REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE TO KUMI DISTRICT COUNCIL
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE TO KUMI DISTRICT COUNCIL ON FRIDAY, 26TH OCTOBER , 2001
Yoga, Yoga Noy
I am delighted to have this opportunity to visit your beautiful country of Uganda so aptly named the Pearl of Africa on what is my first visit to East Africa and in particular to be here with you today and to have this opportunity to address Kumi District Council. I am very happy to meet again with my old friend Hajji Umar Okodel and I wish to especially say to him, “Salaam Ali Cum”.
Since 1997, a strong partnership has developed between Ireland and Kumi, dedicated to promoting the development of the district, using local resources and supported by funding and expertise from Ireland. In the past Chairman, you have very generously said that Kumi “would remain very poor without Ireland”. I know Ireland’s dream for Kumi is also Kumi’s dream for itself and so it is important that I too acknowledge, Mr Chairman, that this partnership is only a success because of the sincere commitment and dedication on both sides. The commitment of the officials of this district to implementing this programme is widely recognised and rightly praised and from that commitment will come its success. Kumi district is developing the capacity to determine its own future, to prioritise between the many conflicting needs of the people and to respond to those needs.
You have had to work against a very hostile backdrop, in conditions which have tested you to the limits. The insurgency in the Teso region particularly affected Kumi district and seven years of civil unrest has resulted in the tragic loss of life with all the complex trauma that leaves behind. It has caused high levels of migration and among those who have left were many qualified staff - their loss has made the rebuilding and development task facing the district council so much harder to tackle. You have been faced with an economic decline so serious that it provoked the almost total elimination of the cattle population and serious food shortages. Yet the people need hope, they need leaders to light the way to a better future, community builders who are not afraid to make a start no matter how long or difficult the journey ahead.
Thankfully that spirit of resilience is deeply at work here and a brighter future for Kumi is no longer simply a distant dream. Even more importantly it is the people of Kumi who are in charge of and are shaping their own destiny. Decentralisation in Uganda has meant that Kumi District Council can be appropriately referred to as the “Government of Kumi” – an autonomous body empowered to recruit its own staff, collect and retain revenue and concentrate its focus and energies on the needs of its own population. The community-based process by which the district development plan was arrived at has empowered local communities to discuss, define and prioritise their own needs and so has given the people a wide sense of ownership of the way forward. This reality makes our partnership between Ireland and Kumi so much more effective.
The district plan provides the basis for the blossoming partnership between Ireland and Kumi - a partnership which in its short history, has had many positive and measurable impacts on life in this area. It provides new opportunities for the people of Kumi - for example the emphasis in the plan on increasing food production will provide an income for the very poorest. They will have more choices in their lives. Those choices will make them stronger, more resourceful, more resilient, more confident. The stronger they are, the stronger will be the entire community. The key to community empowerment is individual empowerment first and foremost and at the heart of that personal empowerment is education, knowledge to protect, to warn, to assist, advise and guide.
Nowhere is that more obvious than in the huge role played by the empowerment of women as part of the strategy to fight HIV/AIDS. I have personally witnessed that work during this past week and it is very reassuring to see how here in Kumi, it is further supported through prioritising the education of the girls, offering counselling and guidance on many issues including, importantly, their reproductive health.
Support in the plan for the food production sector is balanced by support for projects in the social, most especially the supply of clean drinking water and basic education. Since 1997, we in Ireland are pleased to have directly assisted in the production of water sources for over 240 communities and the construction of over 230 new classrooms. I will have the special pleasure later today of commissioning the Ireland Aid funded school of Orisai and also of visiting the nearby water source.
I know that there is some uncertainty about the flow of development funds to countries in Africa and from the centre to the rural areas within those countries. I am glad to tell you that Ireland has recently restated its commitment to continue to increase the level of support for our partner countries. Uganda is a priority country for us and within Uganda, Kumi is a priority district. So I can confirm that the level of Ireland Aid funding will grow in Uganda and that the partnership with Kumi district will continue until 2003 and beyond.
It is so good to be here to feel the air of optimism so evident in Kumi. With good governance comes stability and with stability comes the necessary environment for effective development. The devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic are being reduced, local government is bringing government services much closer to the people and most importantly is recognized by the people for doing so. Together you are building a resilient, dynamic, problem-solving and achieving community which will endure and provide the foundation for this district’s prosperity for many years ahead.
I wish to thank you for your warm welcome to me today. I have enjoyed meeting with you and will remember my visit here with great fondness for a long, long time to come.
Eyalama.