Healthcare is a driver of the overall community wellbeing. Effective Rural healthcare has the potential to generate economic vitality and create professional, non-professional and enable masses to concentrate on ancillary green employment opportunities that can in turn translate into household incomes, and increasing purchasing power hence creating demand. However due to continued poor healthcare for the rural population coupled with citizen noninvolvement in the planning/ priority setting, the level of community engagement in economic development has been undermined, causing many rural populations to stay in poverty.

It was against such background that CIDD-UG under her governance project in partnership with other CSOs mobilized and organized for a breakfast meeting with the heads of departments and political leaders in Pallisa district to influence their attitude towards improving healthcare for the rural population.

During the breakfast meeting CSOs emphasized on the need for Government to uphold the principle of participatory planning implementation and monitoring of health service delivery, the local leaders were reminded about the need for citizens to be part of making the decisions about public services. Co-design, co-production, co-delivery and co-monitoring and evaluation.
As a result, in a meeting that attracted 20 Local Government leaders, it was unanimously agreed during the breakfast meeting that the role innovation and public management tools such as co-design and co-delivery can play in improving service delivery in rural population. The chief administrative office then accepted to write a circular to all lower local Government to instruct them to take seriously a government policy on integration of citizen into Local planning process to ensure a citizen inspired process.

CIDD-UG will continue mobilizing and organizing CSOs to influence pro-poor policies.