By our reporter
Manifesto implementation focal persons from the different government Ministries, Departments and agencies (MDA’s) have been urged to amplify reporting on government programmes as a way of strengthening public trust in the ruling government.
The call was made on Thursday by Hajji Yunus Kakande, the Secretary to the Presidency, during the official launch of the 2-day training on the Manifesto Reporting Framework at the Cabinet Library and Office of the President Conference Hall in Kampala. The training, which was attended by Manifesto focal persons from the 28 MDAs directly tasked with implementing the NRM Manifesto 2021-26, was organized by the Manifesto Implementation Unit (MIU) of the office of the President on Wednesday and Thursday.
Highlighting the importance of monitoring government programmes, Kakande thanked the MIU for innovating tools such as the Manifesto Reporting Framework, among others, which continue to enforce and enhance efficiency in this service delivery tracking.
“The manifesto is the (social) contract which the President signed with Ugandans while campaigning and at swearing-in. Consequently, the Cabinet passed and adopted it as one of the tools for policy direction and service delivery implementation. So, coming up with effective ways of monitoring its implementation is a very big milestone,” Kakande said.
He thus urged the focal persons to diligently use the tool whose major objective is to strengthen government’s monitoring and evaluation capacity through; enforcing transparency and accuracy of reporting and evaluating progress made against manifesto objectives and targets; harmonizing data from the various existing sources across government and providing timely information for evidence-based policy decision making.
Why MIU Developed Manifesto Reporting Tool
Mr. Willis Bashaasha, the Director MIU revealed that the Manifesto Reporting Framework tool was launched on March 5, 2024 by the Prime Minister and was innovated by the MIU to enforce harmony and synchronized reporting on government commitments which are lined up in the 2021-26 NRM Manifesto.
To integrate this reporting tool within the existing government reporting frameworks, MIU collaborated with the National Planning Authority (NPA), Office of the Prime Minister, National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) to avoid duplication of already existing government reporting systems.
Bashaasha expressed optimism that the tool, which was developed by HISP Uganda, will help solve some of the challenges in reporting, which in turn will grow the public’s trust in the government through accurately showcasing the tangible achievements made toward the country’s growth and development goals.
“It is our core mandate (as MIU) is to monitor the implementation of the manifesto and to disseminate its progress to the public. However, over the course of this mandate we have realized that there have been some challenges in the reporting such as late reporting, some inaccuracies and lack of cohesion and uniformity in reported data. This is why we sought experts in collaboration with NITA-U to help us develop this reporting framework (tool) with a view of mitigating all these challenges,” Bashaasha said.
Why Training Was organized
According to Bashaasha, the reporting framework was designed ahead of the Manifesto Midterm Review which commenced in May. Subsequently, the different government MDAs through their manifesto focal persons were supposed to populate the tool with information of the progress of government programmes within their respective dockets. This information would then be analysed and scored using the reporting tool’s analysis and scoring functions; which would provide quick data to the public and other stakeholders ahead of this year’s Manifesto Week slated to be held next month.
However, Bashaasha noted that a review by the MIU technical team showed that only 6 out of the 28 targeted MDAs managed to upload the required data.
“That response was very minimal, which made us decide to organize this training so that we can retrain our manifesto focal persons how to manipulate the tool. This training therefore was specifically designed to hold practical sessions with these officials; we are hopeful that after it the reporting will be done smoothly as per our intended objectives,” Bashaasha said.
About the Manifesto Reporting System
The manifesto reporting system is an integrated application dashboard whose primary role is to track, display and visualize performance of priority outputs, and outcome indicators provided for in the NRM Manifesto 2021 – 2025.
It runs from within the NDPIII M&E Web-based system to utilize quarterly and annual performance data reported against targets by MDAs on the NDPIII programmes (20) at both central and local government level.
It is comprised of components including; Overall Performance by theme; Progress on Presidential directives; Overall Programme Performance, and an entry screen for scoring commitments based on entities.
To access the Manifesto dashboard, you need to login to the Integrated NDPIII web-based M&E system. Access credentials are provided by the OPM and NPA system administrators
Bashaasha noted that while the tool was aligned with the NDP III as well as the 5 thematic areas of the NRM Manifesto 2021-26, it is a living tool which can/will be accordingly adjusted to align with relevant development plans as rolled out by government from time to time.