Effectiveness Of Participatory Planning In The Provision Of Service Delivery Case Study: Nakasongola Town Council

Abstract

This study was carried out in Nakasongola Town Council, Nakasongola District

in the Central paii of Uganda. This study explored the effectiveness of

participatory planning in decentralized development in the provision of services

in Nakasongola Town Council. Under the Local Government Act 1997,

participatory planning was adopted as an approach that encourages participation

and involvement of all key stakeholders in development planning and

implementation. The Local Government Act 1997 mandates village, parish

executive committees to initiate, encourage, support and participate in self-help

projects, mobilize people, materials and technical assistance and to monitor

projects and other activities by Government, Local Governments and Non

Governmental Organizations. ·

With the effectiveness of decentralized development in view of poverty

reduction under question, it is not clear whether or not participatory planning

has added value to local development in terms of service delivery. To respond

to this knowledge gap, the study aimed at deepening the understanding of

participation in planning as an approach to decentralized local governance

service delivery. The central question the study asked is, I-low effective

participatory plam1ing in the provision of services in Nakasongola Town

Council is.

Data collection was triangulated using interviews, individual questionnaire, and

Focus group discussion. Respondents were selected using stratified random

sampling method and they included Nakasongola Town Council staff,

Councillors, Local Council leaders I and II, Parish Development Committee

members and community beneficiaries. From the data analysis, it was found out

that participatory planning in Nakasongola Town Council could be clustered as

community participation in Local Government planning process, effectiveness

of participatory planning in identifying community priority needs and

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challenges associated with participatory planning. The Harmonized

Participatory Planning guide provides a framework for participatory bottom-up

planning on participatory investment decision making and resource allocation so

that Local Councils at Parish/Ward, village/cell are more responsive to the

needs of the electorates hence promoting decentralized governance service

delivery.

It can be concluded that, although participatory planning is being implemented

in Local Governments, community empowerment in participatory planning process is essential for more involvement of the community in the planning process. The study therefore came up with the following recommendation; that community empowerment in the planning process should be of paramount importance and their involvement should not only stop at priority identification but rather they should be involved at all stages of the planning process which is priority identification, planning, implementation and monitoring of the projects for effective governance service delivery.