DECENTRALISATION AND DEVELOPMENT

The decade of the 1990s saw the burgeoning of local government democracy in many parts of the world, particularly Eastern Europe, Latin America and Sub-Sahara Africa. In Africa, the failure of the centralized state to provide services to the local people has been considered to be the major reason for increased demand for local government and governance. Since early 1990?s, the government of Uganda has implemented the local government decentralisation programme, which was launched by the President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on 2nd October 1992. This was based on the convictions that decentralisation comprehensively facilitates the realisation of development and political objectives for Uganda through democratization, equitable distribution of resources among and within districts, and improvements in the public sector performance. Decentralisation in Uganda is built on the philosophy that, democratic participation will advocate for popular participation, empowerment of local residents, and regular local elections.