USMID Program – Ministry of Lands, Housing & Urban Development

THE UGANDA SUPPORT TO MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (USMID)

The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development is implementing Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) program, funded by the World Bank-IDA through a US$ 150 million loan for a period of five years (2013 – 2018).

The program is designed to enhance institutional performance of 14 Municipal Councils so as to improve urban service delivery.

The USMID program is being implemented in a context where Uganda since 1986 has experienced high economic growth, poverty reduction and an average annual GDP growth of 8.1 % over the last six years (2003/2004- 2009/2010). It has reduced donor assistance from 52 % of the annual budget in the early 1990s to the current level of 32%.
USMID is contributing to the Second National Development Plan (2010/2011-2014/2015) which has identified Infrastructure as one of the complementary sectors for growth.
USMID is building on the World Bank’s and GoU’s long history of engagement in the local government since 1990s. In addition, Cities Alliance has provided a grant of US4.2M to government to implement “A strategy for Transforming Settlement of the Urban Poor in Uganda- A secondary Cities support program that covers five Municipalities of Arua, Mbale, Jinja, Mbarara and Kabale. USMID works closely with the Cities Alliance to ensure complementarily and synergy on their support to the sector.

Program Objective:
The Overall Program Objective is to enhance the institutional performance of the 14 Municipal Councils to improve urban service delivery. The participating Local Governments are; Arua, Lira, Gulu, Soroti, Entebbe, Mbale, Tororo, Jinja, Masaka, Hoima, Fort portal, Mbarara, Kabale and Moroto.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

USMID Documents

Summary USMID Program brief to MPs in Jinja – 10 Feb 2017
Status of USMID Achievements as at April 2016
USMID Project progress implementation, Feb-2016
Final Synthesis Report – July 2015
Final Synthesis Report December 2013
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure September 2013
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure March 2014
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure July 2014
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development Program (P117876) December 2014
Fiduciary Systems Assessment
Environmental and Social System
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) Program Final text for disclosure March 2013
Program-For-Results Information Document (PID)
Fiduciary Systems Assessment 2012
Environmental and Social System Volume 1 November 2012
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure November 2012
Revised Program-For-Results Information Document (PID)
Project Information Document (PID)
Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure

Planned program outcomes
1. Strengthened capacity of the 14 participating Municipalities in Fiduciary, safeguards, Urban planning and own source revenue generation
2. Increase in total planned infrastructure completed by participating Municipal Councils
3. Enhanced capacity of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, management and backstopping for the implementation of the program

Institutional Framework of USMID
The institutional arrangement for the program implementation is as per the GoU structure and is consistent with the legal provisions therein. At the central level, the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Finance, planning and Economic Development and the Office of the Auditor General ensure the program resources are budgeted for and disbursed within the national Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and that Program accounts are audited as per the statutory requirements.

Registered achievements
The USMID program has in its fifth year and final year achieved the following milestones among others;
1. Enhanced infrastructure: A total of 73 Urban roads that make up 39.09kms have been rehabilitated to asphalt concrete standards. The roads are designed complete with walkways, bicycle lanes in order to cater for all road users in the urban centre. The roads have also been fitted with solar lights so as to cater for safety and reduce on gender-based violence and crime that may crop up in the urban centres.
2. Enhanced drainage structures and greening to manage the climate change related risks like heat waves and heavy floods. So far, the program has achieved planting of 1320 trees and 56,449m of grass and flowers planted along the road reserves to enhance beautification of the same. Trash cans have also been provided to reduce on the littering of the streets.
3. A bus terminal in Moroto district has been developed, with a capacity of 16 buses.
4. The 14 Municipal Councils have been provided with Specialised technical equipment in the area of engineering, physical planning, surveying and environment. The equipment includes; Total stations, Plotters, Global Positioning systems- GPS, computer and software (Arc GIS and Auto CAD), Noise meter, Water meter among others, all aimed at facilitating service delivery in the urban centre.
5. All Municipal Councils have updated their registers for property rates and revenue sources for an improved revenue generation and management.
6. All Municipal councils now have updated Physical development plans to guide development.
7. The Government payment system – IFMIS Integrated Financial Management System is operational in all participating Municipal Councils and it has brought about transparency, accountability, brought about timely payments and enhanced reporting.
8. The Program as established a Grievance handling mechanism that has enabled the MCs to register, resolve and report all complaints that may arise out of the activities. The mechanism is set up at all levels ranging from the sites to the MC leadership to the Ministry.

GOVERNMENT OPERATIONALIZES THE SECOND PHASE OF USMID PROGRAM- THE ADDITIONAL FINANCING (2019/19- 2022/23)

Background

After the successful implementation of the first phase of the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) Program, Government, has received additional financing to the tune of US$ 360 million from the World Bank/IDA to implement the second phase of the Program (USMID Additional Financing-USMID-AF) for 5 years starting in fiscal year 2018/19.

USMID-AF will maintain the development objective of “Enhancing Institutional Capacity of Selected Local Governments” BUT the geographical coverage of the Program will extend to Eight additional municipal local governments of Kitgum, Kamuli, Mubende, Kasese, Busia, Ntungamo, Apac and Lugazi and also introduce support to 8 districts of Adjumani, Moyo, Yumbe, Arua, Isingiro, Kiryandongo, Kamwenge and Lamwo, that have faced a high influx of refugees to strengthen these LGs’ abilities to cope with the recent and future refugee influx in Uganda and to deliver critical infrastructure to host communities/local governments. The program will deepen impact and results in terms of institutional strengthening, planning and financial management, infrastructure provision and local economic development. USMID-AF draws a lot of lessons from the implementation of the first phase of USMID.

The Ministry and the Program Support Team has prepared an Operational Manual for USMID-AF in order to guide the participating Municipal and District Local Governments in the implementation of the Program.

Improvements to the operational manual have been drawn from lessons learned from implementing the first phase of USMID and the manual includes the performance assessment tool that will be used for verifying program performance at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Municipal and District Local Governments level by the Independent Verification Agent (IVA) among others.

The program will be executed and coordinated by the MLHUD which is responsible for urban development. The institutional strengthening at the municipal Local Governments level will target technical, fiduciary (financial and procurement), Local Economic Development and environmental and social sustainability with a focus on the following seven thematic areas:

i. Improved linkage between Municipal Physical Development Plan, Five-year Development Plan and Budgeting;
ii. Increased municipal own source revenue (OSR);
iii. Improved procurement performance;
iv. Improved municipal Accounting and core financial management
v. Improved Execution/Implementation of infrastructure sub-projects for improved urban service delivery;
vi. Improved accountability and transparency (monitoring and communication); and
vii. Enhanced environmental and social sustainability (Environmental, social and resettlement due diligence).

Support to Refugee hosting districts

Uganda is currently the largest host of refugees in Africa and the third-largest host in the world, with over 1.4 million refugees. Refugees settled in Northern Uganda, predominantly in the West-Nile sub-region, now constitute more than one-third of district populations.
The influx of refugees has turned the rural communities into settlements with urban characteristics. Uganda has one of the most progressive refugee regimes in the world, where refugees have right to work, establish business, move freely within the country, access social services, own property, and obtain documentation.
Refugees are also given plots of land on which to cultivate and build houses. This is putting enormous pressure on the Local Governments’ ability to provide adequate infrastructure and services to this rapidly increased population, given that refugees are not limited to refugee settlements and can freely move to urban areas and access services.
Most long-term refugees have failed to “graduate” from humanitarian aid at a time when humanitarian budgets are shrinking. It is therefore, critical to find ways to transition from humanitarian to development responses in Uganda and move from parallel to integrated service provision. USMID-AF will contribute directly to this aim through infrastructure investments and strengthening of the planning process, which will seek to facilitate the transition from the emergency response to long-term development and socio-economic integration.
The support to the Eight districts currently hosting large numbers of refugees shall be aimed at improving planning, land tenure security, and small infrastructure investments targeting refugees and host communities.
The support to infrastructure in the Refugee hosting districts;

a) District and Community Access Roads to make them motorable throughout the year for easy mobility and access of services by both host communities as well as refugees; and
b) Infrastructure strengthening interaction and peaceful co-existence amongst host communities and refugees.
Examples of such infrastructure shall be;
a. small bridges and box culverts on impassable sections;
b. Culverts and fill material to address bottlenecks in swampy areas;
c. Removing black spots prone to accidents
d. Infrastructure promoting sports, art and culture (play fields, resource centers, community buildings.