By Timothy Lukanga
Minister for General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister Rt.Hon Justine Kasule Lumumba commended the UNDP for supporting Uganda’s national development through poverty reduction, youth empowerment, and disaster risk management, and for ensuring access to justice and making legal processes more efficient.
Lumumba represented Ms. Robinah Nabbanja, hailed Ms Attafuah for helping the government in policy implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation. She was speaking in Kampala on Friday during a farewell dinner hosted honoring to Ms. Elsie Attafuah, the outgoing Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
“We are supposed to be working together so closely but we were not working so closely on issues to do with policy. But this lady has narrowed the gap between the office of the Prime Minister in terms of implementation of the policies, but also in terms of informing and forming policy by doing monitoring and evaluation on the side and creating a platform for us to share,” Lumumba Said.
Ms. Elsie Attafuah, the outgoing Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has called on Ugandans to embrace and live the dream of the country’s motto – “For God and My Country”.
“It is just paradoxical that a country like Uganda has everything it takes to prosper and yes, tell our people, we must distract that. We cannot have a country that has 11% of the entire world’s best species here [and remains poor]. You have crater lakes, snow-capped mountains, the Source of the Nile, Lake Victoria everything and yet we must feel frustrated,” she added.
Prof Suruma Former Makerere University Chancellor said Uganda needs to address its root causes of poverty, including high population growth, unemployment, and dependency on foreign debt and aid. One proposal is to provide contracts to the labour force and utilize oil revenues for social protection and pensions.
UNDP also launched the Coffee Table Book celebrating 51 years accompanying Uganda’s development.
Ms Attafuah has been the UNDP Resident Representative for Uganda since 2019 during the UN agency has been partnering with the government and the private sector to promote several.
