficult chain of accountability. Without records, it becomes harder for a beneficiary to know whether an enterprise is making a profit or a loss. It becomes harder for SACCO leaders to track performance. And it becomes harder for local government officials to establish whether the original investment is still generating value.

Eriku Patrick Keleture, the Town Clerk of Adjumani Town Council, described the recovery situation bluntly, saying only a small percentage of the revolving fund had been recovered.

He also warned that programmes such as PDM need to be taken seriously because local governments may increasingly depend on locally generated revenue and loan repayments in the future.

At the same time, he questioned whether the Shs 100 million allocation per parish is adequate across parishes with different geographical sizes and populations.

For some beneficiaries, the biggest problem is not necessarily unwillingness to work. It is finding someone to buy what they produce.

The CSBAG monitoring found that 27 beneficiaries had no reliable market for their produce or enterprises and depended on middlemen.

Amoko Justin, a Participatory Budget Club member from Dzaipi Sub County, said beneficiaries sometimes ended up consuming their own produce because of limited markets.

His example was simple: sim sim and groundnuts could be produced successfully, but if there is no dependable buyer, the enterprise can quickly stop functioning as a commercial activity.

“When everyone in the village has sim sim or gnuts, it is hard to sell. You will end up eating what you have harvested,” Amoko explained.

This is where the PDM story intersects with Uganda’s wider agricultural economy. The government’s own current description of the programme increasingly emphasizes productivity, value addition and market access rather than simply disbursing money.

The challenge is that a household cannot create a market simply because it has received a loan. If many beneficiaries are producing the same commodity at the same time, prices can fall. If roads are poor or buyers are distant, transport costs can consume profits. If production is seasonal, income may not arrive when loan repayment is due. And if the money arrives late, the enterprise may miss the production window altogether. These are not purely questions of individual behavior. They are questions about the ecosystem surrounding household enterprise.

A business without a notebook.

The monitoring exercise found that 43 beneficiaries had never received training. Another 64 said they had never been visited by Parish Chiefs, PDM SACCO leaders or Agricultural Extension Officers. That means a significant number of beneficiaries were attempting to run publicly financed enterprises with limited formal support.

Amoko said most beneficiaries were being extorted because of ignorance and limited sensitization. He also argued that many beneficiaries were illiterate and therefore needed continuous training and monitoring.

The national Auditor General’s findings point to a similar problem. The 2025 audit cited limited guidance and capacity for beneficiaries, inadequate sensitization on approved business plans, weak supervision and monitoring, and problems with the PDM Information System as factors affecting implementation.

Earlier national audits had also raised concerns about the program’s institutional systems. The 2024 Auditor General’s report found that household-level PDM data collection had reached 79.93 percent, while population registration stood at 46.30 percent at the time of the review. It also found that 2,985 SACCOs in 127 local governments did not have registered offices on their documents, while 567 SACCOs in 41 local governments had registered offices that did not exist.

These findings matter because a revolving fund depends on more than money. It depends on records; on people knowing the rules; on institutions knowing where the money went and; on someone following up when an enterprise begins to fail.

As Aserua observes, many groups were formed specifically for PDM rather than growing from existing economic relationships.

“Most groups were formed for the purpose of the project. They were not existing groups,” she said.

The distinction may appear technical, but it has practical consequences.

A group formed simply because a government programme requires one may not necessarily have the trust, history, business model or internal systems of an established enterprise group.

The national programme has also struggled with targeting and profiling. The Auditor General previously found that PDM lacked a comprehensive database of all subsistence households and that registration and profiling had faced challenges in identifying eligible beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, the government has continued to invest in digital systems intended to improve targeting and accountability.

The Ministry of Finance says the PDM Information System is used to register eligible beneficiaries, while IFMIS tracks transfers and Wendi facilitates direct disbursement to beneficiaries’ mobile phones. Government says it has recruited 14,133 Wendi agents and distributed 27,100 tablets for registration and monitoring.

The Office of the Prime Minister also announced in May 2026 the rollout of interactive PDM dashboards to districts, designed to provide real-time visibility into SACCO disbursements and beneficiary uptake.

The question for places like Adjumani is whether these systems will eventually translate into stronger follow-up at household level. The money that allegedly disappears before reaching the enterprise

The CSBAG monitoring uncovered another sensitive issue.

Sixty-four of the 94 respondents said they had paid between Shs 50,000 and Shs 150,000 for services before receiving the money or being selected.

***Dr. Mamawi Godfrey, District Production Officer and PDM Focal Person.***

However, Dr Mamawi Godfrey, the PDM Focal Person, says extortion is criminal but noted that beneficiaries often fail to provide evidence. He said leaders in Pakele and Itirikwa had previously been prosecuted for extortion and illegal payments. The allegations are particularly significant because national audits have identified similar risks.

The Auditor General’s 2024 assessment documented cases nationally involving alleged kickbacks, diversion and irregular handling of PDM funds. An earlier audit also found that about Shs 30 billion had been sent to 3,214 unregistered or “ghost” SACCOs, contrary to programme guidelines.

The lesson is not that every PDM beneficiary or official is involved in wrongdoing. Rather, the recurring allegations demonstrate why strong systems for reporting, verification and evidence are necessary.

In Adjumani, Dr Mamawi said beneficiaries should report cases where people use the identities of deceased persons to access funds.

He also clarified that the Shs 500,000 provided for SACCO operations is public money intended for operations and not personal money for Parish Chiefs or SACCO board Chairpersons.

The refugee question.

Another issue raised during the Adjumani meeting was the alleged participation of refugees in the programme.

Emmanuel Atabuga, a beneficiary, said some refugees had received PDM money.

The claim requires verification against beneficiary registers before being presented as an established fact. It nevertheless raises a wider question about how targeting works in communities such as Adjumani, where host and refugee populations live alongside each other and where household economic vulnerability does not always fit neatly within administrative boundaries.

Four years of implementation in Adjumani.

The district formed 767 enterprise groups involving 15, 340 members across 210 villages and selected 12 enterprises for implementation; but this started with its own challenges.

During the first phase, 11 parishes reportedly missed an early PDM disbursement because of late submission of forms. At the time, the district had transferred about Shs 2.1 billion to 45 parish accounts, while the district expected total FY2022/23 PDM transfers of about Shs 6.3 billion.

By June 2023, the district reported that more than Shs 2.2 billion had been disbursed to beneficiaries’ accounts, while another Shs 3.3 billion had been received and deposited in SACCO accounts.

An earlier Auditor General’s audit recorded that Adjumani had an approved PDM budget of Shs 973.8 million for FY2021/22, including Shs 669 million for the revolving fund. The audit also raised concerns about funds being channeled through the district account instead of directly to beneficiary SACCO accounts, contrary to the programme guidelines.

These early implementation questions are important because the challenges being reported in 2026 did not emerge overnight.

They form part of a longer story about how a national programme has been translated from policy into parish-level institutions and eventually into household enterprises.

The temptation to blame the household

At the dissemination meeting, Dr Mamawi argued that some beneficiaries were affected by what he described as laziness, alcoholism and a failure to change their mindset.

“Improving your family begins with changing your mindset,” he said.

There is certainly a behavioral dimension to any enterprise. A loan cannot generate income if it is not invested productively. But the monitoring findings suggest that the explanation cannot stop there. A beneficiary without training faces a different challenge from one with business experience. A farmer without a market faces a different challenge from one with a guaranteed buyer. A borrower who receives money late faces a different production cycle from one who receives it before planting. And a household facing a death or other emergency may make decisions that look economically irrational from a balance sheet but are understandable within the circumstances of the family.

The national Auditor General has similarly identified delayed disbursement, climate and market conditions, weak supervision and limited guidance as factors affecting PDM performance. The real challenge, therefore, may be to understand where individual responsibility ends and programme design begins.

What does success actually look like?

The government says PDM has reached millions of households and has mobilized billions of shillings into parish-level enterprises. The scale is undeniable. But the program’s own structure creates a different measure of success.

The money is supposed to revolve. One household borrows, invests, generates income and repays. The same money then moves to another household. Success therefore cannot be measured only by the number of people who have received money. It must also be measured by the number of enterprises that survive, the income they generate, the loans recovered, the capital that revolves and the households that move into sustainable economic activity. This is particularly important as PDM enters what has been described as a sustainability and exit phase.

At national level, the government is now looking at how the programme can become a more sustainable financial ecosystem. The Ministry of Finance says the focus is increasingly on household enterprises and the transition from subsistence production to the money economy. That transition will be tested at places like Dzaipi, Pachara, Pakele and Itirikwa—not in national reports alone.

What happens next?

In Adjumani, district officials say joint monitoring visits are planned for October 2026. Accounts that had been frozen because of delayed accountability have reportedly been reopened. The district is also calling for greater public reporting of fraud, extortion and irregular beneficiary practices.

For the beneficiaries, however, monitoring must mean more than checking whether money was received. It must mean asking whether the enterprise exists; whether the beneficiary was trained; whether the business has a market; whether records are being kept; whether the money was received in full; whether repayments are being made; and most importantly, whether the household is actually better off.

The monitoring exercise found that 64 of the 94 beneficiaries had never been visited by key PDM actors, 43 had never received training, 27 had no reliable market, 74 had no enterprise records and only 33 had partially repaid their loans.

Those numbers should not be read simply as evidence of failure. They are also a map of where intervention may be needed: training can be strengthened; extension support can be improved; markets can be mapped before enterprises are funded; record-keeping can be simplified for beneficiaries with limited literacy; monitoring can become more regular and allegations of extortion can be investigated through evidence rather than left as rumours.

At the national level, the government has already begun strengthening digital tracking, SACCO monitoring and beneficiary registration. The challenge now is connecting those systems to the human beings at the end of the chain because PDM ultimately does not live in a spreadsheet. It lives in the households that buy a goat, plant sim sim, open a small shop, raise poultry, start a produce business or, sometimes, face an emergency that changes everything.

Four years after the programme began, Uganda has moved from asking whether PDM money can reach households to a harder question: Can that money stay productive long enough to change them?

For Adjumani, the answer is still being written and the next chapter may depend less on how much money is disbursed but rather on whether the people who receive it are given the knowledge, markets, oversight and economic space needed to turn a loan into a livelihood.

END.