Whose National Plan Is It Anyway?

Mr. Museveni unveiled his version of a Five-Year National Plan. What does that mean? He finally admitted that the wild-wild-west IMF/World Bank imposed prescription wasn’t delivering. He might have realized that, despite claims to rosy growth rates, many of the population of Uganda have been left in the dust and the infrastructures continue to go to the dogs.
“Adam Smith’s idea that self-seeking behavior of individuals would add up to the general welfare ----” has not worked. (Ehrenreich, 2009).

This is not the first Uganda plan. Obote I had his Common Man’s Charter and Move-to-the-Left, which Museveni now despises even when he might have welcomed it in his UPC youth-winger days. The swaggering early NRM had its Ten-Point Program, which has long been shelved.

So, today we have another plan which seems proprietary, designed more to score points for the coming elections. Mr. Big Man, the All-Wise Visionary One will just shove it down our throats. It will go down the way of the dodo, not unlike other similarly constructed prior plans.

The concept of a national plan sounds sexy, but the process of coming up with a plan is also a plan itself. There is a need for wide and inclusive involvement to garner emotional buy-ins: Has the question of environmental sustainability been considered with inputs from related experts and concerned civil society? What about the general national health of the population? Was regional equity factored into the equation? What about the messy urbanization with filthy slums?

There are numerous examples of planning processes on the Internet. Portland, a mid-sized US city is undergoing a 25-year plan exercise. Various local entities have been co-opted as Plan Partners. Residents participate through neighborhood meetings and surveys. The city’s last plan cycle produced a light-rail system that other cities are emulating, neighborhood associations, a quasi-government development commission, etc. Check it out at: http://www.pdxplan.com/ or
http://www.portlandonline.com/portlandplan/index.cfm?c=47906