By Col (Rtd) Dr Francis Ongia
Dear Dr Constantine,
Thank you for this very important question and for the spirit in which you have raised it.
I fully agree that Uganda belongs to all of us and that the free exchange of ideas is not only healthy but necessary for national development. It is through constructive engagement that good ideas are refined, implementation gaps identified, and better solutions developed.
Regarding your question, my view is that PDM, Emyooga, GROW, and similar wealth creation programmes are not silver bullets in themselves. Rather, they are important instruments within a much larger transformation ecosystem.
If I may use an agro-industrialization analogy, these programmes provide seeds and fertilizer, but seeds and fertilizer alone do not guarantee a successful harvest. They must operate within an enabling environment that includes access to land, water, infrastructure, markets, affordable financing, extension services, value addition, and effective institutions.
The real question therefore is not whether PDM, Emyooga, or GROW are good programmes. The more strategic question is whether they are sufficiently integrated into a complete household transformation and agro-industrialization framework.
For example:
- A farmer may receive PDM funds but lack access to quality inputs, irrigation, or markets.
- An Emyooga beneficiary may receive capital but lack business skills or market opportunities.
- A GROW beneficiary may access financing but face structural barriers that limit enterprise growth.
Similarly, the Trade Order may improve urban organization and efficiency, but unless livelihood transition measures are carefully managed, some households may experience temporary disruptions before realizing long-term benefits.
This is why I have consistently argued that household transformation should be viewed as a system rather than a project.
In my humble opinion, sustainable transformation requires the simultaneous functioning of several pillars:
Productive households.
Affordable financing.
Water and irrigation.
Extension and technical support.
Cooperatives and aggregation.
Value addition and industrialization.
Reliable markets.
Infrastructure and logistics.
Policy and institutional coordination.
Communication for Development (C4D).
Resource Mapping and Enterprise Suitability Analysis.
I deliberately add Communication for Development because many good programmes fail not due to poor policy but because intended beneficiaries do not fully understand them. Communities need continuous sensitization, participation, feedback mechanisms, behavioural change support, and success stories that inspire adoption. Communication is therefore not an afterthought; it is a strategic implementation tool that connects policy to people and people to opportunity.
Equally important is Resource Mapping. Before financing, production, or industrialization decisions are made, we must first understand what resources exist in each household, parish, sub-county, district, and region. Different areas possess different comparative advantages in terms of soils, water resources, climate, vegetation, livestock potential, minerals, tourism assets, labour, and market access.
Without resource mapping, we risk promoting enterprises that are not naturally suited to particular locations. With proper resource mapping, however, we can guide households and communities into enterprises where they possess the highest probability of success and competitiveness.
In many ways, resource mapping provides the intelligence, while communication provides the connectivity. Together they become the missing links that help transform programmes into results.
When all these pillars work together, programmes such as PDM, Emyooga, and GROW become highly impactful. When they operate in isolation, their effectiveness is naturally constrained.
Therefore, I would not describe them as silver bullets. Rather, I would describe them as important building blocks whose success depends on the strength of the wider ecosystem in which they operate.
Perhaps the next phase of our national conversation should focus less on individual programmes and more on how we can strengthen the linkages between resource mapping, communication, household production, financing, markets, value addition, and industrialization so that no household is left behind.
That, in my view, is where the real transformation dividend lies and where the vision of sustainable wealth creation can be fully realized.
Senior Liasion Officer UDC
Respectfully,
Col (Rtd) Dr Francis Ongia
Co-Chairman, IPD/PAIC
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