World Bank team starts final inspection of USMID projects
A team from the World Bank has today rolled out a week-long inspection of projects under its funding from in five urban centres in
the Eastern region.
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The municipalities in which urban roads are being constructed fall under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development
program USMID.
Moroto, Mbale, Tororo, Busia, Kamuli and Lugazi, will form part of the circuit for the inspection, which commenced today in Moroto by
urban development specialists from the World Bank.
“We recognise that most of the local governments should be exiting their projects by end of this June. Ours is largely to access that the
additional time frame within which they are expected to complete their projects are realised,” noted Stephen Ajalu, a Senior Urban
Development Specialist with World Bank.
The World Bank mission under the USMID program engage in discussions over the projects being implemented in Moroto Municipality.
The USMID Program which has been running over the last 10 years in 10 regional cities, 22 municipalities and 10 refugee host districts;
aims to enhance living and working conditions through development modern infrastructure.
During an inspection of the Moroto bus terminal and urban roads, which are funded by the World Bank, the Mayor, Ismail Mohammed,
urged the delegation to consider affirmative interventions for the hard to reach local government.
“In the subsequent funding, please, consider giving Moroto a little more than we received. We would like to tarmac more roads and
make our area more attractive to investment. With the little we have done, business is already starting to boom,” Mohammed said.
In the current undertaking scheduled for completion by June this year, following an extension of the initial program closure in December 2023; the World Bank funded was capped at $360m.
“We are looking at what Moroto municipality has been able to do under this (USMID) program, and maintenance of the facility funded such as the Bus-Park is very important. So resources need to be allocated for this," said Joseph Padde, the commissioner for Urban Development in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.
According to a statement issued, the current mission commenced April 15 and shall end April 25.
The overall objective of the mission will be to assess the implementation completion progress of the various activities under the program, and specifically review progress status of all outstanding infrastructure activities in the cities, municipalities and districts hosting refugees under the program but also review implementation progress of the physical planning and systematic land adjudication and certification (SLAAC)
sub activities implemented under the Refugee Window.
The mission will also review work plans, budgets, releases, utilization of funds and potential risks towards program closure on June 30,
2024, assess the achievement of the Program Development Objective (PDO), indicators and intermediate results indicators, assess compliance with the fiduciary and safeguards requirements during program implementation and discuss the plan and requirements for program closure on June 30, 2024.
According to officials, the mission involves holding meetings with the various ministries, departments and agencies implementing the program, and conducting field visits to selected implementing entities.
For this mission having selected the local governments of Moroto, Mbale, Tororo, Busia, Kamuli and Lugazi, a sample from which
they will draw their conclusions on program performance and eventual closure.
Government is already engaging with the World Bank to get funding to a tune of 750mUSD that shall be a follow-on program, and also bring on board new 15 municipalities outside of Kampala and its metropolitan areas.
