Arua District Local Government

RDC-Arua, Mr. Gore Goffin advises the congregation at the 63rd Independence Day Celebration at Omogoro to create personal developments in their homesteads as the government provides the social services you want.
"Be the change you want to see" Mahatma Ghandi

Arua District Local Government on 23rd October, 2024 commissioned the 14km Bondo-Obaru road that costed 199,500,000 shillings from the road rehabilitation grant. SAS, Arivu Subcounty told the people the road should improve their livelihoods as it will simplify transportation of goods to the market. The LC III, Arivu Subcounty advised the people to own the road, protect it from being miss managed and avoid heaping soil inform of humps, which is illegal.
The Vice chairman and Head of Government business, Hon. William cautioned the road users about overspeeding, maintain the road hygiene, as development starts from bottom to the top.

Arua District Local Government on 23rd October, 2024 commissioned Orewa bridge in Oci village of Ajia Sub-county. The bridge that costed 370,500,000 shillings is from the road rehabilitation grant. The LC III Chairman, Mr. Anguajibi Jacob expressed his gratitude to the government for the funds and also thanked the district for considering this particular spot since the uncontrollable waters had claimed lives of people and animals, property , and negatively affected other activities like trade and education and attendance of school since children couldn’t cross to the other side of the river. The area male Councilor to the district, Hon. Ayikobua Cosmas told the people to maximize the use of the bridge for trade and added that service delivery from the part of the government is their right. The district chairman, Hon. Alfred Okuonzi asked the people to use it for the right purpose that can relate to development of individual income and the entire community. The Assistant RDC, Mr. Okumu told the congregation that a bridge connects people and places, and added that this should relate to socio-economic transformation.

Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) had an inception meeting to Arua District today October 22nd 2024. HRAPF, a legal and Human Rights organization working towards access to services and justice for key populations in Uganda is funded by Global Fund, through TASO for the next three years from 2024 to 2026. This is in accordance with the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan 2020/21- 2024/25; which recognizes the key populations as; People who inject drugs, S*x workers, People in prisons and other closed settings.
The DCAO Arua, Mr. John Jacob Walega Bangibasa said he is pleased with the work TASO is doing in regards to reduction of stigma to PLWHIV and thanked Gobal Fund and pledged total support to HRAPF.
The secretary Human Capital Development welcomed the project and highlighted tat stigma against PLWHIV is still on a high scale in the communities. He pointed out that Arua is a border district and has many porous borders, and truck drivers that needed to be categorized as key populations as well.
The district chairman, Hon. Alfred Okuonzi said Arua being a border district has many hotspots, citing some busy towns of; Vurra customs, Odianyadri, Dubai, Bondo. He said an HR violation is real, there is stigma, discrimination, criminalization and policing. He welcomed HRAPF to Arua District and pledged support.

Arua District Local Government has launched the construction of Ongongerowa bridge in Ajia subcounty, Ombokoro Village, connecting Ajia subcounty and Arivu Subcounty. The RDC, Mr. Toko Swaib asked the members to monitor works on the bridge, do policing and provide security to the engineers, and also provide useful labor for this work. He asked members that will be employed to provide labor for these works to prioritize their families and reduce alcohol consumption.
According to the Mr. Afimani the senior roads inspector, the road connecting to Arivu is next in line for construction.

Arua District Local Government has today the 15th October 2024 launched Road construction of Ocoko-Muni road. The 4.6km road that also intends to divert traffic from the main Kampala-Arua road will cost 50 million shillings.
The RDC, Mr. Toko Swaib told the community that this road will boost business as it will connect people and places. The Vice District Chairman, Hon. Bilea William asked the community to act as security to the road engineers and monitor that the right work is being done.
The secretary for Human Capital Development, Hon. Candini Luiji asked the community members not to put humps of the road and put the road to rightful use.
The DCAO, Mr. Bangibasa promised that the Engineers will do a good job as they have always delivered. He thanked the community for being patient and cooperative.

ADLG health department together with partner AMREF reviewed the performance of the health sector per health facility for the last quarter of the financial year 2023/2024.
Arua district health results has shown a steady improvement in service delivery to a tune of 47% from 31%.
The health in charges of the 11 health facilities pledged to improve service delivery by proper record taking and data management, proposed working committees, work closely with parish chiefs, VHTs to be paid basing on the ICCM, and team work. They however noted issues of concern like; under staffing, poor attitude of community members and some staff members, some health facilities with less supplies, knowledge gap on data management, time management amongst some staff and clients, and a wide catchment area for some health facilities.
The SAS of the four subcounties acknowledged results and pledged to improve through team work, find out men whose wives deliver from home, urged the health workers to improve on customer care, district to increase on staffing, to sign performance agreement with the health workers, increase more health centers, asked the district to improve on infrastructure so that people can easily access the health facilities.
The Health department officials advised health workers to practice integration to promote better service delivery in outreach posts, male specific engagement, involve religious and cultural leaders.
The CAO, Mr. Nicholas Ogwang asked the medics to have passion for their work and he expressed his confidence that the health team can do better. He urged the community services to encourage people to attend antenatal. He also promised as an administrator of the model district to effectively handle the administrative issues of the gap in the human resource in these health facilities.
The Secretary for Human Capital development, Mr. Chandini Luiji said there has always been a poor turn up for our reach but they will continue to encourage the community.
The LC5, Hon. Alfred Okuonzi applauded the health department for the improvement and thanked AMREF for always supporting the health department. He however encouraged all and said Arua can perform better this time around.
The RDC, Mr. Okiswa Geoffrey encouraged everyone to do what they are supposed to do, pay VHTs promptly, communicate effectively and work hard.
The day was crowned by a ceremonious hand over of a motorcycle given by the Ministry of Health, under Uganda Covid-19 Emergency Preparedness Prevention Project for improving immunization services.

Spotlight 2.0

BRAC Uganda and Action Aid are to jointly implement a UNFPA funded project, spotlight 2.0 which is to run through to 2027. The project that is to have activities of gender for development and End Child Marriage (ECM) through its gender transformative approach is targeting among others schools as an entry point. The schools in question are;
- Eruba Primary School special needs unit
- Okavu p/s Logiri
- Logiri Girls SS
- Ushindi SS
- Vurra SS
- Arivu SS
- Bondo Army SS
- Modern SS Ocoko
- Koboko Tech
- Ocoko Rehab
The project will target orienting school administrations on sexuality framework, form 10-24 out of school clubs, community advocacy and radio talk shows.
Action Aid on the other hand will focus on conducting orientation for technical and political leaders in GBV, ensure quarterly review meetings, have sector meetings, review with male action groups.
The Deputy CAO welcomed the team to Arua District saying this was a timely move that is tailormade to meet the needs of the population and to combat the problems the district is grappling with.
The District Chairman, Mr. Alfred Okuonzi asked the office of the CAO to permanently accommodate these partners in the district adding that they are helping us build on the past by employing a holistic multi-sectoral approach in line with NDP 3. The chair told the meeting that the newly instated cultural institutions are also helping in changing social norms.

The technical staff of ADLG today 16th July, 2024 attended a workshop on Local Government Management Service Delivery Dissemination. The staff were taken through the "to be implemented" criteria for scoring LG performance effective FY 2024/2025.
In attendance was the District Chairman, Hon. Alfred Okuonzi who encouraged the staff to have a proactive mindset and applauded the team for the improving trends in the last performance.
He however highlighted to the officials from the Office of the Prime Minister that one of ADLGs big challenge is in the area of Human Capital Development; requesting the government to employ officials to fill Acting and vacant positions.
The CAO, Mr. Nicholas Ogwang thanked the team for the team spirit and said ADLG has performed much better than 2023. He also encouraged regular performance meetings within the different departments.