USMID : Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development

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In his address to them, Stephen Ajaalu told the leadership of the Municipality, to ensure that payments to contractors, consultants and all employees on the project before June 30, because past that deadline, the Municipality could be forced to use their local revenue to settle the obligations. He said that while their work is commended, they didn’t include most important aspects of an urban road like cycle lanes, walk ways among others. He said the municipality, being young should consider future projects that provide for all those aspects because apart from having great roads, pedestrians and cyclists have to be put into consideration.

On the fourth day, the World Bank Mission team covered Kamuli Municipality. Kamuli has implemented USMID for the last 5years and has used UgX 25,628,767,967 through the period, in which they have successfully had construction of Industrial area Rd (0.82km), Byaino Rd (0.8km) Nadiope Rd( 0.412Km), Babubhai Rd(0.181Km), Badaza (0.317Km), Muwanga Rd (0.369Km), Ben Lubale (0.47Km), Commercial Rd (0.635Km), Lubaga Rd (1.094Km), Kadhuba Rd (1.272Km), Hajjat Watongola (0.265Km), all totalling to 7.415kms of road, all 2 lanes equivalent.

Kamuli, during their report to the Mission team indicated that through-out the civil works period, 241 local residents were employed on the projects, a quarter of whom are females, and that this had led to an improvement into peoples income status over the period of time. All the completed civil works have the requisite features of solar street lights, drains and walkaways among others. The municipality reported that they had completed installation of 352 solar lights, and that the average number of people using the taxi park and bus terminals daily were 2020, while 208 people were directly employed in the taxi and bus terminal.

To protect the environment and make the municipality more liveable and friendly, Kamuli reported that they had planted 215 trees, majorly fruit tree species, covering an area space of 1.2 acres of land. The Municipality also reported 20.94 tonnes as the collected waste on a daily basis, which is eventually disposed off. Under the USMID program, Kamuli received a garbage collection truck, and also one weighbridge, used to measure the collections to ease on the reporting of garbage collected.

Due to the growth in businesses, which followed the new paved roads within the business centre, Kamuli reported an increment in their local revenue collections and showed figures growing from 190M collected in FY2019/2020, to 609M now collected in FY 2023/2024. The Municipality collects local revenue using the of local government managed revenue collection system – IRAS.

Kamuli, in the last 5yrs of the USMID program has had an upsurge in the population in the central business district, with an average number of vehicles using their street parking daily standing at 115, and 7 people employed in the parking industry. The municipality however has not yet formalised their street parking modalities

Using the grant from the USMID, for institutional strengthening and capacity building, Kamuli has had 9 of their technical staff attain certificates in different vocations like Monitoring and evaluation, public administration and urban governance, CPA, administrative law, Health safety and environment and NEBOSH. With the trainings attained, the Municipality reports a change in their work ethics, professionalism, improvement in service delivery, great performance in the APA assessments each year, and certifications like accounts becoming chartered in their professions.

The 3rd day activities on the World Bank support supervision mission were in Busia Municipality. Busia is a border town, and one of the new Municipalities implementing the Usmid Program together with Mubende, Kamuli, Lugazi, Apac, Ntungamo, Kasese and Kitgum, Busia has only implemented USMID for 5yrs.

In his welcome remarks, Amin Sadiq, the mayor Busia Municipality asked for more funding to Busia, saying the 5yrs have been a great addition to Busia, but a drop in the ocean.

In their period, they have successfully implemented works on Busia SS Rd (0.176km), Wanyama Bonny Rd (0.279km), Market Square Rd (0.895km), Obernester Rd (0.517km), Ekaka rd (0.658km) and renovation and refurbishment of taxi park with a total of 114 solar street lights on all the paved roads.

With a widely expanded tax base, Busia reported to the World Bank team that they had grow collections in own source revenues from 378M in 2019/2020 to 848M in 2023/2024. The municipality also reported that land value on Obernester road had shot from 15m to 35m; on Ekaka road 35m to 60m, while along market square land rates had shot from 60m to 100m and 15m and 20m to 40m for a piece of land along the taxi park.

Like in other local governments, Busia also reported an improved work environment for the technical staff who, using the municipal institutional grant earned from the centre had trained 10 of their staff in public administration & governance, financial management, project planning & management, procurement & supply chain management, health safety and environment and NEBOSH.

With the staff training, Busia reported evidence of an increased awareness on environmental and social issues as shown in reports of cases reported to the municipality and how they have been handled, and that the last financial year 2021/2022 the PPDA audit issued Busia with a moderately satisfactory score of 60% and that they have continuously received unqualified audit opinions from when the program started.

The World Bank team proceeded to Mbale City and in his welcome remarks, the Mayor, Cassimu Namugari said the city was positioning itself and very ready to implement the new phase called UCMID, that is projected to starts in July 2025. He said both technical and political wings have gained a lot of support, and already seeing the communities in the neighbouring areas also enjoying the spill overs of the development in the city due to the 10yrs support of the USMID program.

Currently Mbale city has completed works on Naboa Rd (0.662km), Cathedral Avenue (0.835km), Central Rd(0.300km), Manafwa & Market place Rd (0.440km), North Rd (0.400km), Nkonkonjeru Terrace (0.440km), Pallisa Rd and Connection from bishop Wasikye to Pallisa Rd (2.12KM).

Mbale city local revenue performance has grown from 732M in financial year 2019/2020 to 1.78bn in financial year 2023/2024

In his address to the city stakeholders after the field visit, the World Bank task team lead Stephen Ajalu said the visit, which could be the last mission on the program had chosen Mbale city among the cities, to assess the status of performance on the ongoing works both under the development grant and also the institutional strengthening budget allocated to the city over the last 10yrs, and their readiness to close. The program shall be closing June 30, 2024.

Mr Ajaalu commended Mbale for great work performance as seen on the ground, and also the engagement of communities who seemed informed and awake to the works and project activities, and hence were supportive in supervision and monitoring. He said the issue of flooding seems to have been partly solved, and a lot more efforts were needed to solve the issue completely and the impact of the floods onto the businesses had been reduced.

He said the World bank team also wanted to assess the results of the program for the last 10yrs. He said that while most results evident like infrastructure, solar street lights and trees among others, there were other results that are not easily tangible like capacity building, retooling among others, but that there is need to prove that they registered results and that such reports would guide and inform the next funding phase. Mr Ajaalu also said the World Bank team also had an interest in sustainability of the city- how they would operate and maintain the infrastructure, solar lights and all the road equipment that they had achieved over the years.

In their presentation to the Bank team, Mbale city reported that over the last 5yrs, 13 of their staff had benefited from capacity building by undertaking professional courses, and this has improved on the capacities to undertake official work.

Day 2 of the Wolrd Bank Support Implementation Mission started with the Bank visiting Tororo Municipality. Tororo has been implementing the USMID program for 10yrs and has successfully had a face uplift and also revenues have gone up from 400m to 900m due to the business growth.

In his brief to the leadership of Tororo, the Bank Task Team leader Stephen Ajalu said that since the program is closing June 30, 2024, the Bank would send an independent team to verify the performance over the last 10yrs. He said the report would verify the performance of the LGs, compile testimonies from beneficiaries who will be randomly selected and also advising if the choice of projects was fair and beneficial to the communities

He also said the current mission was conducting a verification, ascertaining their capacity of sustainability, checking progress of work ahead of closure and also listening to the leaders challenges if any and lessons learned for future projects consideration.

In her welcome remarks , the Deputy Mayor, Ms Beatrice Achola expressed gratitude to Government for the program, and asked for more funding especially consideration in the forthcoming UCMID program that is expected to commence 2025.

In his brief, the Deputy RDC, Mr Amula Albert appreciated the World Bank, saying there is a lot of transformation in Tororo from an informal setting to a formal one. He said as USMID closes, the world bank should enable the Municipality complete all planned civil works so that they race to delivering services to their people and grow into a city.

On sustainability and Maintenance, Mr Amula said there is a gap between the first projects of the first program phase and the current. He said the Ministry of Lands should ensure therr is a budget for Operation & Maintenance, to ensure there is longevity of the projects.

�Day one of the last World Bank Implementation support supervision of the Usmid Program commenced with Moroto Municipality.

�Led by the Commissioner of Urban Development Me. Joseph Walter Pade, the World Bank team informed the mayor that their intention was to establish the readiness of closure and how he intends to sustain what he's already achieved in the lady 10yrs.
�He said the team was also expecting to hear exact results on the ground from the inception of the program activities in Moroto like the constructed taxi park, and the roads (Jie road & Lopeduru Road) and a cross section of solar street lights within the Municipality on already paved roads that weren't rehabilitation by the Usmid

Program.
�In his remarks, the head of the Bank team, also the Task Team leader, Stephen John Ajaalu said while the visit could be the last mission in Moroto, there would be a completion one which would be measuring results and also documenting completion of the whole program.
�He said they would be looking at status of functionality, completion and lessons learned. He said they would also want to hear some ideas from the Mayor and his team incase they need some changes and improvements in future.
�As he communicated, ths Mayor said ths bus terminal has created trade order and its a game changer for his Municipality because of revenue collections and said Usmid has "put

them somewhere." He said the 2 roads undertaken under USMID AF, they were strategically put around the market which made the lives of vendors easy to operate. He said street lighting later impacted more and improved security.
"A town will not be a town without night economy" he says. "The program is so good, that it has changed the face of the whole country.
�On Institutional strengthening grant, the Mayor said the trainings changed the Mindset of leaders which would eventually change the Mindset of the communities . He said the grant also supported career enhancement on technical staff whose education levels has been low, but they can now operate effectively.
�He said his challenge was on the funding and allocation of resources to

the different LGs.he said the money that comes to Moroto is so meagre and he feels its unfair compared to Teso subregion, Acholi, Mango and westnile among others. He said there is a need to consider using affirmative action on their area because of their history and be considered as a special area.
�The Mayor also said Kotido should also come on board, so that the region is fast tracked. "We have potential to grow faster but the resources are meagre" and the area will not achieve these dreams as fast as expected.
�On sustainability, he said their plan is to look at the local revenue collected because there is no other way.
�The second challenge he said was about Designs. Quoting the opening of the road which had an underground river which made the project expensive.

He asked that the future designs should be conducted by technical pple on the ground. This he said made the road very expensive.
�The other challenge he said was Transport and that his technical team doesn't have enough transport for revenue mobilization and supervision. He prayed for vehicles in the next coming program. He proposed that the program cars be donated to the local governments when project closes.
He said the other challenge is Waste management, and he said it should be handled as a stand alone project with a sewerage and lagoon component since Moroto is aspiring to be a city.

More stories around the USMID program will be running tonight on at 7pm and at 9pm. Tune in!