1.1.

1 COMMUNITY MOBILISATION & ORGANISATION

A) Community mobilisation for local economic development

i. Implementation of the Financial Inclusion Pillar shall begin with community

mobilisation for buy-in and participation by the subsistence households. Community
members shall be sensitised on the Financial Inclusion Pillar and its objectives,
qualifying enterprises and implementing modalities. This means informing
community members on how the PDM Financial Inclusion Pillar works and the role it
will play in uplifting their economic status.

ii. Community mobilisation and sensitisation will be conducted at village level meeting
by a team of both local/political leaders and technical staff of the sub-county
including LC1 chairpersons and councillors, CDO/ACDO, Parish Chief among others.
All members of the village shall be encouraged to participate in this meeting so as to
be involved in the initial activities of the PDM. In this meeting, the community shall
be informed about what the PDM is, its objectives, the key pillars, the modalities of
implementation among others. As the village entry process has several steps, the
community will be informed about these steps and how they are expected to
participate in the community entry process. Each village may be visited once or twice
to complete this. This shall be done using a Participatory Appraisal tool in Appendix 3
below.

The following table summarises some of the activities to be used in community

mobilises together with the responsible persons.

STEPS ACTIVITY RESPONSIBLE

PERSONS
Step 1 1. District Leadership Mobilisation: District
a) Identify stakeholders and other opinion leaders to Leadership
inform and sensitise about the PDM Financial Inclusion MPs
Pillar as well as devise strategies for effective RDCs
community mobilisation
b) Sensitise all Parish Chiefs, Sub County Chiefs,
CDOs/ACDOs, DCOs and any other stakeholders that
will be at the forefront of Financial Inclusion Pillar
implementation.

Step 2 2. Public/Community sensitisation and awareness – CDOs

a) Hold village meetings to create awareness of the PDM Parish chief
b) Team headed by the MPs, RDC, LCV chairperson, LC1
engage in a radio talk show on a community/local chairpersons
radio station.
 c) Provide overview of the Financial Inclusion Pillar: its Local
component, rationale, implementation arrangements, councillors
institutional arrangements, funding etc. District
Leadership
MPs
RDCs

B) Community Organisation

i. Emphasis shall be placed on organised interest groups to ensure that Government

support to a particular Parish is harmonised and coordinated to create synergy for
development.
ii. Community organisation shall come with the following benefits among others;

 Promotion of collective/bulk-buying of inputs from reliable sources

(preferably the off-takers).

 Promotion of cooperative storage facilities to reduce post-harvest losses,

enable quality improvement (cleaning, drying), bulking and holding until
prices are favourable. This way, stock could be used as collateral for financial
services.

 Better organisation of activities along the value chain, as well as the number
of persons involved make knowledge-based risk mitigation and use of formal
insurance more likely.

 Reduction of information asymmetry in financing of subsistence households

through the collection and management of detailed data on producers’
activities (acreage, number of crops/animals, productivity levels, etc.).

 Data collection, which shall beef up community information at the Parish

level.

 Substituting the need for collateral through group guarantee especially for
individual loans.

 Dealing with the longstanding risk of side selling in contract farming 1, where
1
An agreement between farmers and processing and or marketing firms for the production and supply of
agricultural products under formal agreements frequently at determined prices.
 farmers decide to break the contract with an off-taker and sell to other
buyers. This has limited the use of contract farming in Uganda.

iii. Households shall be organised into interest groups that are engaged in a common
income-generating activity (income-generating activity) within their locality i.e. at
the Village/Cell and the Parish/Ward levels.
iv. Each Interest Group shall be required to practice and adhere to core principles of
building on their initiatives to ensure the sustainability of the groups and their
investments/projects.
v. Each interest group shall subscribe to the Parish Development Association for it to
benefit from Government Programmes. This will enable households at the Parish
level to benefit from; economies of scale (in savings, production, marketing and
extension services), quality inputs/output, reliable production advice, improved
information (on) and connectivity to commodity as well as minimise post-harvest
losses on top of access to finance.
vi. For any transformation to happen, households need a minimum package of
coordinated services. This package shall include financial services, extension services,
marketing and value addition services etc.
vii. As such, Parish Development Associations shall be formed or strengthened as a
vehicle for empowering members in production, value addition, marketing and
financing. Each Parish Development Association shall be constituted by interest
groups with common objectives and engaged in common enterprises or activities. It
is through this Parish Development Associations that government shall deliver
services to the parish residents.
viii. Accordingly, community organisation of households will also be leveraged by
numerous government programmes and initiatives under other Pillars of the PDM
especially Pillar 1 - Production, Storage, Value addition, Processing and Marketing.
ix. Two categories of households will be supported depending on the level of
organisation;-
a) Category 1 – those who are organised in already registered interest groups.
b) Category 2 – subsistence households that are not organised in any group .
x. For Category 1 households, this Pillar shall build on these and will be supported to
run a common income-generating activity (income-generating activity) within their
locality.
xi. Category 2 subsistence households shall be organised as follows:

Figure 1: Community organisation process and strategy

Parish
Households Development
Interest Groups Association
 1. Interest Group

i. Where interest groups are non-existent, government shall encourage and support
subsistence households to come together around a common income generating
activity.
ii. This shall ensure the transformation of households from subsistence to the money
economy using self-driven and self-directed interest groups.
iii. Using the attached Participatory Community Appraisal tool, subsistence households
shall be identified on each village and encouraged to be part of a village-based
development group (“Interest Group”).
iv. Members of each interest group shall be engaged in similar income generating
activity as a basis for coming together.
v. Each Interest Group shall consist of a minimum of 10 members and each village may
have more than one interest group. This is adequate to ensure that the support
reaches Government’s targeted number of 2.5million households per annum and
therefore the realization of intended impact of the PDM. At least 30 percent of these
should be women and 30 percent should be youth.
vi. Each interest group shall constitute an executive Committee from its membership.
vii. The Committee of the interest group shall play an oversight role towards the
implementation of support provided to the interest groups by various state and non-
state actors. The nomination and election of the individual members to the
Committee shall be done by the groups themselves in a participatory manner. At
least two members on the executive shall be women. The Committee shall comprise
the following:-
a) Chairperson.
b) Vice Chairperson
c) Secretary
d) Treasurer
e) Publicity

viii. The Committee of the interest group shall profile all group members as a means of
determining their individual needs and what is needed.
ix. The profiling process shall involve identification and evaluation of assets available at
member and group level. This is crucial to profile the group on its status with regard
to saving, loans; members’ social and economic condition including their experience
in various income generating areas including their household income and
 expenditure pattern; all aimed at helping the group to better understand the sources
of livelihoods.
x. The following table summarises some of the activities to be used in group
identification, assessment, formation, registration & strengthening.

STEPS ACTIVITY RESPONSIBLE

PERSONS
Step 1 1. Identification of subsistence households Participatory
a) Hold Village meetings to sensitise the households about the PDM Community
b) At each village meeting, residents identify the subsistence Appraisal Team
households among them and recommend them for support under comprising
the PRF Parish Chief
c) Subsistence households are registered and shall be organised into CDO/ACDO
interest groups that are engaged in a common income-generating Local Councillors
activity (income-generating activity) within their locality i.e. at the LC1 chairpersons
Village/Cell and the Parish/Ward levels.

Step 2 2. Group Identification Parish Chief

a) Listing of all active interest groups within the Parish CDO/ACDO
b) Conduct a situation analysis of their status. That is their registration Local Councillors
status, membership composition, leadership, record keeping, saving LC1 chairpersons
and loan portfolio, recovery rates and financial status.
c) Profile the socio-economic status of interest groups with emphasis
on their main activity, etc.
d) Interest group informed of their preliminary status of being able to
join the Parish Development Association.
Step 3 3. Individual Group Preparation Parish chief
a) When an interest group is identified as having potential to join the CDO/ACDO
Parish Development Association, leaders will be required to Group
mobilise members for a meeting. Leadership
b) Sensitize all members about the Financial Inclusion Pillar: its
component, rationale, implementation arrangements, institutional
arrangements, funding.
c) Assess group readiness to participate in income generating
activities.
Step 4 4. Profiling interest group Members Group
a) Collect information on each member in terms of their social and leadership
economic condition including their experience in various income
generating areas
b) Members of the household and their occupation
c) Asset details: land, livestock, type of house etc.
d) Liability: Debt, Mortgage, Borrowing etc.
e) Vulnerability of the family.
f) Income and expenditure
Step 5 5. Formation of the Parish Development Association  Parish chief
a) All members seconded by identified interest groups shall meet on a  Seconded
pre-decided day, venue and time. members of
 b) The meeting shall be chaired by the Parish chief or his appointed various
agent to maintain neutrality. Interest
c) Rules for the selection/election of committee of the Parish Groups
Development Association are agreed upon and discussed (Not more
than one person from the same group unless all groups are
represented, secret ballot or open voting, etc.)
d) The members shall select an interim secretary to document the
proceedings of the meeting.
e) As much as possible, decisions taken shall be by consensus but if not
it shall be by majority vote of the members.
f) Quorum for the meeting(s) shall be at least 75% of the membership.
g) Elected/selected committee of the Parish Development Association
installed.
h) Sub-committees of the Committee of the Parish Development
Association established.
Step 6 6. Registration of Parish Development Association  Committee
a) The committee meets to draft the bye-laws to guide the Parish of the Parish
Development Association operations. Development
b) The regulation shall state the committee tenure, special committees Association
to handle specific functions, meetings and their regularity, managing
finances, roles of various office bearers, etc.
c) Members shall agree on dues to be paid by each interest group.
d) Make formal request for registration as CBO.
e) Committee shall meet and make a resolution for Bank Account
Opening.
Step 7 7. Capacity Building of Parish Development Association  CDO
a) Organise regular training sessions for the interest groups and Parish
Development Associations.
b) Training topics include group dynamics, group management, record
keeping, basic life skills, conflict resolution, household planning, goal
setting and visioning, loan management and financial literacy skills
etc.
Step 8 8. Identify and agree on an investment menu with core primary  Committee
enterprise(s) for the Parish of the Parish
Each Parish shall have flagship projects that will benefit all Development
interested subsistence households. Association
 PDC
a) The flagship project(s)/ production lines for the Parish shall be
identified and selected by the parish residents in a participatory
manner at a meeting that involve all members of the Parish
Development Association (PDA).
b) Once PDA members have chosen their preferred development
project(s), this shall be forwarded to the Parish Chief for
presentation to the Parish Development Committee.
c) Within 14days of receipt of notification of the proposed projects
from the PDA, a validation meeting of the Parish Development
Committee (the PDC) shall be held to approve the most viable
 project(s) for the Parish among those submitted by the PDA.
d) The CDO and relevant sector experts shall guide the PDC in choosing
the most viable project(s) to be funded under the PRF, which will be
prioritized for funding under the Parish Revolving Fund.
e) Generally, the final choice of the project(s) by the PDC shall be
based on the different aspects of the market, production costs,
profitability and the sustainability of the project in that Parish. The
chosen project(s) therefore will be based on: their returns on
investment; marketability; agro-ecological comparative advantage in
terms of yields and land availability; value addition in terms of
existing storage and processing facilities and crowd pull
/aggregation; and sustainability. This means that project selection
by the PDC shall prioritise production lines that are locally and
readily available, offer a positive return on investment and have
ready market both nationally and internationally.
f) Upon choosing the most viable project(s), the PDC shall notify the
PDA who will also mobilise the parish residents to participate in the
project(s).
g) The PDC shall ask the PDA to receive/prepare business plans from
the Parish residents (via their respective interest groups) for the
chosen project(s) and submit these together with formal loan
application as well as details of all the residents who are
participating in the project(s).
h) In urban areas, priority shall be given to projects in value addition,
input production, as well as the buying and selling of produce from
any of the recommended production lines, in order to enable the
subsistence households in urban areas set up enterprises/projects
that have a high multiplier effect on jobs and wealth creation.