Municipal Development Forum is a forum that voluntarily coordinates development works in urban towns like Fort Portal. It was formed under Uganda Municipal Development Forum Charter in 2012 as a neutral forum to represent public views and this is where it gets it’s mandate for the work we do. The forum was formed under world bank recommendations and is mandated to link the general public (citizens) to Municipal leadership. Mr. Amanyire Tadeo, the current president for the forum was hosted live on ToroDev’s supported weekly live talk show ‘Listeners forum’ that is hosted on Sundays 8:00-10:00pm at Jubilee radio to mobilize citizens to support the forum, share with the public what the forum does, it’s achievements and challenges.
Mr. Amanyire said the forum has a committee of thirteen (13) members and their work is basically voluntary. He said their work represents all sectors that include; civil society, academia, media, business community, cultural institutions, etc.
‘’High growth rate of people in urban centers to some extent causes limited information access, insufficient services on water, electricity, employment, entertainment, road works, etc hence formation of the forum to make sure the issues are dealt with and citizens get the services they desire’’, said Tadeo Amanyire, Fort Portal MDF president.
Mr. Amanyire Tadeo President, Fort Portal Municipal Development Forum
Among our achievements, we have held over 12 meetings where some misunderstandings within the Municipality leadership have been sorted out and there is harmony and service delivery, monitored projects being done in the Municipality for example construction of Rukiidi road, lorry park, street lighting, held other development meetings with other stakeholders like Rwenzori Anti Corruption (RAC), Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), etc to plans on how best we can work together for the development of the Municipality.
Despite these achievements we have challenges that limit our work for example; we lack funds to move and monitor projects, there is need to build capacity of our members, our work is not well understood by the Municipal leadership hence limited support, Municipal leaders do not want to share information with us for example bills of quantities for projects being implemented and this limits monitoring, we are supposed to have division assemblies, public debates, etc but they are not done due to lack of funds, etc
Mr. Amanyire called upon civil society fraternity and all people in the Municipality to support their work by providing information and involve them in planned Municipal projects and activities such that their work can be visible. The fact that the forum work is among others linking citizens and leaders with in the municipality, citizens need to support them because they have the information and can easily team up for any development work.
Meanwhile the ‘Orukurato’ program moderator Williams Kasigazi on 25th May 2019 hosted Mr. Yakubu Gowan (NRM cadre), Mr. Mutunzi Robert (Alliance for National Transformation) and Crosby from media to discuss on the next steps people and leaders need to take after Fort Portal Tourism city being granted in May 2019. The live radio program is hosted every Saturday 8:00-10:00pm on Hits Fm. The panelists urged citizens to start developing the town by developing the available land rather than selling it and keeping hygiene within the city and in their homes. They urged Fort Portal Municipality leadership and that of the entire district to mobilize citizens to benefit from the city by increasing their incomes in order to improve their living standards as well as improving service delivery that match with the city status. They encouraged citizens to avoid politics that divide people but work as a team that focuses on building the city.
We thank all our development partners for the support to keep our programs running.
