Validation workshop of Physical Development Plan (PDP) for Kitumba Sub-County in Kabale District, Uganda

Stakeholders after validating the Physical Development Plan (PDP) for Kitumba Sub-County in Kabale District of Uganda

On 9th December 2022, community leaders gathered at Kitumba sub county headquarters to validate the Kitumba Physical Development Plan (PDP) developed by Makerere University-School of Built Environment in partnership with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development with support from UN-Habitat/GLTN under the “Scaling up Community-based Land Registration and Land Use Planning on Customary Land in Uganda”project. The PDP is under the project outcome 2 of sustainable, climate-smart, and inclusive land use planning to increase productivity, protect natural resources, and provide people with a sense of value to their land, which goes beyond the surface in square meters.

Madam Amanda Ngabirano of Makerere University presenting the Physical Development Plan to the stakeholders

The validation workshop was attended by the Commissioner, Physical Planning and other officials from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. In attendance were also the political and technical representatives from Kabale District Local Government and Kitumba Sub County, religious leaders, opinion leaders, landlords, developers, cultural leaders among others. The purpose of the validation workshop was to authenticate the draft sub-county PDF by obtaining the local stakeholder’s confirmation that the draft PDP represents their development aspirations

A workshop participant commenting on the draft Physical Development Plan

Kitumba Sub County PDP vision is “A Sustainable, Orderly, and liveable Kitumba with a Vibrant Local Economy by the year 2032” and its overall guidance comes from Uganda’s Vision 2040, the third National Development Plan (NDP III) 2020/21 – 2024/25, the Albertine Graben regional sustainable development plan Kabale Municipal Council Five Year Development Plan (2015/16 - 2019/20), Kabale Physical Development Framework 2022-2023, Kitumba Sub County Five Year Development plan (2015/16-2019/20) and the Sub-County stakeholder engagement on the Kitumba future development vision.

The Deputy Ambassador of Netherlands Embassy in Uganda viewing the Physical Development Plan displayed at Kakoma playground

During the validation workshop, the draft PDP was presented by the planning team from Makerere University-School of Built Environment led by Ms. Amanda Ngabirano with support from Kabale district Physical Plannner and Kitumba Sub-County Physical Planning Committee. Through this workshop, stakeholders made comments that will be incorporated into the Physical Development Plan. The draft PDF was later accepted by the stakeholders, and they committed to ensuring planned and managed growth by putting in place the required physical development systems and human resource capacities needed to effectively plan for the emerging infrastructure needs, and increasingly complex built environments, and generate and administer the resources that are required to implement the sub-county activities with support from the MLHUD and Kabale district technical team. The Draft PDP will then be deposited for 90 days at different public places (like the district Headquarters and at each parish within the sub-county) throughout the sub county so that more comments could be obtained from the wider community who may not have been present during stakeholder workshop.