Since 1977, UNDP Uganda Office has been working in partnership with government of Uganda, and other stakeholders to eliminate poverty, inequality and exclusion to achieve sustainable development, and transform the country into a middle income economy in line with the vision of the National Development Plan. Over the last three decades, a number of UNDP-led initiatives have contributed significantly to the current growth – averaging 6.5% - and helped to sustain the country on its current path of development.

One of the two major pillars (Inclusive and effective governance), UNDP strongly believes that good governance based on constitutional democracy fosters national development by creating an environment conducive for investment.  It also promotes efficient and effective national resource allocation systems facilitate the equitable distribution of growth dividends, strong public institutions that can combat corruption and improve service delivery. Hence, strong security and justice systems which boost social cohesion, peace and stability leading to sustainable development.

Under this pillar, the Inclusive and Sustainable New Communities (ISNC) Project in Uganda is suited to the Institutional Effectiveness portfolio. The ISNC project aims to build on Government of Uganda and Development Partners’ achievements in local development and decentralisation. Promoting-community based local development through the Saemaul Undong (SMU) model, ISNC project also attempts to create national and policy level linkages of the community level results. In the spirit of core SMU principles of self-reliance and financial sustainability, the project will take a suggested 2-3-5 approach to structure resources required for the project at local level, meaning 20 percent ODA matching with 30 percent Government cost-sharing and 50 percent in-kind forms of community mobilization of labour and services, etc. The co-financing pattern may be adjusted to fit the country context. This will ensure that the project and future rollouts of the ISNC start with a self-reliance approach and become less aid dependent in the long run.

Project Summary:

• Output 1:  Strengthened institutional system of local development systems through planning, budgeting, and implementation and monitoring, with focus on sub-county, parish and village development committees to address the dependency syndrome on central government and donors;
• Output 2: Enhanced cohesiveness and inclusiveness of community development at local level, increasing participation and engaging women, youth, poorest, disadvantaged and marginalized population and reducing fragmentation of community-based associations;
• Output 3: Local resources increased and financing mechanisms improved to ensure that they reach community level through innovative and sustained financing of local development priorities identified by community-based organizations and village development committees;
• Output 4: Scale up of proven sustainability innovations including ICT, environment friendly technologies, and social enterprises through standardization, certification, dissemination and incentives;
• Output 5: Generated knowledge is documented and disseminated nationally and globally through South-South cooperation mechanisms, linkage with academia is reinforced.