The woman asks if she would benefit from the programme. The advert goes on to explain in detail what it means and what she needs to do to benefit from the programme.

This advert is an indication that there have been some efforts by the Ugandan Government to sensitise people on what this programme is all about through mass media messages like this one.

The Parish Development Model is Government of Uganda’s latest poverty alleviation programme aimed at uplifting people living below the poverty line.

The programme, according to Government, will distribute at least sh100m to savings and credit cooperations (saccos) formed in different parishes across the country for people to access cheap credit.

Government hopes that the money received would be used by those living below the poverty line to invest in areas recommended to them such as animal rearing, coffee farming and food crop growing among others.

The World Bank considers people living on less than $1.9 a day to be below the poverty line.

According to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development’s 2021 Poverty Status Report, 8.31 million people were considered to be poor in the financial year ending 2019/20.

This is commendable progress given that in 1993, seven years after the Museveni regime came into power, about 56% of the entire population was living below the poverty line.

Uganda’s questionable middle class is also growing, at least according to the 2021 Uganda National Household Survey which puts the number of people considered to be in the middle class at 15.64 million up from 14.14 million.

But it's not yet time to shower praises on our government.

These figures show that a lot more can be achieved only if our Government became a lot more serious about this cause.

There are already issues with the current poverty alleviation programme as thousands in villages grow frustrated with the long wait for the much-anticipated Parish Development Model money.

There have also been concerns about Government’s capability to carry out mass sensitisation to the ground, other than relying on media only.

In some areas such as Mityana, Mubende and Luweero, the villagers say no Government official has been on the ground to take people through some of the dos and don’t if they are to benefit from the programme.

Just like the previous poverty alleviation programmes (bonna bagagawale, entandikwa and Emyooga) this too may have fewer people benefitting from it if certain issues such as corruption, monitoring and sensitisation of people on how to put to good use of the money are not addressed.