Lives of the elderly at risk as donors threaten to withdraw from social protection scheme
Over 1400 senior citizens currently on the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) in the 48 district are bound to lose out after foreign funders threatened to withdraw from the scheme as a result of government failing to respect the counterpart funding agreement.
Legislators under their umbrella body Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Social Protection want the ministry of Finance to immediately release the supplementary budget of Shs 15.38 billion to cover for sage counterpart funding.
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The ministry of finance undertook the commitment to provide counterpart funding totalling Shs 149 billion for five years (2015 to 2020).
But since then government has not been consistent in providing counterpart funding which caused arrears to accumulate, the donor funders have threatened to pull out citing government's lack of commitment to meet its side of the bargain.
According to the MPs, if donors pull out like some have threatened, the scheme will collapse putting into jeopardy the lives of 1400 beneficiaries.
"How will these people cope without the little money they have been getting?" asked one legislator.
Each beneficiary earns Shs 25,000 per month
