By Gilbert Akampa Kakurugu,
MBARARA CITY
A cross section of people from Mbarara city and Mbarara district have expressed mixed concerns towards localizing the implementation of the sustainable development goals.
The locals that turned up in large numbers at independence park for a citizens parliament said the 17 SDGs are a big deal but their realization is still hindered by a number of factors.
The citizens that spoke too much anger blamed their leaders for the poor services that range from health services, schools, roads and markets citing that these have hindered their development yet the leaders are seated comfortably with no interventions.
Most of the citizens also demanded to know why most of the roads in town take ages to get finished and why they over price the cost of construction.
One of the citizens said it’s hard to realize SDG 1 and 2 when there are still corrupt people in leadership.
Murongo Prisca the Mbarara city Mayor in reaction asked the people to bear with their leaders as they are trying to lobby for better services.
Pascal Byarugaba, the monitoring and evaluation officer from the Office of the prime minister revealed that with implementing partners they organized the citizens parliament in order to localize the sustainable development goals and to bring locals attention towards achieving the set targets.
Chris Nkwasibwe, the team leader for policy governance and civic engagement at the Uganda National NGO forum revealed that the responsibility of localizing and popularizing SGDs has been challenging but they are doing everything possible to reach every Ugandan.
The day’s program was wrapped up by a friendly football match between the SDG champions and Mbarara city leaders and citizens that was aimed at bridging the gap between the leaders and citizens. The match was played at the Mbarara University play ground and ended 2:1 in favor of Mbarara city leaders and citizens.
