By Watera Atai,
KAMPALA
The Ruhinda South constituency, Mitooma aspiring member of parliament, Brendah Atuhaire has expressed concerns about the localization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) to amplify sustainable development in her area.
According to her, the power of local action has not yet been brought to the fore in the various discussions on how to achieve the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in rural communities by the current leaders thus calling for new able bodied and people centric leaders to foster development.
“I don’t want to bring things that are far fetched from our society, I want to look at things that our people can do best, we base on those available ones meanwhile as we consider other areas they can adopt to end poverty,” said Atuhaire.
She made the remarks during an interview with Parrots Media at Transformer Cadres Association Uganda TCAU SACCO members training workshop on SDGs held on Monday (January 15,2024) at Mulago Guest House Kampala. She said ending poverty is too generic and requires essential skills such as investing in agriculture, youth and women skilling programs among others.
The youthful aspiring MP said she will also adopt goals 3 and 4 to improve on healthcare and quality education in Ruhinda South respectively, come 2026. She decried limited access to better health services and quality education of many less privileged people who are deliberately excluded from different government programs which she says is sabotaging social security and development as per goal 5 and 10 which call for gender equality and reduced inequality for sustainable development.
“We were talking about persons with special needs, nobody is coming out to address such things to see that they are well positioned and they find this world a better place, as someone aspiring to become a leader, I find SDGs to really working for us as new leaders who are coming in to make sure that we understand what is happening in our constituencies and prepares us on addressing certain challenges faced by the voters,” she said.
Last year, Atuhaire declared her candidature for the Ruhinda South county MP seat and she is so far the only female who has shown interest in this position popularly regarded as a men’s race. She appealed to electorates in Ruhinda South not to look at her gender identity but consider her abilities to serve humanity for better service delivery.
Localizing SDGs: Brendah Atuhaire says she's ready to influence implementation and adoption of #SDGs to eradicate poverty, promote gender equality and improve on education and healthcare in Ruhinda South county as she gears for the constituency's top most seat 🪑 in 2026. pic.twitter.com/GoOTvFJGio
— Parrots UG (@parrotsug) January 15, 2024
A professional teacher, Atuhaire is a born of Rusheregyenyi A, Mayanga sub-county, Ruhinda South in Mitooma district. She holds Bachelor’s of Education of Makerere University, a profession she has practiced since her graduation in 2015.
Atuhaire is an enterprising woman and has integrated these skills to rural women in Mitooma and other parts of the country like engaging women in craft making projects and financial literacy to improve on household income and women’s financial empowerment.
“If a woman is not empowered financially, we are basically doing nothing. We are likely to see a mother who cannot do anything to support her family,” Atuhaire emphasized.
