Minister of State for Planning, Amos Lugoloobi officiated at the National Development Plan number four (NDPIV) National Planning Conference organised by National Planning Authority at the Office of the President Auditorium.
Lugoloobi said the NDPIV should be ready by September 2024 to inform the country’s macroeconomic framework and budgeting processes for FY 2025\/26. The NDP III expires in June 2025.
The NDPIV is the fourth out of the six National Development Plans that are meant to implement Uganda Vision 2040.It is also the last plan to deliver the global agenda 2030 of the sustainable development goals and the first within the implementation of government\u2019s strategy for achieving 10-fold growth.
The goal of NDPIV is “to achieve higher household incomes and employment for sustainable socio-economic transformation.” It is premised on the theme: Sustainable industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation.”
The Minister said NDPIV strategic direction was approved by Cabinet in March 2024 and is in line with the strategy of growing the economy ten-fold from the current USD 50 billion as of FY 2023\/24 to USD 500 billion in the next 15 years in a transformative, inclusive and sustainable manner.
The NDPIV will be achieved through five strategic objectives and these are:
\uf0b7Sustainably increasing production, productivity and value addition in agriculture, minerals, oil and gas.
\uf0b7Tourism, CT & financial services.
\uf0b7Enhancing human capital development.
\uf0b7Supporting private sector to drive growth.
\uf0b7Building & maintaining strategic sustainable infrastructure.
\uf0b7Strengthening good governance, security and role of the state in development.
The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST), Ramathan Ggoobi said NDPIV should be fiscally realistic. He noted that the introduction of Indicative Planning Figures (IPFs) is a step towards ensuring that the limited resources of government are used efficiently, safeguarding ongoing commitments and strategically taking on new priorities in line with the 10-fold growth strategy.
He said critical projects such as the Standard gauge railway (SGR) and Oil projects need to be carried forward in NDPIV.
The PSST called for commitment to prudent and effective planning in this process of developing NDPIV, adding that there is need to ensure that development plans are based on availability of resources (aligning resources with revenue forecasts to maintain financial stability) and guarding against the pitfall of over ambitious projections and underfunded priorities.
Ggoobi encouraged Programme leaders to focus on developing detailed programme implementation action plans(PIAPS) with clear resource allocations.
He also called for effective coordination and collaboration between government and Development Partners to maximise resource utilization & minimize duplication of efforts.
The Head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, Lucy Nakyobe said the silo approach towards service delivery has persisted and limiting the intended purpose of the programme approach to planning and implementation.
Among the proposed measures to improve service delivery, she called for development and enforcement of service and service delivery standards which will provide a benchmark for monitoring and accountability.
The Deputy Executive Director, National Planning Authority Charles Oleny said the purpose of the National Planning conference was to officially communicate the NDPIV Strategic Direction and the Planning Call Circular, in addition to kick-starting the decentralised planning processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n