KAMPALA – There is a huge disparity between the wealthy people all over the world and to scale it down to Africa, the gap has widened due to corruption that is hitting hard among those with authority.
This vice has greatly affected the quality of services in all sectors including education, judicial, health care, and infrastructure sectors – leaving the public rot in the gutters.
To this cause, Ford Foundation an international private philanthropist headquartered in the United States has on Monday, February 10, unveiled a massive master plan to ensure quality service delivery.
Mr. Maurice Makoolo Odhiambo, regional director Ford Foundation, East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania) has revealed that inequality is driven by corruption, a vice his organization has seeks to reduce.
Mr. Odhiambo said the Ford Foundation has publicly worked with other agencies to combat the inequalities in service delivery in all the three East African countries.
“It corrodes impunity and some of the public have lost trust [in their leaders],” he said adding that this makes it hard for the civil society to work without public engagement.
Unveiling the master plan, Mr. Odhiambo revealed that Ford Foundation has earmarked about UGX.100billion to bridge the inequality gaps-with a major focus on service delivery.
Youths representative in Parliament Anna Adeke, a panelist urged that most the legislation done by parliament have been about fixing inequality and most of them are not put into action-ending up a myth
Ms. Adeke emphasized claimed government priority is not in any way in line with key sectors.
Mr. Dennis Pato, the founder of Vijan Corps a youth-centric organization the education kids are receiving is not meeting the job market.
Ms. Sarah Birete, the Associate Director for Center for Constitutional Governance (CDG) Said; ” We had only Free fair elections was in 1962 among all the presidents and all the rest have been through Coups that talks more about a nation’s democracy. If people are struggling to have a meal a day, there’s no luxury for such persons to engage in such debates.”
“In a system where the elections are too commercialized, the inequality gap has to be broadened. This is is also coupled with massive land grabbing which is increasing”.
The event ended with a call to action from Ms. Lind Ochiel, the program officer who encouraged the citizens to keep the hope alive and seek collaborations that will yield the change they desire.
