Poverty, Empowerment and the Local Council: Views from the Grassroots

Abstract

This chapter presents the views of people at the grassroots about how the Local Council system should, as well as does function. In order to obtain a wide range of views, the three districts were selected for this study. These three districts represent, interestingly enough, slightly different degrees of poverty and development within Uganda. Generally Mukono, being close to Kampala, outperforms the national average, while the other two districts do not. Tororo faces more problems than Rakai. But all three districts are improving in the Human Development Index in the 1990s (UNDP, 1998). Therefore, comparisons among the three districts are useful for observing the similarities and differences of the impact of decentralization efforts (Tables 4.1 and 4.2).

Tables 4.1 District human development profile

Table 4.2 District human poverty profile

The LCs are close to the people and in resolving disputes, they are the most important ones to approach. The people respect and obey them because they are the ones responsible if anything goes wrong. They are recognised by government and entrusted with the law — they are overall.

A man made a statement during the focus group discussion, Chema, Kapchorwa District, Uganda, MoFPED, 2000g, p. 106