National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) 2021-2040 launched

Government has launched the National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) 2021-2040.

The plan is hinged on pillars including; ensuring equity and balance, maximizing agricultural production, sustainable urbanization through compact settlement and maximizing national connectivity of infrastructural services among others.

Uganda has been without a national physical development masterplan and with this document stakeholders hope to align all regional plans with this.

Vice President Jesica Alupo , being represented by 1st Deputy Prime Minister, Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga says cabinet has directed that the finance ministry release funds to ensure easy implementation especially at all local governments.

This while responding to concerns from the Local Government Minister Hon. Rafael Magyezi,who notes that it is very difficult for Local governments to execute the plan without sufficient resources.

In her remarks the Minister of Lands, Hon. Judith Nabakooba discloses that all the development plans have been lacking spatial plans.

She says the document entails the provision of transport corridors, infrastructure corridors and safeguarding protective areas.

Among which says the agriculture ministry will be required to do soil tests and to advise districts where agricultural zones can be located.

It has also emerged that the land ministry is set to begin awarding certificates for compliance for local governments.

The plan encourages high rise buildings for proper land utilization owing to the rise in population countrywide.

Nabakooba has however clarified that the plan has come to supplement existing ones and not to replace the previous one.

“The NPDP 2021-2040 guides the country by resolving the conflicting pressure on land use including infrastructure, settlement, agriculture, tourism, wildlife, industrialization, mineral development, all aligned with the National Development Plan and Vision 2040,” says Ms Dorcas Okalany, the permanent secretary of the ministry of lands.

A concept note to the document says that overall, national-level spatial decisions have not been guided by a well-thought-out comprehensive spatial framework, which has negatively impacted the overall development efforts.

“This has negated the optimal utilization of land and land-based resources, efficiency, and effectiveness of infrastructure networks, as well as undermining the integrity of the environment, especially the eco-sensitive areas,” it says.